Today I got phone calls from Rudy Giuliani and both Clintons. They were recordings, of course.
Rudy wanted me to vote for whoever is running against Eliot Spitzer for Governor. I had forgotten somebody was running against Spitzer. There’s been barely any campaigning in the Spitzer-whoozits race, even though the incumbent Pataki is retiring and it ought to be a wide-open seat.
A state poll shows the Republican gubernatorial candidate trailing behind Spitzer by 50 points. I wonder why anybody bothered with the recorded phone call.
Some guy is running against my congress critter, Nita Lowey (D), but I’ve seen not one shred of campaigning. This may be because the challenger has raised only $3,000 since the primary. The only Republican Party money he has received was a $250 check from the New York State Young Republicans, plus the loan of a desk at the headquarters of the Yonkers Republican City Committee.
And Senator Hillary Clinton is expected to win easily.
Sidney Blumenthal writes that “Rove’s legacy may be to leave Republicans with a regional Southern party whose constrictive conservatism fosters a solid Democratic North.” It sure looks that way from here.
In New York, there’s more action in the state and local races. Tom Watson explains it better than I can, as I’m not native to these parts. My state senator, Nick Spano (R), is one of those guys who campaigns year round. I get more junk mail from Spano than from all the single-issue advocacy groups put together. He’s been in the New York State Senate for 18 years, probably because he’s so good at getting his name in voters’ faces. The challenger, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, barely campaigned at all until about a month ago. She has some impressive TV ads running now, including one in which Eliot Spitzer endorses her. I wonder if it’s too little, too late; Spano’s been running a dirty campaign, including push polling. However, these days maybe all Stewart-Cousins needs to win in Westchester County, New York, is a D after her name.
One phenomenon of New York elections that has baffled me are parties that appear on the ballots but which nominate the same candidates as either the Dems or the Republicans. One such is the Working Families Party, which has nominated the Democratic slate. Tom Watson explains why voters should vote “D” instead of “WFP.” If you’re a New Yorker, you should check this out.
Tomorrow night I plan to blog from a Democratic Party whoop-it-up in Manhattan. It should be fun, so be sure to drop by.
Update: From the New York Daily News:
Candidates for statewide office made a final push for votes yesterday as polls suggested New York was headed toward a Democratic sweep amid massive Republican finger-pointing.
Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer was so confident, he didn’t even bother to campaign on the last full day before voters go to the polls – choosing instead to huddle with advisers behind closed doors.
But he had little reason to worry: Polls showed him trouncing his Republican opponent, former Assemblyman John Faso, by a record-smashing 50 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Democrat Andrew Cuomo was gliding comfortably ahead of Republican opponent Jeanine Pirro, 53% to 37%, and even scandal-plagued state Controller Alan Hevesi was besting his underfunded Republican challenger, Chris Callaghan, 50% to 38%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.
That New York Dem post-election shindig I’m going to should be lively.
I’m hoping America gives the Republicans a shock and awe vote today. I’ll do my part to restore America.
I think this comment by Bush quoted by Blumenthal in his article accurately sums everything up:
“Last week, I was in Austin for the Texas Book Festival, where I met a woman who had encountered then Gov. Bush immediately after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bush v. Gore. “Can you believe I’m going to be the f*****g president?” he said.”
(Since this is a family friendly site, I had to clean up the President’s language).
That’s what happens when you annoint a privilged little frat boy. Even he doesn’t really believe it. He’s like a sinner who lies his way into heaven “I can’t believe I got away with it!”
But, his history is already written. It’s like watching the reign of one of the bad Emperors who wind up being castigated for the fall of the Roman Empire. There’s just nothing good to say.
I Wish
I wish the Rove playbook would be fluhed down the toilet, I wish the PNAC would dry up and …, I wish the unitary executive theory would go back where it came from ( where the sun doesn’t shine)
Because my country has gotten along just fine for 230 years without these tactics and theories and they have made the last few years hell and I know most people are tired of it.
I already voted this am
Thanks for the link on the Working Families Party. They flyered me this morning when I went to vote. I’ve talked to a few people who did vote or are thinking about voting for the Dems in the WFP column, and I personally don’t really see the point unless you’re trying to send some message about the party machine, but even then… Spitzer and Hillary Clinton are still Democrats, regardless of which line you vote for them on.
The fusion voting thing seems like it has some real advantages (setting aside the problems with specific parties like the WFP). The main advantage is that it allows for estimating the relative strength of specific philosophies within a coalition.
That said, I’d much rather have IRV.