Primaries FTW
NY-26:
When Jon Powers announced last year, his primary focus was the Iraq War. As that issue faded from people’s consciousness due to an improved security scenario in that quagmire of ours, he had to change his strategy. All the numbers pointed to a Davis win if for nothing else, on his sheer name recognition. One way to counteract name recognition is to make that name seem unelectable. Powers started gently going negative on Jack with the Exxon Jack crack. Davis retaliated with a vengeance, and did everything within his power and checkbook to destroy Powers. War Kids, the ticket, PAC money, that’s all well and good, but the Powers Platoon hit site was a killer. It became a battle royal. Kryzan had been counted out for most of the campaign, but she came out from behind the fray with a clever but negative ad, which created its own buzz. She followed that up with a straight negative ad that was neither clever nor truthful, but it was enough.
Because Powers and Davis spent so much time bashing each other, 2/3 of Kryzan’s job was done for her without her having to spend a dime. She needed one thing to stand out, and the “boys, take it somewhere else” ad was just the ticket. She comes out of this relatively unscathed, so Republican Chris Lee doesn’t have a lot of negative ammunition to use against her. Hopefully Kryzan is able to capitalize on the desire for change in Washington and take the seat away from the Republicans.
I am disappointed in Powers’ loss, but take great, great pleasure in the fact that Jack Davis’ political career is now extinct. I’ll be he’s “relieved” he lost. Again. To top it off, a Davis “Brand New Man” just ran on WBEN. At 9:30. On Wednesday. Fail.
SD-61
I hand it to Michele Iannello for running on issues. Her 40 ideas in 40 days was a great idea, and gave voters something to think about. She was outspent and outcampaigned by Joe Mesi and his Responsible New York benefactors. Mesi faces Mike Ranzenhofer, and he’s got a great opportunity to defeat the Republican. Mesi’s got the money, and Ranzenhofer has a negligble record given his 20 years in office.
SD-59
Volker out-spent and out-hacked David DiPietro. Volker likes to play himself as being upstate’s champion, but he’s just as cozy with downstate interests as anyone else in Albany. He faces Kathy Konst, who is a ferocious campaigner, has money, and hasn’t been in elected office since this 40 year old was 3.
A-142 / 144
Why did Hoyt win with his intern problem and Cole lost with his more benign one?
1. Sam Hoyt has a dense urban district that is very politically active, and he has a veritable army of die-hard supporters who did the hard work to keep him around. They worked their asses off, and succeeded.
2. Mike Cole has a suburban/rural district and is a relative newcomer, except in Alden. He doesn’t have a supporter base like Sam’s.
3. Kavanaugh’s surrogates in the Pigeon/Casey/Brown camp took negative politicking to new lows this season. The depths of their gutter-dwelling may have helped Kavanaugh up to a point, but their zeal was so strong that they crossed a line – a line that I haven’t yet defined – that ultimately swung it right back in their butts.
4. Hoyt was up their with his wife, sister, and kids last night at Ellicott Square. You can tell that they all love and support each other very, very much. You can tell that he and his wife went through a very tough time in their marriage, but to their credit, they stayed together and worked through it. When you see Sam and his family, it hits you just how monstrously damaging it was to dredge up what was probably among their most difficult period as a family. Think what you want of Sam, but his wife didn’t deserve this. His kids didn’t deserve this. Yes, it was Sam’s fault. But bringing this stuff up in the way that they did merely victimized them all over again. Shame on them.
5. Hoyt’s hands are not clean on this. Everyone in the media has been receiving emails for weeks from some cryptic organization calling itself “WNY First”. The emails accuse a prominent local politician of being involved in what, if true, would be a blockbuster scandal. So far, no proof has been forthcoming and what WNY First has sent out purporting to be proof has been so transparently false as to be laughable. It’s been funny to watch local media – especially Channel 7 – trip over themselves to get the scoop. Hey, we’re just as curious as everyone else to see what kind of “proof” they have, but it’s most likely all a bunch of BS.
6. Cole is a Republican. He ran partly on his family values in 2006. When you tout that, don’t fall asleep on an intern’s apartment floor. Period.
7. Cole is a one-termer. Unlike Sam, he doesn’t have much of a legislative record to run on. No big thinking, no real initiative. When worse came to worse, he had no record to fall back on. Hoyt did.
Finally, the races hardly anyone really pays attention to were among the most important yesterday.
The Pigeon/Casey/Brown forces have been running candidates in committee races in the city in an effort to unseat county party chairman Len Lenihan. Their candidate to do so was Cheektowaga’s Frank Max. Every single one of Byron’s committee candidates lost last night, and so did Frank Max. One of the winning committeepeople didn’t even know he was running until that morning. With the exception of the Mesi race, City Hall’s effort to take over the county party was dealt a crushing defeat last night.
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This is one of the reasons I’m a fan of open primaries. For better or worse, a candidate for higher office has to have political skills and/or experience. Not only do those skills win elections, but they’re part of the same skill set necessary to survive and succeed in Washington. I’m not in town, but from what I’ve read, Powers is a good, sincere guy. But if Davis was able to knock him down that easily, the local GOP would have eaten him alive.
It shows that our local parties need to vet more than checkbooks before making an endorsement.
I’m happy to see that voters aren’t just pulling levers, sheep-like, for who their party leaders tell them too. If we were more vocal and active in demanding better from our parties and elected officials, maybe our government wouldn’t be this screwed up to begin with.
@Hudson – I wonder if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity said something really out there on tee vee or radio yesterday? I wonder if they’ll do so again today? And tomorrow?
Of course they will, because the right has its commentators who throw the masses red meat, and now, for a change, the left has its own.
By the way, Olbermann was commenting on McCain’s repeated claim that he knows how to capture bin Laden (but apparently can’t disclose this vital strategy until next January).
“Sen. McCain seems to be quite serious, that he and he alone, not the CIA, nor the U.S. Military, nor the current President can capture bin Laden. Thus we must take him at his word, that this is no mere ludicrous campaign boast. We must assume Sen. McCain truly believes he is capable of doing this, and has been capable of doing this, since last January. “We will capture Osama bin Laden… we will do it. I know how to do it.”
Well then, Senator, you’d better go and do it hadn’t you?
Because, Sir, if a man or woman in this nation, Democrat or Republican, had a clear and effective means of capturing or killing Osama bin Laden…
If that person had been advertising his claim, Senator for eight months.
But if that person not only refused to go to responsible authorities in government and advise them of this plan to catch bin Laden, but further announced he would not even begin to enact this secret plan to corral the world’s most hated man until the end of next January.
What would be your description of such an individual, Senator? Charlatan? Do-nothing? Opportunist? Sen. McCain, if you have, if you have had a means of capturing Osama bin Laden, and you do not immediately inform some responsible authority of the full scope of that plan, you are to some degree great or small aiding and abetting Osama bin Laden.”
Sounds like a fair (if rhetorical) point to me. And of course, if Obama claimed that he had a secret plan to capture bin Laden, he’d be mocked and scorned 24/7, and Fox News and its Buffalo mini-me, Hudson, would be making the same point about Obama that Olbermann made about McCain.
So many people on here have spoken about what a great guy Jonny is. Despite all his political shortcomings, I never had any reason to doubt that, ’til today. I just read in the Buffalo News that Jonny never called to concede or congratulate Alice. That is one of the most telling sign of what kind of person anyone running for office is. Now I see Jonny has no class. He’s lower than most polticians. At least he’s just as low as his partner in sore losing since Jackie Jacko made no such call either.
BP, you must be so proud of your classless loser.
@pundit — so progressives or liberals or whatever they’re called these days should aspire to the sewer where sean hannity dwells? that’s not something i want to be a part of.
@byron — olbermann’s remarks are more insipid and contemptable in print than they were when i heard them last night. american politics is not supposed to be about making the other side evil, it’s supposed to be about ideas, and which ideas are right for our country.
if you think that olbermann really cares about who wins the election, you’re as big a moron as the dittoheads who religously listen to rush. olbermann was fired from fox, but if they’d have elevated him to the position he now holds at msnbc he’d be attacking obama.
and in anticipation of your witty comeback, no, he wasn’t fired by fox for his principaled political viewpoints, he was fired because of on the air bitching about having to cover the o.j. simpson case. much like dennis miller, who was great when he did the news on “saturday night live,” olbermann has become a parody of his former witty and entertaining self.
when he did his first “special comment,” the one about donald rumsfeld, it was genuine, spot on, and superbly delivered. the piece you quote is just schtick for the bumpkins.
Haterade–Frankly I’ve been a bit frightened the last couple of weeks reading your comments–we’re way too much in agreement on what you’re saying. I guess you just moved up from the “just the card” Xmas list to the gift list.
Personality and character mean more in a Congressman than how they will carry the Party’s water. I would expect a congressman to vote NO on bills that adversely affect their district, whether the Party tells them to vote YES or not.
We need people in Congress that can see the totally out-of-control earmark spending by BOTH parties has to come to an end, and they should give the President, regardless of the party he or she belongs to the line item veto. Since they don’t have the guts to not rape our wallets to retain their employment, they should surrender their lack of fiscal discipline to a higher power–the Executive.
Nobody likes having their pockets picked–whether its by a criminal, a union, or the government. And a line item veto could end earmarks.
Frankly I doubt there will EVER be a clearing out of the incumbents that would allow this to happen.
What I do see happening is President McCain telling the congress not to bother sending any more spending bills packed with earmarks, as he’s not going to sign them.
Hank do you really believe the promises? Didn’t the Bush say the samething in 1999 or was your head too far up his ass to hear it? So now you are falling for the same song and dance. How’s your pig looking with her lipstick ?
Hudson, old politicians or judges never die they just move over to another nipple.
@Hank -
“What I do see happening is President McCain telling the congress not to bother sending any more spending bills packed with earmarks, as he’s not going to sign them.”
Oh really? Would that be before or after VP Hockey Mom Pitbull Kills Caribou With Her Bare Hands pulls him aside and threatens to cut off his nuts if he doesn’t shower Alaska with that sweet, sweet federal moolah like she’s done the last year and a half?
The last time “Maverick” McCain saw his balls was when he handed them over in a silver box to Beer Money Cindy to jumpstart his political career.
Snarky, you stupid piece of shit, Spitzer increased penalties for patronizing prostitutes.
As a part of legislation signed by Mr. Spitzer in June creating stiff new criminal penalties for those who force others to engage in sex or other labor, Mr. Spitzer approved an increase in the penalty under New York’s law against patronizing a prostitute in New York to one year in prison from 90 days (Penal Law §230.04).
He’s a huge hypocrite, and hypocrisy is a character flaw, you retard. He also undermined all the work his supporters did, giving easy opportunity for his enemies to oust him.
Splett, you think Democrats can’t vote on abortion, but you are a member of the Green party, and environmentalism doesn’t sway you. If those Dems should be in the Right To Life party as you say, you should be in the Socialist Workers Party.
Like I just said above, in my opinion Spitzer’s flaw wasn’t going to a prostitute, but attacking prostitution publicly and legally while doing it privately. I don’t think it should be illegal either and I said so on this site in March.
I really shouldn’t be in any party but I register Green because of all the fringy left leaning parties, they seem to have the most support and if I register as a Green they have a better chance of getting federal matching funds. If it wasn’t for my desire to see someone on my side get some federal funds and I could register as anything, I probably would have registered as a socialist. Apparently you think I should be ashamed of that.
Thank you for making my argument for me, a pro-life Catholic could say the exact same thing about registering Democratic, they wouldn’t want to be in an ineffective party like Right To Life.
You’re missing the point here.
The democratic party isn’t exactly hard up for money. Federal matching funds aren’t a factor for the two major parties.
For third parties, they’re freaking HUGE.
And again, this is so far away from what I was talking about it’s silly. When I say I’m not an environmentalist, I mean I don’t take that in to consideration when voting because I don’t care. If someone wants to save the whales and I agree with everything else they say, I’ll vote for them. If someone wants to club baby seals for the sheer joy of watching them die but agrees with everything else I believe, I’ll vote for him. I just don’t care either way. A pro-life democrat who votes republican throws away everything else they believe in over one issue. That’s retarded and if it’s THAT important to them that NONE of the rest of the platform matters, why the hell are they registering as a democrat?
i’m leaning toward bob barr.
The point is that some people vote overwhelmingly on one issue, or vote for character over issues, and they’re not necessarily crazy to do so.