Mud Thrown at Jon Powers
Jon Powers has racked up quite an impressive array of endorsements in his run to unseat Tom Reynolds in the 26th Congressional district. The list, as of today, is as follows:
· Genesee County Democratic Committee
· Livingston County Democratic Committee
· Orleans County Democratic Committee
· Wyoming County Democratic Committee
· Town of Clarence Democratic Committee
· SEIU 1199
· AFSCME Local 264
· International Brotherhood of Teamsters
· United Food and Commercial Workers
· Communications Workers of America
· International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers
· VoteVets
· VetPAC
· General Wesley Clark
· Senator Bob Kerrey
· Senator John Kerry
That’s quite an impressive list for a young newbie candidate whose campaign theme of leadership by example is something that’s been woefully lacking in the 26th District for quite some time.
You’ll note that the Erie County Democratic Committee has not yet endorsed Powers – or anyone, for that matter. It won’t do so until Jack Davis comes out and says he is or is not running; something Davis promised to do March-ish.
Why is Davis key?
1. Davis, the self-made millionaire and self-funded candidate needs only de minimis party support. He has the money and the manpower to do most everything himself. Right down to the convertible Excalibur rumbling down Goodrich Road during the Clarence Labor Day Parade; and
2. Davis is a big contributor to other Democrats running locally. Don’t piss the donors off.
So it was with some great distress that I read this post by Glenn Gramigna, formerly of Illuzziland, accusing Powers of being a Pigeon stooge. (In Erie County Democratic politics, them’s fighting words). Specifically, Gramigna writes:
Youthful congressional candidate Jon Powers is struggling as he continues to make the rounds in the 26th CD.
If “struggling” is defined as “outraising your opponent” and “racking up town and rural county endorsements” then yes, he’s “struggling”.
Some say it is presumptuous of him to be running for Congress just on the basis of his service, honorable though it was, in Iraq. Still, he is picking up some valuable endorsements from respected leaders of organized labor.
What’s so presumptuous about it? Is there a queue that he’s jumped? This young man has not only served his country in Iraq, he went back to Iraq on his own initiative to try and help the Iraqi children of that war have a better life. He is wise and experienced beyond his years, and it’s frankly idiotic to criticize any supposed “presumptuousness” he might have to run now, when that war continues to rage.
EDIT: Furthermore, looking at Davis’ financials from the 2006 race, you’ll notice that he only raised 6% of his money – about $130,000 – from people whose name didn’t begin with “Jack” and end with “Davis”. By contrast, by December 31, 2007 – nine months before the primary – Jon Powers has raised over $338,000 from individuals, representing 92% of his take.
It’s one thing for a candidate to self-finance. It’s another for one to get actual, regular people to open up their wallets.
“If I had to give him some advice, I’d say, ‘Run for the Clarence Town Board,” says one of our highly placed sources. “Just because he was an officer in Iraq, that in itself doesn’t qualify him to be our Congressman. He doesn’t even have the self confidence to give interviews to the media…Then there’s his possible Pigeon connection.”
These are unvetted, unsourced rumors that amount to the most base sort of mudslinging. The Iraq war remains in the top 5 of national, federal government issues. Why should he have to run for town board first? And what “interviews to the media” has he refused to do? It’s still remarkably early in the campaign, he’s spoken with just about every political beat reporter I can think of, and frankly he’s much smarter to go out and talk to actual voters than with the media.
Then there’s the Pigeon accusation. How firm is it?
While our source doesn’t have any firm evidence that Powers is a Pigeon Proxy, he or she does find it suspicious that the Powers candidacy is being praised on a local web site with close ties to discredited former Erie County Democratic Chairman Steve Pigeon…”That other site is praising him to the skies, which makes me think he must have some connection to Pigeon and they are just keeping it quiet,”
our source says. “It really makes you wonder what Powers is all about and who is really behind his campaign.”
Wow. So, Illuzzi posts some nice things about Powers, and that makes Powers a Pigeon proxy? Hell, Illuzzi’s posted nice things about me in the past. Does that make me a Pigeon proxy?
So, what could Gramigna’s motive be for posting such drivel?
Why, just scroll up, my friends!
A lovingly fellatative paean to “Industrialist” Jack Davis. Either he’s signed up to advertise, and this is a mere advertorial, or else he’s about to. And what does Jack Davis have to say? Why, free trade is bad! The same damn one issue that helped him lose the last time, and the time before that. As a candidate, Davis has no depth, no other issues, and Jon Powers has the people skills and charisma that Davis only dreams about.
I went over to Illuzzi’s site, and the post he did about Powers was little more than a re-write of a press release that Powers’ people released yesterday about the new labor endorsements. Hardly evidence of Powers being a Pigeonista.
Gramigna’s unfair, untrue rumor-mongering on Davis’ behalf is shameful.
UPDATE: Robert Harding has his take over at the Albany Project
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Indeed. (no links, racist or otherwise).
Explain to me exactly why Steve Pigeon is “discredited”. Since leaving the helm of the ECDems, he has become a mover and shaker in national and international politics, has access to the highest levels of political power here and in DC, is top counsel and advisor to Sabres owner Tom Golisano, and one of the brightest people I know.
I had the chance to hang out and talk with Steve just last week, and discussed with him his involvement and travel to Ukraine to advise their leaders on how to conduct fair and free elections. He has had extraordinary access to President Yuschenko, PM Tymoshenko and other leaders who are shaping that country’s destiny.
We should all be as “discredited” as Pigeon…the man has had an amazing career in politics and public leadership. No I don’t like or agree with everything he’s ever done in public life, but find him to be a fascinating person. If Jon Powers is getting any advice or in-kind support from the likes of Steve Pigeon he could do far worse elsewhere.
i thought it was just me andrew. perhaps we were both absent the day it was decided that having steve pigeon’s support violated some orthodoxy.
for the record, steve’s a pal of mine and, though we’ve sometimes disagreed over the past decade on individual candidates and/or strategies, he’s all right by me.
I think pigeon is discredited because we kept losing races while he was chairman…I think we won in the ballpark of zero state supreme court justices and lost seats on every single town board where we had seats, exception: cheektowaga. We even got beat by a Republican candidate in the City of Buffalo. So there’s that.
Jon Powers needs to raise $1M by March 31st to be a contender, otherwise he’s just a prettier face to lose to TR than Davis is. I’m good as long as it’s not Kryzan, who has freaking donated money to TR.
Stephen: You’re right on Pigeon, but how is Lenihan any different? EC Dems lost a big race in 2007 with the County Executive seat. That was a seat that state party officials admitted was on their radar. It’s one thing to lose by 5-10 points. It’s another to lose by over 20 – and almost 30.
As for Powers, I tend to not believe in the power of the “almighty” dollar. I believe in candidates who rally the masses. Powers has shown that ability. He will garner votes for several reasons – least of which is his bankroll.
We seem to be forgetting who we are running against in this election. Reynolds isn’t the Reynolds of 2002, 2004 or even 2006. Reynolds is weak. It shows in his fundraising numbers compared to past years and it shows in rumors of his retirement. The GOP thinks that they will lose this seat. So this talk that the only candidate for the job is Davis because of his money is, well, absurd. Davis had two chances. He lost 56-44 in 2004. Then in a rematch, where everything fell (presumably) his way, he still lost by four points.
That doesn’t say much for Davis, who is now blaming his former staffers (which are now some current Powers staffers) as the reason(s) for him not campaigning.
Robert-
Have you met those staffers? That’s my biggest knock against Powers right now.
Stephen: I have met most of Powers staffers. I also kept in close contact with the Davis team in 2006. In October 2006, I called the Davis campaign and Bruce Corris, the Davis communications director who is not on the Powers staff, picked up the phone. We had a long phone conversation about Davis and his lack of campaigning. Corris (along with other former staffers) told me that Davis doesn’t listen to them. He does his own thing.
The problem is that some people want to say, for example, that because John Gerken lost with Davis in 2006, that was all his fault. They say that about a lot of the staffers from that campaign. The truth is that Davis didn’t listen to any of them. He did things his way…
and lost.
Twice.
Robert.
Why would Davis listen to people that haven’t earned his respect?
-Stephen.
If Davis couldn’t beat Reynolds with his money, what makes you think Powers can with a fraction of it? Three things account for winning a race: money, organization and marketing. The last two depends on the first, 99% of the time.
Stephen: You don’t understand. Davis apparently respected no one. I’ve talked to staffers who say he did not listen to them. Period. That tells me he just paid these people to do the dirty work and when it came to them giving advice, he wasn’t going to take it. Every former Jack Davis campaign staffer I talk to says the same thing: It was Jack’s way or the highway. If you told him anything, he wasn’t going to listen to it.
I know that Davis has the kind of money to throw around to pay staffers, but these people were telling him to campaign and he wasn’t! They were right and he was wrong.
Mike W: The last two don’t depend on the first. Powers has been able to market him very nicely due to the Internet. He’s received a ton of Internet support (as evidenced by his ActBlue success) and you Mike, of all people, should know how important the Internet is nowadays.
All Davis had was his money. He had no organization. I saw it firsthand. You can’t have an organization when the candidate isn’t listening to you. And as for marketing, in a district like this, the most important form of marketing is getting out on foot and talking to people. Powers has done that. For example, Jon Powers has been to Orleans County at least six or seven times since the summer of 2007. According to Democrats in Orleans County, Davis made one stop in 2004 and they never saw him once in 2006.
The Powers campaign is organized and they can market their candidate. Davis, on the other hand, only has the money. He won’t be organized and he’s not marketable. He’s a single-issue candidate and has very little to offer other than that.
And when he tells a room full of Democrats (in Genesee County) that he’s going to go to Washington and take on Pelosi, Rangel and others, that’s not something you say to a room… full… of… Democrats. Especially when the man you want to take on (Reynolds) is attacking the same people.
Robert,
I dont? understand? This is what you don’t understand: 10 weeks of TV in Rochester and Buffalo is 1.5 Million dollars. Per commercial. You might want more than one airing at a time. And that doesn’t include production costs. Mailing 1 flyer to the district’s 400,000 Registered Voters is $200,000; mailing 6 is $1.2 Million. Your staff is going to cost at least $200,000. You need a program for contacting voters in this sort of race; Gerkin’s specialties lie elsewhere. What you do understand is that organizing a get out the vote program in Orleans, Niagara, Livingston, Genesee, Wyoming is where this party needs to do better. What you fail to grasp is that organizing one in Erie and Monroe Counties is cheap. Organizing in the exurbs and rural areas is expensive: Very expensive.
No question that Powers is the better candidate in a publicly financed election. But Powers has raised no money. That $350K is nothing.
He’s never going to get the BIG national money, because Kryzan’s forcing a primary, and they won’t support when there is a primary.
If Powers can raise 1 Million by the March 31st filing deadline – and the money is there, that’s not that big a reach – he’s the guy, if not, he’s not. We cant win on 750K and a pretty smile.
Well, Davis has proven twice now that $2 million, one issue, and a surly attitude with poor people skills aren’t going to help him win, either.
One other note: the voting habits in that district haven’t changed much and the district is gerrymandered to favor the republican candidate. Davis made a bit of a dent last time with a big wallet. If that wasn’t enough, I don’t think anybody else has a chance.