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Thursday, May 18, 2006

NY-24: Road Is Cleared for Arcuri

Posted by DavidNYC

The battlefield just became a whole lot clearer in NY-24, an open seat race that is bound to be one of the most competitive this year. Les Roberts, a healthcare specialist, graciously and wisely decided to drop out of the Dem primary, leaving Oneida County DA Mike Arcuri with a straight path to the nomination.

This is good news. While primaries can often be a good thing, provididing a way for newcomers to gain both combat experience and name recognition, they cause a lot of headaches in New York. That's because primaries are so obscenely late (Sept. 12) - by the time you win the Dem nomination, you have less than two months to turn around and face off against the Republican. It amounts to an incumbent protection plan, though it also makes life difficult in primaries as well. (Hopefully Gov. Spitzer will change the primary date to May or June.)

Also, Chuck Todd just wrote a piece this week about "perilous primaries," noting that there are competitive and potentially destructive Dem primaries for a number of vulnerable GOP seats. This, of course, is to be expected - but in any event, Chuck can cross this one off his list. We are good to go.

Posted at 03:48 PM in 2006 Elections - House, New York | Technorati

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Comments

when i first saw this primary, as there are 2 others in the race, i figured Acruiri was the only serious candidate and the others were gadflies. i didnt believe it when ppl said that roberts stood a chance, and i guess this proves it.

Posted by: yomoma2424 at May 18, 2006 04:22 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Roberts was fairly credible--he raised about $150k to Arcuri's $197k, according to Open Secrets.

Posted by: James L. at May 18, 2006 04:25 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

I totally agree that we need to move the New York primaries up to May or June. Another thing to keep in mind is that many new voters are starting college careers in September each year, and often don't know where to vote (or are too overwhelmed to even consider it). I know that this is a demographic that doesn't have particularly have a good turnout in Novembers, but it'd be nice to see them show up in any sort of bigger numbers.

Posted by: BCarr at May 18, 2006 06:12 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Now we need to get Peggy Lamm to drop out in CO-7, Perlmutter is gonna win this primary and Lamm is just stealing money and letting O'Donnell pull ahead

Posted by: Johnny08 at May 18, 2006 08:51 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

In Minnesota, our primaries our in September, but we have endorsing caucuses in the Spring. It is customary for all candidates in the field to abide by the endorsement, clearing the way for the winner by avoiding a primary. Does anyone have any idea how common this is?

Posted by: Max at May 18, 2006 11:21 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Arcuri seems like a strong candidate.
I hope Roberts stays active, as he appears to have supporters and fund-raising ability.

I've lost track of the candidate field on the other ticket.
There were several GOP candidates in contention, weren't there?
Anyone have an update on who's still in that race and how formidable they are?

Posted by: Christopher Walker at May 19, 2006 10:31 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Agree about moving NY primary. The late NY primary has hurt us in a number of races including the 1980 Senate race when D'Amato first won and the 1992 Senate race when the brutal Dem primary left Bob Abrams wounded and broke with little time to recover. I am sure there are others good example.

Until the mid 70s, NY had a June primary but the legislature moved it to Sept b/c it helps incumbents. Getting the NY legislature to change it will not be easy but we should definately try.

Posted by: John Mills at May 23, 2006 10:54 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment