Author: lipris

(Let’s do this thing! – promoted by James L.)

(Adapted from a post at the albany project)

We are very, very excited to announce “Raise New York”, a “blograiser” for SSD-07 candidate Craig Johnson featuring Governor Eliot Spitzer! And when I say “we”, I am referring to, amongst many others, The Daily Gotham, Rochester Turning, Democracy In Albany, onNYTurf, WNYMedia.net, Swing State Project and, of course, us here at TAP.

Raise New York will take place on Thursday, February 1st at Prey in NYC. The event will also be liveblogged here and at Daily Gotham and DailyKos. There will be photos, audio and video in near real time for those who for whatever reason can’t attend in person. It’s gonna be a hoot.

What is so exciting about this event for me is that, besides raising some much needed money for Craig Johnson, it represents a real opportunity for partnership building between the progressive net/grassroots and a state Dem Party establishment  that hasn’t always been so interested in such things. There exists some very real potential for some mending of fences and and some trust building amongst all these groups as they fight for a common goal, namely reforming our joke of a state government.

The very nature of how this event came about is unprecedented as far as I can tell. This has never been done, or done in this way, ever before.

It also represents something potentially very special for the progressive NY blogosphere. It’s a demonstration that we can and will work together towards that common goal when we choose to do so. That’s never happened before and these new relationships could turn into something pretty freaking amazing. In fact, this may be what I find  most exciting.

So please join us for this amazing event! Join us in person or online and let’s do all we can to make ol’ Joe Bruno’s majority one seat more tenuous.

(x-posted from the albany project)

It’s official. As expected, Nassau county dems nominated County Legislator Craig Johnson to run against County Clerk, Maureen O’Connell in the Feb 6th special election to replace new state Homeland Security chief Michael Balboni.

As usual, Newsday is all over it.

NY Dems nominate county legislator Johnson for Senate

Craig Johnson, a popular county legislator, was nominated Monday to run for a key state Senate seat being left vacant by Michael Balboni’s departure to Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration as chief of homeland security.

…

Jay Jacobs, chairman of the Nassau County Democrats, said Johnson comes to the table with a solid record and base of supporters.

“He knows how to campaign, voters are used to voting for him and he has an excellent record in the Legislature,” Jacobs said.

Johnson was elected to the 11th Legislative District in a special election in 2000 after the death of the former legislator, Barbara Johnson, his mother.

He was re-elected to the post in 2001 and 2003. In 2005, he received 73 percent of the votes, Jacobs said.

This one is gonna be a dogfight and there’s less than month for these campaigns and the parties to make their case. The stakes are HUGE, especially for the GOP, and their new party chair who has deep roots in the district and will likely pull out all the stops to not only protect the seat, but his own home turf.

As for the Dems, the shakeup at the DSCC probably isn’t so well timed given the gravity of the race. Then again, not like they’ve been particularly effective as of late anyway. This race is going to be very expensive and the money advantage definitely tilts towards the GOP at this moment though the voter registration trends tilt towards the Dems. (the trend from Republican to Democrat has been rather steep and pretty quick)

It’s a very expensive and potentially vicious four week sprint to a conclusion that could have massive implications for the future of the entire Republican party in the state of New York.

Let the dogfight begin!

The Albany Project is very excited to announce the launch of TAPopedia, project very much inspired by both dalyKos’ dKosopedia and SSP’s own race tracker wiki. It’s a heck of an ambitious project and we’re gonna need all the help we can get to turn this into a useful resource for everyone.

Here’s the announcement as it was posted at the albany project:

Introducing TAPopedia!

We here at the albany project are very excited to announce the launch of a new wiki dedicated solely to New York politics. We feel that this tool can fill a very large gap and can, with your help, become a very powerful resource bloggers, journalists and, most importantly, for the citizens of New York.

We’ve built the skeleton, now we need to flesh it out. that’s where you come in.

It’s a wiki, so it will take time and and it will require the participation of plenty of folks to make it into what we hope it can be. We invite everyone to participate and hope you will consider adopting your Senate and/or Assembly districts, your reps, your whatever and pour your knowledge into this project. The wiki will be as good and as useful as we can make it.

Having all this data in one place in an ever growing, searchable pile has a lot of potential in our view.

We are also in the process of working up prototypes of some pretty sophisticated GIS maps that we hope to add soon. This stuff will blow you away.

Let’s build something amazing, people.

You in?

________________________________________

The more folks we can get involved with this thing, the better mousetrap we will build. We can use everyone’s help and I so hope you’ll want to come out and play as well

There’s code for a button at the site, if you are so inclined.

Forward!

(So the election is one month from today. I think this one is going to consume a lot of my interest. – promoted by DavidNYC)

Adapted from a post at the albany project

According to Newsday, the special election to replace outgoing state Senator Michael Balboni will take place on Feb 6th. The GOP has chosen Nassau County Clerk and former Assemby Member Maureen O’Connell and the dems will choose a candidate on Monday.

It’s interesting to me that Tom DiNapoli, who was often mentioned as being the candidate with the right of first refusal in this race, isn’t being mentioned in media reports at all anymore. I guess he really does want to be Comptroller. As for the other dem hopefuls, Newsday lists them thusly:

Jacobs said he will head a screening committee that Saturday will interview four Democrats seeking the party’s nomination: legislators Roger Corbin of Westbury and Craig Johnson of Port Washington; East Williston activist Matthew Cuomo, nephew of former Gov. Mario Cuomo and cousin of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo; and North Hempstead Town Clerk Michelle Schimel.

The screening committee will submit its recommendation to the executive committee Monday night, Jacobs said.

Everything I’ve heard in the past two weeks points to Nassau County legislator Craig Johnson as being the new favorite. Johnson seems to be a pretty progressive candidate. (here is his  official site and campaign site)

Over at the albany project, guest blogger and all around bad ass Scott in NJ has some more relevant details about the state of the players and district.

Republicans have nominated Nassau County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, who reportedly has the Independence and Conservative lines as well.  The Democrats will pick their candidate on Monday; Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson is the front-runner for that nomination.  Johnson has run on the WFP line in the past and he will probably get row E against O’Connell.  Insiders suggest that the parties could spend up to $4 million on the race.

As of December, the Senate Republican Campaign Committee had $580,490.96 on hand; the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee had $143,166.31.  O’Connell can expect substantial support from the Nassau County Republican Committee, which has $1,359,471.43 on hand.  The County Democrats spent all of their cash on the 2006 campaign.

Tom Suozzi had $560,190.76 left over after his primary run, but he might have spread some of that money out among ’06 general election candidates.  FWIW, Johnson supported Spitzer over Suozzi in ’06.  Spitzer-Paterson 2006 still had $5,529,993.05 in the coffers after the general election.

Democrats hold a 38-35 registration edge in the district.

Looks like we’re gettin’ it on a month from today. As soon as the dems pick their candidate we’ll be covering that as well.

X-posted at dKos

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

—Robert Frost “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening”

The sun has set here and polls will open before she rises again. There’s a big, fat full(ish) moon high above the Hudson Valley this evening and I’m exhausted. I decided that I needed to just sit down and just be still for a few minutes. When I stepped back from the chaos and the nerves and the coffee for a precious minutes, I was overwhelmed by a profound sense of gratitude to all those countless folks who, much like you and much like millions of other folks across the country you and I will never meet, are fighting like hell to take their country back.

I salute you.

I salute all those out there who spent the past few weeks knocking their knuckles raw, those who put their patriotism where their shoe leather meets the streets. I salute all those fine folks who literally walk the walk, who spent their weekends meeting their neighbors and engaging them in the process all up close and personal. I salute those who have overcome their shyness or reticence to talk to strangers. I salute those who travelled to new neighborhoods to walk, new towns, upstate, downstate or a new state entirely.

I salute you.

I salute those who cold called strangers to take their country back. I salute those who badgered their friends to join them in cramped offices to spread the word over the phone. I salute the pajamahadeen who called strangers across the country for candidates in other states. I salute “free nights and weekends”! I salute all those lovely people who with no time to spare who still found the time to reach out personally to folks who were sometimes on the other side of the continent.

I salute you.

I salute all those weary eyed staffers and volunteers who have decided to put your money where your goddamn mouth is, who decided to go “all in”, who chose to make damn sure that when their children and grandchildren ask them years from now what they did back in ’06 to take their country back that they had one hell of a story to tell. I salute those who have spent the past few weeks and months existing on cold pizza and stale coffee, who have grabbed those precious 15 minute power naps in the corner with one eye on that district map taped to the wall.  I salute all those who won’t sleep tonight as they are tweaking the final stages of their 96 hour plan, as they sift the lists of “ones” and “twos” who most need to be contacted tomorrow.I salute those disheveled hordes who have literally spent the night at the district office, the HQ, the union hall.

I salute you.

I salute all those who have taken those bleary eyed volunteers from far away into their homes, who have given them a bed, a meal and a shower. I salute all those amazing folks who have dropped by their candidate’s office with a plate of cookies or a bag of fruit or a box of sandwiches. I salute those who have called the office just to ask “What do you need?  What can i do right now” or “Are you guys hungry?”

I salute you.

I salute those who have given all those $25 contributions to the campaigns, often to campaigns in other districts or other states. I salute those who gave and gave and gave again. I salute those who found this struggle so damned important that they decided to sacrifice a dinner out or new pair of shoes or whatever to send that money to some candidate next door or on the other coast.

I salute you.

Finally, I want to salute all those who were told by the “wise” men/women that your desire to run was “doomed”, that dems can’t win here, that this district, this county, this state will never elect you. I salute all those who were told that they’d never be able to raise enough money or get enough support to be a “serious” contender, that they’d be a “vanity” candidate. I salute all those who listened politely as the Powers That Be told them that they’d be tilting at windmills and then decided, against all that “wise” counsel, to roll those sleeves up and throw all caution to the wind and, well,  run anyway, whether it was a run for the US Senate or for their local school board. I salute all those who listened to all the naysayers and found the situation in our nation to be too dire to sit this one out, who threw all caution to the wind and decided to brave the inevitable assault of the slime machine. I salute those who couldn’t stomach being a spectator to the continued violence wrought on our Constitution, the perpetuation of this continuing clusterfuck in Iraq, the shoveling of more and more to the few while asking more and more of the many, the looting of the Treasury from war profiteers and the cronies an determined that someone had to do something. I salute those who chose to take it upon themselves and against all the “friendly advice” offered by the knowitalls to put it all on the line and challenge that GOoPer incumbent on the town council, or Mr. Good-Hair-Been-There-Forever CongressCritter. I salute your courage and your patriotism and your sense duty.

My hat is off to everyone, top to bottom, who is engaged in this fight to reclaim for the American people what is rightly theirs, namely their own government.

I want to second what Al Rodgers said yesterday:

It’s a privilege to serve with all of you.

Hear hear.

I salute each and every last one of ya.

Now, let’s go out there and seal the freakin’ deal, kids. It’s time to take the country back.

You in?