Tag: New York

The Craig Johnson for State Senate campaign has gotten a slew of new endorsements in the last few days.  Adding to the efforts of groups like CWA are the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, which has over 2,000 members and is the largest law enforcement union on Long Island, and SEIU Local 32BJ, which has 60,000 members in New York and is the largest private sector union in New York and the largest property service workers union in the United States.

Here’s why 32BJ endorsed Craig:

“By helping to pass a minimum wage bill in Nassau County, Craig Johnson has shown himself to be a strong supporter of Long Island’s working families” said Mike Fishman, Local 32BJ President. “We look forward to working with him in Albany to raise standards for all New York’s working families.”

Last year, the Nassau County Legislature passed a living wage law that will raise minimum wages for workers contracted by the county to $9.50 an hour beginning in 2007. The minimum hourly pay rate will increase to $10.50 an hour in 2008, and again in 2010 to $12.50 an hour.

A new TV ad and a way to help after the break.

NY Ed-PAC coupled their endorsement with a new commercial and a $250,000 ad buy.

Have I convinced you to come out on Saturday and knock on doors yet?  You can join other volunteers on Saturday at either the New Hyde Park LIRR Station at 10:45 AM or, if you’re coming from New York City, at Penn Station under the LIRR Schedule Board at 9:45 AM.

13 days until Election Day!

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The Working Families Party field operation is hitting the doors every day to elect Craig Johnson to the State Senate. In 12 days we’ve already knocked on 23,427 doors for Craig Johnson, including a one-night high of 2,501 doors this weekend.

You can join in too. This weekend kicked off with State Sen. Liz Krueger meeting volunteers at the Mineola LIRR Train Station and sending them out canvassing for Craig Johnson. Sign up now and find out about more volunteer opportunities.

If it’s to cold or wet for you to canvass outside then you can still help.  A massive field operation like this is an expensive undertaking.  Make a donation to support the field operation.

Pictures after the jump.

15 days until Election Day!

Here are some pictures of the people working hard out there from a recent briefing.  I’ve been tagging these on flickr as NY-SD7, so if you’ve got pictures please add them to the stream.  Careful watchers will be able to pick out Aaron Hecht, the Johnson campaign Field Director, who came in to talk to the canvass before they went out into the field.

15 days until Election Day!

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Joe Mondello, Chair of the New York state GOP and of the Nassau County GOP, has a lot riding on the Feb 6 special election for an open New York State Senate seat in the Seventh Senate District.  It’s the first election under his watch as chair of the state GOP, it’s happening in his backyard, and it’s a test of how the state GOP will respond to their drubbing in the 2006 Governor’s race.

So maybe that’s why Joe chose to be a little, shall we say, extravagant with the truth.  From a New York Times article on the race:

The campaign is off to a quick start. “We had 500 people going door to door last weekend, and we hope to have 700 this weekend,” Mr. Mondello said. Democrats say they have an equally ambitious field operation. Their county chairman, Jay S. Jacobs, said that with an expected 10 to 15 percent voter turnout, “the ground game is the decider.”

Yeah right.

Details after the jump.

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Now it is right that the ground game is the decider.  And the Working Families Party is running an ambitious field operation, that’s right too.

But there’s no way the state Republicans have 100 people going door to door, much less 500 or 700.  The thing about canvassing is, if you’re out there canvassing for hours and the other side is out there canvassing for hours then each side’s canvassers are going to run into each other.  But I asked our 45 canvassers, who are knocking on thousands of doors every night, if they’ve seen a GOP door knocker.

The word from the Working Families Party canvass is that yesterday is the first day O’Connell had people on the doors, and it was only a handful of people.

And it’s not like we stick to the areas where turnout has historically been in our favor.  Our targeting is pretty advanced, so we can pick out the voters likely to go our way even in areas that don’t look promising overall.  So we’d be running into any GOP door knockers that are out there.  A couple of nights ago, we were in Maureen O’Connell’s home turf, near her house, and we didn’t see any GOP door knockers.  Not a one.

So I’m asking you. Campaign volunteers were deep in Republican turf in Mineola on Saturday, with not a single Republican walker spotted. If you were out there knocking on doors for Craig, did you see any of Joe Mondello’s imaginary friends?

16 days until Election Day!

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I wanted to share an anecdote from the campaign trail with everyone.  In New York’s Seventh District, Craig Johnson (D-WFP) is running for an open State Senate seat in a special election set for February 6th.

Last night, while Craig Johnson was rallying supporters and the Working Families Party canvass was knocking on doors and talking to people, Craig’s Republican opponent Maureen O’Connell was sitting at home.

From Spin Cycle:

“One of Nassau Legis. Craig Johnson’s canvassers in the state Senate race ran into Johnson’s opponent, Republican County Clerk Maureen O’Connell, after the campaign worker got a little lost Monday evening.

O’Connell had just pulled into a driveway in the East Williston neighborhood when the canvasser, needing directions, approached her. As they talked, the canvasser recognized O’Connell and she realized she was talking to one of her opponent’s foot soldiers. They exchanged pleasantries and wished each other luck.”

Now, since the WFP is running the canvass, I can give you the inside story straight from the canvasser who talked to her:

“A little after 5:30, I was trying to find an address on my  turf and was looking from the sidewalk at a number on one of the houses from the  street to determine if it was on my walk list.  A woman saw me looking at her house and came out to ask if she could help me.

I recognized her as Maureen O’Connell as soon as she came out because she had an O’Connell lawn sign and I’m friends with one of her former Assembly opponents.  I decided to exchange pleasantries, and we each did some campaigning and talked about the situation in Albany.  Then she realized I was part of the WFP canvass campaigning for Craig Johnson, and we wished each other good luck and parted ways.  I kept canvassing for the rest of the night and she went back inside.”

Gonna have to work harder than that to win this race.

21 more days until Election Day!

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From The Albany Project

I would imagine, the easy speculation as to why Craig is getting my support, time, effort and some money, is that he is a Democrat running for the State Senate, something I just did myself. But that would be selling Craig (and me) a bit short.

First of all, I have met Craig and find him to be engaging, energetic and passionate about his job (serving the people of his county legislative district), and, quite frankly, I think he would make a good State Senator for the people in the 7th District. But, what sold me is the fact that he is passionate about reforming the absolute mess in Albany.

In preparation for the TAP Book Club with Seymour Lachman, I am reading “Three Men In A Room.” I’m hoping that everyone does the same and joins us for the discussion at The Albany Project on January 29th, but, by doing so, you’ll understand why Craig Johnson is getting my full support.

Lachman is very detailed in outlining the dysfunction in Albany, and he has pointed out that there is enough blame to go around for Democrats and Republicans alike. It’s not really a partisan problem, it’s an incumbency problem.

Presently, our State Government is playing the old blame game. Each of the three branches of government in Albany has a foil against which they rail. It’s the Democratic Assembly’s fault, or the Republican Senate’s fault, or the Governor’s fault, and the real winner is the status quo. In Albany, the status quo stinks…of corruption, payola and patronage. BUT, as Lachman points out, the status quo is also everybody’s friend…the lobbyist’s, big money’s, the legislator’s, the Governor’s. Because of that, here is no impetus or desire to change the matrix.

This has been going on for decades, and the last election, didn’t help. Nothing changed. It was a huge victory for the status quo at the expense of the citizens of New York. The Same Old, Same Old Party won…we all lost.

So, why Johnson and the Senate? Why not the Assembly? Quite simply, because there is an election on February 6th that has the potential of completely shaking things up. If the Democrats win this seat, speculation has it that the days of the Republican Majority in the Senate are numbered…and may not even make it to the next election (through retirement and party switching…don’t get me started about that)…and if the Senate changes hands, the path will finally be clear for the beginnings of reform.

The game won’t be the same. The status quo will be forced to the back bench. You see, the Assembly will no longer be able play pretend…pass reform legislation knowing it’s going nowhere and say, “I tried. I’m a reformer. It’s Bruno’s fault!” They will have to cast votes that will –gasp– actually count. And the Democratic Senators will be in the same boat. They will have no excuses anymore. They will control the rules committee, the redistricting process, the budget process and can call for a Constitutional Convention which is what we really need to give us all, Republicans and Democrats alike, our state government back…because, at the moment, it doesn’t belong to anyone except the Albany insiders and those Three Men. No more blame game. No more play pretend. Our legislators will be forced to either reform this mess and become true representatives, or be seen as self-serving opportunists who are there to protect the status quo and get re-elected.

It’s time take a roll call. Are you a reformer, or do you just play one on TV?

So, that’s why I’m supporting Craig Johnson. He is, through chance and choice, at the crossroads of reform of our State Government. If you want to shake things up, I am encouraging you to endorse him as well. Keep checking The Albany Project for ways and opportunities to do just that.

Could it really be? Via the Albany-Times Union’s blog:

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, called a press conference this evening to confirm he is being investigated by the FBI, which has launched an inquiry into his business dealings through his consulting company, Capital Business Consultants.

It’s not yet clear, though, what the FBI is investigating. Yet.

The senator refused to discuss what, exactly, the FBI is looking into. He declined to say whether it has anything to do with Evident Technologies Inc. – the company to which he steered $500,000 via two state grants with no strings attached.

Bruno has personal ties to several of Evident’s directors, Jared Abbruzzese, one of the company’s founders and a former co-chair, and Wayne Barr – both of whom share the senator’s interest in horse racing.

Abbruzzese is being investigated by the state Lobbying Commission for providing his plane to Bruno for several trips, including a fund-raiser and a tour of several Kentucky horse farms that Barr arranged.

One thing you should disregard, though, is Bruno’s claim that he is “not a target” of the investigation. Here’s why:

[Washington attorney Stanley M.] Brand said that distinctions in a federal criminal manual between a “target,” someone the Justice Department has decided to seek charges against, and a “subject,” someone under investigation who could be upgraded to a target, are largely meaningless in a practical sense.

“You can’t take these distinctions to the bank, because the Justice Department can change your status whenever it wants to,” Brand said.

Brand was talking about Conrad Burns, and you can see how well that bit of verbal legerdemain worked out for old Burnsie. Same, too, with Bob Ney, who claimed he wasn’t a “target” almost until he was indicted. He’s now going to be sentenced to prison next month.

This story also gives me an opportunity to do something long overdue, which is to tell you about a new SoapBlox blog that’s opened up shop right in my political neighborhood. The Albany Project is dedicated to shining a much-needed light on corrupt, obscurantist the New York state legislative apparatus (ranked as the worst out of all 50 by the Brennan Center). The site’s already been following this story closely, and it’ll be the place to go for continuous coverage of this potentially explosive news.

(From the diaries. I like maps. – promoted by James L.)

This is the second in a series of diaries graphically depicting the Democratic victory in this year’s midterm elections. The first diary in this series covering New England may be seen here.

Today we will be looking at Democratic gains in New York, both in the city and upstate.  First, the money shot, maps detailing simple change in district control, because no seats changes hand in the NYC area the city inset will only be displayed after the fold under the 2006 results.

2004

2006

NYC

Of 3,561,072 votes cast in 2006 US House races in New York,  2,285,020 (64.2%) were cast for Democrats, while 1,266,295 (35.2%) were cast for Republicans.

Democrats took the open seat in the NY-24 (Utica), with Arcuri (D) defeating Meier (R) by 16,469 votes, 53.8% D to 45.2% R.

Democrats defeated Republican incumbents in the NY-19 and NY-20. In the NY-19 (Orange/Putnam County), Democrat John Hall beat Republican incumbent Sue Hall by 13,642 votes votes, 51.2% D to 48.8% R. In the NY-20 (Upper Hudson valley) Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand defeated Republican incumbent John Sweeney by 13,642 votes, 53.1% D to 46.9% R.

The following map shows Democratic gains over their 2004 Democratic performance in the district (in % terms), improvements of less than 5% will be displayed in light blue, under 10% in the darker blue, and over 10% in the darkest blue. Republican gains will be shown in the same manner, with the light red signifying a gain of less than 5% and so on. Races that were contested in neither year will be displayed in gray.

The single greatest Democratic gain in a race contested by Republicans in 2004 was in the NY-27 (South Buffalo) where Democratic incumbent Brian Higgins surged by 25.9% over his 2004 performance.  Democratic candidates in the NY-19, NY-20, and NY-24 all improved upon 2004 Democratic performance by more than 10%. Candidates in the NY-1, NY-3, NY-20, NY-22, and NY-29 all improved upon 2004 Democratic performance by over 5%.  Again, the races coded in the light blue showed less than 5% improvement over 2004.  The only red spot was in the NY-18 where Democratic incumbent Nita Lowey saw her vote share drop from 81.3% in 2004 to a mere 70.3% this year. This is the only kind of victory Republicans could muster in the Empire state.

Looking more closely at the margin of victory in 2006 races & the scale of Democratic victory in this midterm, and pickup opportunities emerge, the following map displays the margin of victory in 2006 races. The deepest blue represents and Democratic margin of victory over 10%, the medium color represent more than 5%, while the lightest blue indicates that the Democratic candidate won by less than 5%. Corresponding measures of Republican victory margins display progressively darker shades of red at the same intervals.

What emerges is a map to guide our 2008 strategy. Beginning with this edition of the series I will be producing a tier system for 2008 races based upon the results of the 2006 returns.  Tier 0 races are those where the Democratic candidate won by a margin of less than 5%, the presumption being that incumbency grants an advantage of 5-10% that with the fundraising advantage that comes with holding office should be sufficient for these candidates to defend their seats without funding from the party.  The assumption that incumbency gives a 5-10% advantage drives the classification of the pickup categories.  Tier 1 races are those where the incumbent won by less than 5% in 2006, while tier 2 races are those where Republicans won by less than 10%.

Tier 0

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

NY-19     51.2    48.8   6.1       John Hall

Tier 1

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

NY-25     49.1    50.9   1.9       Dan Maffei

NY-29     48.5    51.5   3.1       Eric Massa

NY-26     48.1    51.9   3.7       Jack Davis

Tier 2

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

No races meet the criteria for this tier.

While our one defend NY-19 is near NYC in Orange/Putnam counties, the 3 2008 Dem Pickup opportunties are in Western New York with the NY-25 in the Rochester/Syracuse area the NY-26 is between Rochester and Buffalo, and the NY-29 is immediately to the south of that. Jack Davis self funded his campaign run on a pro-fair trade message, while Massa and Maffei were relative newcomers to politics.  (New Yorkers please correct me if I got this wrong.)

Building upon the Tier 0 race in the NH-01 and the Tier 1 race in the CT-04, this means that my running total shows two Tier 0 races to defend in 2008 and four Tier 1 pickup opportunities.  I strongly believe that if we want to win we need to maintain our infrastructure in these close races. If our 2006 candidates want to run in 2008, absent a compelling reason to challenge them in the primary.  And if we know who the 2008 candidate is going to be we need a continuing netroots effort to give these candidates a running start on 2008. In the form of seed money, the netroots can press forward on our 2006 Democratic gains defining the battlefield for 2008.  We must not allow the Republicans to define the battlefield for the next cycle, and only by providing minimial funding to allow the candidate to retain a single staffer to fundraise and keep the infrastructure intact can we make this work.

This is a logical continuation of the 50 State Strategy, by keeping the infrasructure intact there’s no need to start all over in 2008, and that will allow campaigns to be more efficient in their use of funds. If we can avoid the first spending the first $25,000-$50,000 needed to reconstitute the campaign infrastructure in each cycle we will be able press further into Republican held districts.  Our goal must  be to contain the  Republicans to their base in the Deep South, no Copperhead must go unchallenged.