Tag: Craig Johnson

Newsday, a leading Long Island paper, has delivered a major endorsement to Craig Johnson (D-WFP).  This is a big endorsement because Newsday is widely read and respected, and it’s the only daily on Long Island, so it’ll get in the hands of the people most likely to vote on their own in the special.  Newsday boils it down to this: “Newsday endorses Johnson, who was willing to take a tough vote as a Nassau legislator and will do so again in Albany.”

Craig Johnson is running in a Feb 6 special election for an open New York State Senate seat in northwestern Nassau County.

Here’s another key quote on Craig:

“In the end, the choice should go to the candidate not with the most powerful backers – including admirable ones like Spitzer – but the one with the best skills, experience and policies. That is Johnson.”

and I thought this one on O’Connell was telling:

“[i]n 2003, this page called one of her Assembly votes on the budget a profile in cowardice and cynicism. She tried to have her cake, by overturning a veto of school-aid cuts, and eat it too, by not being willing to pay for it with an income-tax surcharge.”

6 days until Election Day!

See the press release and more endorsements at the WFP Blog.

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Caveat: this excellent post was written by MBNYC. I’m posting it with his permission.

There have been a number of diaries posted here recently about a special election (and a related fundraiser/blograiser) scheduled to take place in New York’s Seventh Senatorial District on February 6th. The contenders are Craig Johnson, the Democrat, and Maureen O’Connell, a Republican. A Democratic win in this election is considered predictive of whether the state Senate will flip to the Democrats for the first time, essentially, since 1932. The state Senate, which Theodore Roosevelt quipped was ‘constitutionally Republican’, is colloquially known here as ‘the place where good legislation goes to die’.

More after the jump….

The question that must present itself to people outside of New York State is this: what stake, if any, does someone in California or Michigan (for example) have in this race, and why should it matter to you that the Democrat wins?

There are several strategic reasons why this race is important, and why netroots interest and participation in the effort to elect Craig Johnson is critical.

New York Matters

New York State, the third-largest in the Union, matters. It matters because this state is the seat of a disproportionate share of Fortune 500 companies, who are subject – as former attorney general, and now governor, Eliot Spitzer proved – to the regulatory reach of our state government. The laws passed by the New York State legislature directly affect how your bank handles your money, your retirement funds, your college savings account. These laws also affect the nation’s largest media companies, insurers, law firms, advertising agencies, hedge funds, mutual funds, and the glittering crown jewel at the heart of it all, the New York Stock Exchange. If you’re interested in a Progressive economic framework, this race matters to you, because the policies made here will very likely affect how you work, what you watch, and what you buy.

Eliot Spitzer Matters

New York’s new governor, Eliot Spitzer, is one of the bright shining stars of the new Progressive movement. Governor Spitzer’s stated goal, the one that he won 69% of the vote with, is the Progressive reform of New York State. There is a national component to that, one that Eliot raised during the campaign: just as the New Deal began here, New York can again serve as a huge Progressive laboratory to demonstrate to the rest of the country that Progressive government works. It’s worth noting that New York is the largest state with a Democratic governor, and that Republicans at the national level have a vested interest in seeing Eliot fail. Successful Progressive reform in New York is the greatest long-term strategic challenge to conservative dominance of the basic discussion of what government can do and should do. If you’re interested in that discussion, this race matters to you.

The Netroots Matter

Kos wrote a book on Crashing the Gate. In this state, the gates have been crashed. To put it very bluntly: not very many bloggers can call the Chair of their local state party whenever they see fit, or the Executive Director, and get those calls taken. I can. So can Lipris, so can NYBri. The point here is not to brag about influence, but to make a very simple observation: the New York State Democratic Party is listening to us, to you, and paying attention to our, your concerns. Your support is critical to making something work that’s never been tried before: an alliance between the established party, the grassroots, and the netroots. What’s happening in New York is unprecedented in scope and depth and, for want of a better term, intimacy. New York has a thriving local blogging scene, it should be mentioned, pioneered first on Liza Sabater’s The Daily Gotham, an infrastructure which is fully involved in this effort. If you believe in the transformative power of the Progressive netroots and grassroots, you have a stake in this alliance, and a stake in this fight.

The Issues Agenda Matters

Maureen O’Connell is one of those republicans that seem to pop up in unexpected places; on the one hand, they affect ‘moderation’, on the other, their voting record skews hard to the right. In her case, she’s strongly anti-choice, going so far as to vote for legislation that would jail abortion providers, a position which is deeply alien in this state. Unsurprisingly, she’s proven unwilling to debate on choice (or, for that matter, workers’ rights, also an area in which she’s anything but moderate). Her web site mentions neither issue. Considering that New York has the most liberal laws in the entire nation safeguarding a woman’s right to choose, making this a destination state for women constrained in their reproductive freedom elsewhere, if you care about a woman’s right to choose, this is your fight.

You Matter

We – myself, NYBri, Lipris, Liza, all the other New York Kossacks involved here, Eliot Spitzer, the New York blogs, the state party, the grassroots, everybody – want you involved in this fight. We’re asking for your support, not just because we need it, but because we want you on board. We want you to be able to go to your own state party, your own Democratic representatives, and say “This is happening in New York, and it works. Why not here?”

The state Dems, the grassroots, and the netroots are conducting several ambitious efforts to get Craig Johnson elected. If you’re in New York, your help is needed on the ground. Details are here and here.

If you’re outside of New York, you can take part in something very exciting that we’ve all put together: A blograiser for Craig Johnson we’re calling Raise New York. Modeled on NYBri’s own blograiser (in itself a sign of how things have changed in New York), the basic idea is to bring the fundraising power of the netroots to bear to elect Craig Johnson, who would, by the by, be NYBri’s colleague when the latter gets elected next year, and he will be.

Even if you can’t physically be there on February 1st, you can still take part, because we’re going to liveblog the thing on Dailykos, on The Albany Project, and on my own blog, The Daily Gotham. A special treat: it looks like that will be Eliot’s first direct engagement with the netroots, because he’s going to be there. We’re going to make this the most networked, most open, most on event we can, and get all those social networks we have here in New York – including ten of the top one hundred bloggers – into one physical or virtual space.

So here’s the closer: we need your help, because this is your fight, too, no matter where you live. Can we count on you?

Craig Johnson (D-WFP) has the momentum in the Feb 6 special election for an open New York State Senate seat in the Seventh Senate District in northwestern Nassau County.  Adding to his momentum, the New York Times has just endorsed Craig for State Senate:

The New York Times
Sunday, January 28, 2007
A State Senate Endorsement

The sudden vacancy in the 7th State Senate District has caused both parties to leap in with guns blazing.  When the Republican incumbent, Michael Balboni, quit to join the Spitzer administration as chief of homeland security, the race to succeed him became instantly negative and hugely expensive.

That’s because so much is at stake beyond just control of a single seat in northwest Nassau County – control of the Senate, for instance, where the Republican majority has been nearing the vanishing point, as well as the reform agenda of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who broke with a tradition of gubernatorial nonaggression in such races to appear in an ad hailing the Democratic candidate, Craig Johnson, as an ally in the crusade to fix Albany.

Mr. Johnson, who was elected to the Nassau Legislature in 2000 after the death of the incumbent – his mother, Barbara – is challenging Maureen O’Connell, who became the Nassau County clerk a little over a year ago and now wants to return to Albany, where she served as an assemblywoman since 1998.  With very little time to campaign – the special election in Feb 6 – both sides are running at a frantic pace.

Their ads are studies in negativity, with Mr. Johnson’s campaign accusing Ms. O’Connell of being as anti-choice extremist on reproductive issues, and Ms. O’Connell running a preposterous spot showing a woman tied to railroad tracks about to mowed down by a train.  The train represents taxes, taxes, taxes, specifically the 19-percent increase that County Executive Thomas Suozzi pushed through the Legislature in his first term as part of his utterly sensible – and successful – effort to rescue Nassau’s finances from decades of Republican misrule.

Of the charges being burled back and forth over the airwaves, we find Mr. Johnson’s the more persuasive. Ms. O’Connell does have a troubling record on choice, having taken stands in Albany – like voting against as emergency contraception bill when it was in committee – that infringed on women’s reproductive rights.

Ms. O’Connell’s claims that Mr. Johnson’s taxing madman are, by contrast, unfounded.  The Suozzi tax plan he voted for was a prudent and responsible response to a fiscal mess. He has also assembled a credible record on other issues, including open space preservation.

The race is, though, about something larger – which is the reason the eyes of the whole state are on it.  Governor Spitzer will need the cooperation of the Republican-dominated State Senate if he is going to make progress on the ambitious reform agenda that he has laid out.  Mr. Johnson has vowed to be his ally in the coming battles, while Ms. O’Connell is likely to give reinforcement to the Albany status quo.

For voters who have hopes that Mr. Spitzer will succeed in fixing Albany, as we do, Mr. Johnson is the obvious choice.  We enthusiastically endorse him.

We can’t let up.  You can help.

Sign up to hear about daily volunteer opportunities.

The WFP is running the door-to-door and election day GOTV operation for the Johnson campaign.  Make a donation to help pay for the GOTV program.

Here’s the press release:

MOMENTUM BUILDS: NY TIMES ENDORSES CRAIG JOHNSON
Newspaper Challenges O’Connell’s Credibility on Taxes and Choice

Momentum is building for independent Democrat Craig Johnson’s campaign for State Senate as The New York Times endorsed Johnson over his right-wing Republican opponent, Maureen O’Connell.  An editorial in Sunday’s Timessays:

“Governor Spitzer will need the cooperation of the Republican-dominated State Senate if he is going to make progress on the ambitious reform agenda he has laid out. Mr. Johnson has vowed to be his ally in the coming battles, while Ms. O’Connell is likely to give reinforcement to the Albany status quo.

“For voters who have hopes that Mr. Spitzer will succeed in fixing Albany, as we do, Mr. Johnson is the obvious choice.  We enthusiastically endorse him.”

The Times editorial also debunks O’Connell’s campaign claims:

• Ms. O’Connell negative spot on Craig Johnson’s record on taxes is called “preposterous”
• “Ms. O’Connell claims that Mr. Johnson is a taxing madman are, bycontrast, unfounded”
• Ms. O’Connell, who has tried to deny an anti-choice voting record in the legislature has a record on reproductive health services that the Times calls “troubling”

The 7th Senate District encompasses the entire town of North Hempstead.  It also includes the communities of Elmont, Floral Park, South Floral Park, Stewart Manor, Bellerose, Franklin Square, and part of Hicksville.  Craig Johnson, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, is currently running for the open Senate seat as the Democratic and Working Families Parties candidate.

Johnson has also been endorsed by Governor Eliot Spitzer, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lt. Governor David A. Paterson, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, State Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli, People for the American Way, SEIU Local 32BJ, Communication Workers of America District 1, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) and Union of Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1500.

10 days until Election Day!

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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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(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.

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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As you may know, a Republican-held state Senate seat has opened up in New York, giving the Dems a chance to narrow the GOP’s already-tiny lead in this body (33-28 as of today). A special election will be held on Feb. 6th in the 7th state Senate district on Long Island. Democrats have selected Nassau County Legislator Craig Johnson as our nominee, and from everything I’ve heard, he’s popular, well-liked and considered to be a strong candidate.

This is going to be an incredibly hard-fought race, though, despite this district’s Dem leanings. The state Senate is the last bastion of power for the Republican Party – they won’t just stop at teeth and nails to hold on to this seat. So I just plunked down $100.01 to help Johnson, and I hope you can contribute as well. (ActBlue is not yet activated for NY state candidates, but if want to put “Swing State Project” in the comment box, we can try checking in with the campaign after the election to see how we did. Of course, don’t forget to add a penny for the Internets!)

And if you are in the area and want to help volunteer, you can fill out this form. Most of Johnson’s site appears to be held over from his prior election campaign, so I’m not certain if the volunteer form is still working properly – though I can tell you for a fact that my donation went through without a hitch. No word yet on whether there will be any virtual phone-banking, but if I hear anything, I’ll relay it, of course.

This is the first battle of the new year. Let’s show `em that we aren’t resting on our laurels.

UPDATE: NYBri says that folks can also give via the NY Democratic Party, and that allegedly 100% of money given through this page will go to Johnson’s race.

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.