People who like to keep their heads down may not understand it, but I regard it as a good thing to be caught in the middle, with shots coming from all sides. I don't want to seem too beholden to any one of the Democratic campaigns, but at the same time I don't want to work to create an artificial system for equivalent writing about each campaign. After all, the different campaigns have different merits - and are each releasing different kinds of information. I can't create equality where equality doesn't exist, and so I have to write about what comes up as it comes up, and hope that it all sorts out in the end.
So, it was with satisfaction that I read the last three comments left here at Take Back New York's 24th. Each comment offered a critique of my coverage of a particular candidate, but none of the comments were offered from the same perspective. One comment called upon me to offer more probing criticism of Michael Arcuri's campaign. Another comment chastised me for my conclusion that Les Roberts is running a strong campaign. The third comment took called my criticism of Sherwood Boehlert's poor attendance to his own health "a cheap shot".
I've received sharp responses to my articles about Bruce Tytler and Leon Koziol too, and that's great. A lot of these comments sound curiously close to the various candidates themselves, and almost everybody here likes to comment anonymously, but that's fine with me. What matters most to me is that there is a healthy discussion about this congressional race.
I'm a Democrat, and I want a Democrat to win this race, but I haven't made a final decision to lend the support of this blog to any one of the Democratic candidates. Leon Koziol has quickly dropped out of the running for my personal endorsement, due to his right wing attitudes and weird, personally-obsessive, style of campaigning.
I believe that I can best serve the campaigns of Bruce Tytler, Mike Arcuri, and Les Roberts by providing information about their activities and positions, but also providing criticism when criticism is needed. Each one of these three campaigns is in serious need of some prodding to strengthen its public outreach campaign - and that means more than glossy advertisements on television and meetings with county Democratic committees. If I rub these campaigns the wrong way every now and then, I don't mind, so long as it gets the campaigns to work harder in compensation.
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4 comments:
I think there are three simple questions that should be asked of each Democratic candidate.
One. Are you going to run full time for this office or not? These are the big leagues and require a full time campaign to be successful.
Two. Will you support the winner of the primary or the last remaining Democratic candidate publicly, personally and loudly? The questions raises the issue of whether this is about the party and issues or whether this is a personal quest for glory.
Three. If you are not the Democratic nominee, will you quickly give all your remaining campaign funds to the Democratic nominee who remains or wins the primary? This is a heavily Republican District and it's going to take a huge amount of money to be successful against Boehlert as the incumbent or even a new Republican face.
Once these basics are out of the way, things like positions on issues and personal strengths can come into the picture. Before that, it's really a question of whether you are a credible candidate worthy of the support of 24th District voters.
Why don't you call or write each of the candidates and report back the results to us Jon. That would be a huge first step.
If by some miracle Koziol were to be the nominee, should the other Democrat candidates be held to such a pledge?
You know, that's a great point. As much as I don't want to be represented by a Republican, I think it would be even worse to be represented by a Republican in Democrat's clothing. Leon Koziol seems too dangerous to deserve my support, and I don't think I could bring myself to vote for him in the general election.
Mr. Koziol is not a candidate.
Even if Mr. Koziol were a candidate, everyone else could say they would support anyone but Mr. Koziol.
But the question begs a bigger point. Why should anyone give money to the multitude of actual Democratic candidates if they don't know it will go toward creating a Democratic winner?
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