Yesterday, at a press conference at his legal office in Utica, Leon Koziol formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to New York State's 24th District seat in the House of Representatives.
Koziol promised to promote issues that appeal to right wing voters, such as opposition to abortion and support for efforts to make same-sex unions illegal.
Koziol also claimed that he has received $22,000 in campaign donations so far, although Koziol had filed no such information before the end of 2005, and filings since that time are not publicly available. The $22,000 Koziol claims still places him at less than half of the $49,000 that the campaign of rival Democrat Les Roberts had collected before December 31, 2005, and suggests that Koziol will be fighting an uphill battle for the Democratic nomination.
So far, Koziol's announcement has received little attention from the press or blogosphere, with a short blurb from Channel 10 News, a brief article from the Little Falls Times newspaper in Herkimer, and a longer article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch today.
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4 comments:
Your blog is a joke. Nobody even knows Les Roberts. He stands no chance. You continue to talk about his $50,000. You obviously don't are out of your league kid. Arcuri and Koziol will spend atleast $200,000-300,000 each before this campaign is over. That, my friend, is a fact. You are doing nothing more than dividing the party. Stick to the issues, and stop attacking other democrats. Then, and only then, will Les have a chance to atleast gain some respect. This is a classic example of why Oneida County (with all its corruption) has always held this seat. You guys don't learn your lessons. Stick to the issues, and know when you are in over your head.
Listen, anonymous, I've put my name to this blog, which is more than you are willing to do.
Your claim that no one "even knows Les Roberts" doesn't fit with the facts available to you. Les Roberts has done more than any other candidate to make himself available to be known to the voters. He's the only candidate with a web site. He's the only candidate who has been making public appearances throughout the district as a candidate for Congress. As of December 21, 2005, the last date we have fundraising information for, he's the only Democratic candidate to have received money from individual voters.
These things are important. These things are facts.
I'm not attacking other candidates by pointing out the facts. Les Roberts has been sharing facts about his campaign from day one. Other candidates have not. Michael Arcuri has become more outgoing of late, and Bruce Tytler is about to begin his campaign, so I expect to have a lot to report about them in the weeks to come.
I'm not so sure about Leon Koziol, and this impression is based upon my interactions with his campaign. I've asked the Koziol campaign for information, and they've either ignored my requests or taken an extremely long time to address them.
What I've seen from the Koziol campaign, if we can really call it that, has not been striking, and whether you want to believe it or not, I have actually pulled a lot of punches when it comes to Leon Koziol, because I don't want to be negative, and want to give Koziol as much opportunity as I can to redeem himself as a candidate in this race. So far, at every opportunity, Leon Koziol has not taken those opportunities.
Michael Arcuri and Bruce Tytler have yet to formally announce themselves as candidates, and so we all have a lot to learn about them, and of course I myself am largely in the dark about their maneuverings. However, it is important to note whatever small amounts of information these two campaigns are making public.
Anonymous writer, you tell me that I'm in over my head. I'm a Democratic voter in this congressional district, and I'm trying to get and share information about the candidates who are competing to represent my political party in the general congressional election this fall. I consider myself to be doing my civic duty in this respect, which is certainly more than you're doing, hiding behind the false name "Anonymous" and declining to add any actual information to the discussion.
If you are so much more in the know than I am when it comes to the 24th District campaign, I suggest you start your own blog, and tell share your wisdom with the rest of the 24th District Democrats. Enrich the debate, and identify yourself. If you can't or won't do that, I don't see that you have very strong grounds to criticize me.
When it comes to issues, I can only stick to them as much as the candidates do. Les Roberts has discussed many issues in depth, and Michael Arcuri has made a few forays into some important issues. Bruce Tytler has not said anything about where he stands on the issues, and Leon Koziol has positioned himself to the right of Joseph Lieberman.
I've discussed the issues to the extent that the information available allows me to. I'm not pretending to be a Democratic Party insider, as you are. I'm just a guy, but as a voter I'm a guy who's entitled to write about whatever he finds of relevance in this campaign.
Don't like it? Tough.
I'll continue to call it as I see it all the way through to Election Day, whether you like it or not.
Sorry 24, but your guy just doesn't have any traction. Impressive start-up money ok, but have you heard him speak? What local dems can he call upon to circulate his petitions? Is his operation all paid staff? Is there a single county chair, including Chenango County his home base, who thinks he has a chance?
Ah, here we go with the "your guy" stuff again.
Les Roberts is not "my guy". He's the candidate who has, by far, the most money, the most information publicly available, the highest profile (do any of the other candidates in our district have articles written about them in the national international press on a weekly basis?), and a campaign headquarters that anyone can walk into - not to mention a web site, which is important to those of us ordinary Democrats who aren't on speaking terms with each and every County chair in the District.
I have heard Les Roberts speak. He's a good speaker, and a good writer, and gave a better speech than I saw Mike Arcuri give last week. Arcuri seems to have a natural charismatic ability, but his talk was quite rambling. I've talked to Bruce Tytler on the phone, and he seems coherent, but he hasn't given any speeches as part of the campaign.
As for Koziol, well, I asked him for information about where and when he would make his announcement, but he just didn't get the information to me. I asked him for a copy of his speech so that I could read it, but he just didn't get the information to me. Frankly, Koziol's campaign seems very disorganized.
If you really know as much as you pretend to know about Central New York Democrats, then you know that the County Democratic Committees here are actually very weak organizations compared to other regions of the state. Back room politics plays some role here, but I suspect it's not as big as you think it is.
Now, I've got two anonymous comments here suggesting that I'm just full of it, and this blog doesn't have it straight.
Well, the best counterargument I can make to that is that the both of you are here, writing in response to what I have to say. Why? Because so far, there isn't much else about the campaign online, except for very scattered and scanty newspapers, and the Les Roberts campaign web site.
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