Then, for over a month, there was silence. Now, over on the New York Liberal discussion boards, a person identifying himself or herself only as "tampa813", has left the following message:
"Campaign Koziol will be hosting a fundraiser on Sunday March 26, 2006 at "The Hartford Queen", Commercial Dr. New Hartford, NY from 3:00pm-5:00pm.
All are welcome and tickets can be purchased at the door for only $20.
For further information, please contact Campaign Koziol @ CampaignKoziol@aol.com or by phone at (315) 735-2271"
Here's the thing: Leon Koziol still doesn't have any paperwork filed with the FEC. That means that the Koziol for Congress campaign, if it exists, has brought in next to nothing in donations - if anything at all. The laws of campaigning are very clear on this matter: As soon as a candidate brings in $5,000, paperwork must be filed. In practice, many candidates file well before bringing in $5,000 in donations - witness Brian Goodell and Jeff Miller, who filed paperwork for 2006 before making early withdrawals from the race.
So, for now, the Koziol for Congress campaign, while publicly announced, has no legal status. Will he ever make it up to bat? Will the fundraiser at the Hartford Queen even break even?
What the heck is Leon Koziol up to, anyway?
6 comments:
Dear Jon:
As a campaign committee member, I would like to address your concerns. Although it seems you have taken the approach of assuming the worst in people, I will still show you and your board the respect that we would appreciate in return.
Mr. Koziol is aware of the FEC requirements and is well within his rights. The committee has the appropriate banking accounts and did file with the FEC. There was a problem with the filing and it is actually being re-filed today.
As for the sneaky comment about hoping the fundraiser "breaks even", I shouldn't acknowledge it, but will. This is actually more of a get together than a fundraiser, seeing as Koziol is a man of the people (hence, only $20 tickets). Secondly and like I said before, I respect and enjoy reading your blog, but before making "assumptions", please have the respect to contact us, unless you are still on that whole "Koziol failed the contact test" trip.
CampaignKoziol@aol.com
(315) 735-2271
Yes,
I am still on that "trip" actually.
I tried several times to get in contact with the Koziol campaign, and none of those attempts were returned with an appropriate contact. All I got, after all my requests for information and an interview appointment, was a single television commercial emailed to me - and it wasn't even really a campaign commercial.
It's not sneaky for me to write comments out in the open. I've never been sneaky about why I am, and honestly, if a lawyer like Leon Koziol can't deal with the simple rhetoric of an ordinary voter like myself, then he's going to have a rough campaign.
If you don't like voters making assumptions about Leon Koziol, then that's too bad. Get used to it. Voters look at the available information about candidates, and make assumptions, and then make their votes based on their assumptions. It is the job of the candidate to artfully provide information about himself so as to encourage voters to make positive assumptions instead of negative assumptions. So far, the Koziol campaign is doing a very bad job at that.
Your campaign's AOL.com email address is a case in point. I want you to consider for a second the kinds of negative assumptions that email address provokes in my mind. It's a small thing, but Mr. Koziol's campaign is, so far, made up of a huge universe of such small things.
You know, when I have a "get together", I invite people over to my house, and I supply them with food and drink, and ask nothing in return. I don't ask them for twenty dollars.
It's a fundraiser. You've got someone leaving anonymous messages over at a discussion board on another web site, calling this event a "fundraiser". Don't get upset at me for using the word. If you can't make the event successful enough to actually raise funds, then that makes it a failed fundraiser, not a "get-together".
I see that you've picked up on the fact that I don't have a lot of respect for the Koziol campaign. What you don't seem to understand is that you can't demand that I show you respect. You have to earn my respect.
When I started out, I gave Leon Koziol the benefit of the doubt, and in return he failed to respond to my outreach. In that respect, Leon Koziol has not earned my respect.
Leon Koziol's office has my contact information. I gave it to them myself. If Mr. Koziol wants to try again to earn my respect, he can get in touch with me.
I'm not going to go chasing all over the district after Mr. Koziol, begging him for attention as if I'm some kind of lost puppy. In a political campaign, it's supposed to work the other way around.
Get it?
Too funny
Dear Jon:
Fair enough. You most certainly are entitled to your opinion, and Mr. Koziol has no problem with that, however, this blog has become a source of information in the 24th district race, which I may add is something you should be proud of. But with that comes a responsibility. You say Koziol has limited information out there, well "limited" doesn't equal "bad".
It is early in the campaign, whether you understand that or not, I have been doing this for a very, very long time. Mr. Koziol is running a predominately grassroots campaign, against a fellow Oneida County Democrat (ARcuri) who has been annointed by the local media. As you know, this will be tough, but in the end we will be victorious.
All we ask is that you be "fair" in your reporting (that is what it has become, "reporting"). To illustrate how this is done, I will start first...Les Roberts was on First Look WIBX950 this morning, as was Koziol, Roberts sounded like an intelligent man and well qualified. These sentiments were also shared by Mr. Koziol and we look forward to a good debate of the issues.
Unhuh...Maybe a committee did file, but did Mr. Koziol file a personal statement of candidacy?
I mean, Bruce Tytler filed one with a wrong district and it was accepted. And now it's corrected. They even filed scribbled handwriting and it was ok.
Without a personal statement of candidacy, you can't have an authorized committee because you aren't a registered candidate. Is Mr. Koziol raging against the machine here?
Please be more specific about the "problem" so we don't think you are just making excuses and inventing a story.
just for your info, the Utica OD mentions that the "fundraiser" for Koziol is also a "booksigning".
I guess he really is trying to change careers.
Post a Comment