Establishment Candidates Don't Get Aragorn Son of Arathorn

It's the day after Labor Day, what some call the official start of the congressional campaign season. Those who have been reading this blog for awhile can predict I think of that notion. Any candidate who isn't working as hard as possible before the first week in September won't have much chance of gathering sufficient momentum before Election Day.

Across the United States, congressional candidates have been working all summer long to communicate their message to the people. Here in the 24th District too, there have been candidates... but I really can't say what Ray Meier and Michael Arcuri stand for, other than themselves. Can you? What's the theme of their campaigns? What are the ideals, other than "elect me"?

Ray Meier's vapid stands are an easy target. His level of passion rarely seems to exceed that of Droopy the Dog, yet he manages to follow the Republican leadership into every crazy blind hole they've created anyway. Meier plays the game of a Color-By-Numbers Republican, taking all the positions that politicians in the Republican Party are supposed to take.

The same can't fairly be said of Mike Arcuri. On many issues, he doesn't seem to have much of a position at all. Here we are in September, and the Arcuri campaign is still working with the same old issue sound bites it released for a Utica Observer-Dispatch questionnaire way back in the springtime. The last time that the Arcuri campaign put a press release online was back in July. No, an announcement that Michael Arcuri's trading cards are finally available doesn't count.

I was given two of those Arcuri trading cards, along with a palm card, last month. There isn't a single thing on the palm card, not a word, not even a symbolic image, that indicates where Michael Arcuri stands on any important issue at all. The palm card doesn't even mention that Arcuri is a Democrat. Oh, it mentions that he likes reading and woodworking, and that he has done some Tae Kwon Do. But issues that are important to the district? Nothing.

The trading cards don't get much better. The two ones I've got have pretty photographs of Arcuri, and some interesting trivia about Ontario and Tompkins County. They have biographical information about Michael Arcuri, but what do they have to tell voters about why they ought to vote for Arcuri?

The following are the two "issue" statements offered on these little cards:

For the Ontario County card: "Mike Arcuri respects Congressman Sherwood Boehlert's record as an environmentalist."

For the Tompkins County card: "Mike Arcuri believes that investing in our cildren's education is essential to our economic future."

Michael Arcuri believes that the children are our future? Well, Whitney Houston said the same thing years ago, and look how far it got her.

It seems that the Arcuri campaign is counting on coasting to victory on the coat tails of the unstoppable Clinton and Spitzer campaigns, combined with the gargantuan negative ratings of the Republican Congress. Maybe that strategy will work, but I have my doubts. Given that the campaigns for governor and senator won't be anywhere close to close, many Democrats may decide that they don't really need to turn out to vote on Election Day.

Michael Arcuri might want to stop to reflect that it takes some genuine passion and idealism, not gimmicky handouts, to get voters interested in a campaign. It also takes a demonstration of passion and idealism to get significant assistance from outside the district.

Professional Congress watchers keep repeating Rahm Emanuel's line that this campaign is being fought hard, but when they do so, the details to support that contention are always suspiciously missing. The pretense is wearing thin.

Movie lovers may take note of the fact that our neighbors to the north in the 23rd District are getting real star treatment, thanks to the idealistic and scrappy campaign being run by Dr. Bob Johnson, who has been building support slowly but surely since the day after Election Day in 2004. Viggo Mortensen, the actor who played Aragorn, Son of Arathorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be appearing at fundraisers with Dr. Johnson three days in a row in different locations across the 23rd district at the end of this week.

Michael Arcuri can't get a Democrat or progressive activist with national standing to campaign with him for even an hour at a time. There's a reason for that - Arcuri hasn't given anybody anything to believe in.

Washington D.C. consultants can write all they want to about how this is one of the most contested congressional elections this year, but the plain fact is that there isn't really much in the election that's being contested.

When Tae Kwon Do and woodworking get more attention in a congressional campaign than the war in Iraq, you know that the campaign isn't about ideas. Whoopee.

I'll vote for Michael Arcuri, but it won't be because of Arcuri. It will be because I want to see a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, in the hopes that Democrats other than Arcuri will take a leadership role in setting America back on a positive course.

Ray Meier Says Continue Iraq As So Far

Republican Ray Meier wants to be our representative in Congress. Is he qualified? Some say that his time in the New York State Senate is qualification enough - though with Ray Meier's help, our State Senate has been rated as the most disfunctional in the nation.

I say that we look at the more basic qualifications. For example, is Ray Meier in touch with reality? A congressional representative, if he's going to actually represent us, has to know what reality is so that he's not just representing some kind of fantasy that he's made up in his head.

Sadly, Ray Meier doesn't seem to meet this basic qualification. On the most important issue of the day, that mess of the war in Iraq, Ray Meier is living in a land of pure fantasy. Here's what Ray Meier had to say about the Iraq War this week: Meier said that ending the war would be a mistake because "we need to suppress independent militias and outside insurgents, as we have been so far."

When I saw Ray Meier saying this, I had to hold my head in both hands in order to prevent myself from screaming. The problem with what the Republicans have been doing in Iraq is that we have not been able to suppress independent militias and outside insurgents. See, the Republican plan has been a failure for over three years now. Three years into this mess, it just keeps getting worse.

When Bush got America into Iraq, there were no independent militias and outside insurgents to suppress. None. The war has created them, and our efforts there have only increased the numbers and powers of the militias and insurgents.

So, Ray Meier tells us that we should just continue the Iraq War "as we have been so far". What has the Iraq War led us to so far? While we slept last night, an attack by those same insurgents that Ray Meier claims we have been successful in suppressing killed 64 civilians and wounded hundreds in just a matter of 30 minutes.

Wake up, Ray! The Iraqi militias and insurgents are not suppressed. America can't just keep on going down the same road of increasing death and destruction.

This violent insanity needs to be stopped, and Ray Meier has proven that he has no clue about how to do that. Heck, Ray Meier doesn't even understand that there's a problem.

Why doesn't Ray Meier go to Iraq and visit the families of those 64 people killed in a half hour in Iraq last night, and then come back here and tell us there's no problem?

If the Iraqi militias and insurgents are really suppressed, as Ray Meier says they are, it ought to be safe, right? Go on, Ray. What do you have to afraid of?

Lazy National Coverage of Arcuri vs. Meier Race

This year, we in New York's 24th congressional district have the opportunity to learn a great deal about the way that politics works - and the way that political reporting works as well. We can watch the way that the political organizations work here in our district - one of the top targets for Republicans and Democrats alike this year, and we can also watch the way that the national news media does its work in reporting on this race.

So far, it all seems to be happening from afar, and that's especially the case for the political reporting in the national press. It started back during the primary season, when political journals like The Cook Political Report told us back here which candidates the voters favored - before the voters even really had a chance to learn who the candidates were and what they stood for. The "reporting" on our congressional race seemed to be based on nothing more than a few telephone calls to insiders in organizations like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The remote reporting continues now, as national political journalists seem to regard the story of our congressional race not so much about the candidates and the issues we care about here as the way that our district can be used as a tool for the national Republican and Democratic parties. This week, for example, Devlin Barrett wrote an article for the Associated Press about the advertisement Michael Arcuri ran blasting Ray Meier's refusal to support a raise in the minimum wage. The primary angle of the article: DCCC spends money in 24th District.

The second angle: The DCCC money pays for an ad playing in Syracuse, Utica and Binghampton.

The third angle: Arcuri will refuse a pay raise. Meier accepted a pay raise, after voting against it, and Arcuri accepted a pay raise.

The fourth angle: A little something about the minimum wage... What was it again?.. Oh, yes, the whole point of the TV ad: Michael Arcuri supports a raise in the minimum wage, and Ray Meier is against raising the minimum wage.

The minimum wage angle, as far as the people of the 24th district are concerned, is the most important point. We none of us will pay lower taxes on account of a reduction in the salary of members of Congress, state senators, or district attorneys. An increase in the minimum wage would affect us all.

So, why didn't Devlin Barrett emphasize that issue, and talk about how it would impact our district? Why didn't he write about how people in our district feel about this issue?

The answer is simple and sad: Pure laziness. Reporting on the minimum wage issue as it affects our district might have required Devlin Barrett to leave his office and actually come to our district. These days, it seems, reporting on congressional campaigns, even really important ones like the one in our district, is mostly done through telephone calls, emails, and a web browser. The sources that count aren't the voters in our district, but the power brokers who look at our district as a piece of territory to be conquered.

It's easy, it's quick, and most people in the state and national audience won't know the difference. For those who actually want to know about the race and its issues, it's poor service. This lazy reporting also leads congressional candidates to follow the lead of the political reporters, and spend more of their time courting the favor of national power brokers than they do reaching out to voters here in our district.

The problems in our political system are accompanied by problems in our journalistic infrastructure. If we want to actually be represented in Washington, and not just have the 24th district serve as a tool for national political interests, then we need to find a way to have our local voices heard through this campaign. Doing so involves reading the national news media with a more critical eye - and talking back when the only news they have to report about our district is the babble bouncing around the echo chamber of reporters' offices in Washington D.C.

Will Ray Meier Take Arcuri's Pay Raise Pledge?

Michael Arcuri is serious about standing up for American workers. That's why Arcuri has pledged to not accept any pay raise as a member of the United States House of Representatives until the federal minimum wage is increased. Here's the ad from the DCCC that highlights this pledge:



It would be easy to take the cynical approach to this pledge and say, "That's an easy promise for Mike Arcuri to make. After all, everyone knows that the Democrats are going to take back Congress this year, and one of the first things they'll do is raise the minimum wage!"

Well, isn't that the point? Arcuri knows that, if he is voted in to help the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives, the American people will finally get their pay raise, after 10 years of being denied by the Republicans. Fair is fair.

Will Ray Meier make the same pledge? You know he won't, and the reason is simple: Ray Meier is with Tom DeLay's political party. Meier is one of the new kinds of Republicans, the Republicans who, like Newt Gingrich, would rather shut down the federal government and cast America adrift in dangerous times than betray their corporate taskmasters.

Michael Arcuri Makes Good Impression in Trumansburg

On Saturday, Democratic congressional candidate Michael Arcuri came to Trumansburg for the annual Trumansburg Fair. The fair is an old one, going back to the 1800s, and has become the de facto Tompkins County fair.

In a well-organized effort, local activists handed out information about Mike Arcuri's campaign for Congress up and down Main Street, while Arcuri himself walked in the parade along with a group of supporters. Afterwards, Arcuri spoke with local voters at the fair itself.

Yesterday, I spoke some people who had been there on Saturday, and talked with Arcuri at the fair. They said that they had a generally favorable impression of Arcuri, and believe he is an electable candidate.

Did Ray Meier even show up for the fair or to walk in the parade? I didn't see him there.

Ray Meier's Iraq War Plan Is All Talk

Wondering what Ray Meier's plan for ending the Iraq War and bringing American soldiers home safely is? Well, wonder no more. Ray Meier has revealed the core of his plan for winning the Iraq War: Meier thinks that the way to end the war is just to talk about it differently.

It's enough to make you want to slap your forehead. When asked by MSNBC what mistakes he thinks George W. Bush has made in Iraq, Ray Meier has only this to say:

"Where I would fault the president is: he needs to explain to the American people what the goal is, and to talk about the commitment needed to do it. That has been one of the problems."

That's it. That's really it. All Ray Meier thinks President Bush has done wrong in Iraq is that he hasn't found a good way to talk to the American people about the war. Meier seems to think that, if only Bush could find some new talking points about Iraq, everything would turn around, America would win the war in no time flat, and all the glories that the Republicans told us this war would bring would magically come true.

What Ray Meier is incapable of understanding is that the problem with the Iraq War is not that President Bush has not explained his plan adequately. The problem with the Iraq War is that President Bush does not have an adequate plan. The Republicans never have had an adequate plan for this war.

President Bush can't explain what the goal of the Iraq War is because there is no achievable goal for the United States of America in this war. That's not the kind of rosy, feel-good news that American voters are used to hearing, but it's clearly the truth. Politicians who cannot accept this reality are not qualified for public office.

Ray Meier just doesn't get it. He's suffering from the same delusions that caused George W. Bush to start this bloody and disastrous war. That tells me that, even if he knew what he knows now, Ray Meier would vote to start the Iraq War all over again.

This isn't just Monday morning quarterbacking. It's an essential issue in the contest over New York State's 24th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, because given America's recent history, it's likely that our next representative will be asked once again to vote to approve a rush into an unwise war. Ray Meier has made it clear that he would vote yes for such a war, and that's the most important reason to cast a vote against Ray Meier on Election Day.

Reality on Ray Meier, Mike Arcuri and Jobs

It's Friday - almost time to enter that fantasy land of the weekend, that time when we operate under the wonderful, temporary illusion that we control our own lives, and that we're free to do as we choose. Of course, we're not. We all need to work, and most off us work in jobs.

Those of us who are adults aren't always happy about our jobs, but we recognize that they're essential. We don't have parents who will take care of us, and as parents we have children who depend upon our work to take care of them. Jobs are at the heart of our security - and the idea that our jobs could be taken away from us is terrifying.

Politicians know how people feel about jobs, and they're willing to exploit those emotions for the sake of political gain. I realized this in watching an advertisement created by Republican Ray Meier in which he promises that, if he's elected to Congress, "jobs will always be job one".

This is something candidates for Congress love to talk about. They love to promise that, if they're sent to the House of Representatives, they will bring a flood of jobs pouring into the home district, whereas their opponent would be absolutely incapable of doing so. It's an easy promise to make, because it requires no proof.

As a genuine campaign issue, it's a crock. Of course members of the House of Representatives work to create pork barrel legislation to pour money into their home districts, and to create local projects that create jobs. The problem is that ALL members of Congress do this, in every district in the nation. Every politician elected to the House, whether Republican or Democrat, will push for bills that create local jobs. Michael Arcuri would do it, and Ray Meier would do it - without thought of the national interest, when it comes down to it. The nation doesn't elect House members, after all - local districts do.

In the end, this issue is not one that differentiates candidates from each other. We have absolutely no reason to believe that Arcuri or Meier would be better at bringing pork barrel to our district. In fact, we have every reason to believe that both of them would be fairly pathetic at it for quite some time. As new members of the House of Representatives, neither Arcuri nor Meier will have much power, and there's nothing to do about that except to wait for whomever wins this year to become a more senior member of Congress, as the years pass by and they get more grey hairs. That's not a rational jobs program, but it's really the best they can do.

Though people love to hear about how new members of Congress will create jobs, the reality is a little bit more sobering. New jobs are not going to come pouring into our area unless the basic economic conditions that enable job growth improve. That's really a national issue, not an issue of districts competing against each other for scraps of earmarked projects.

Whether you vote for Ray Meier or Michael Arcuri, don't choose a candidate on the basis of promises about bringing jobs to the area. Look to see which candidate has the greater capacity to promote wise, sustainable economic growth for all America.

Michael Arcuri to Visit Trumansburg Fair

Meet Michael Arcuri this Saturday at the Trumansburg Fair. Mike Arcuri will be appearing in the parade down Main Street Trumansburg, which starts at 5:00 PM, and will also be available at the Trumansburg fairgrounds to meet voters and answer their questions.

This is the kind of contact that's at the heart of the best tradition of campaigning. Thanks to the Arcuri for Congress for campaign for showing up.

Is Ray Meier showing up? Oh, I hope so. I'll be back from my business trip late Friday night, and I know my kids will want to see the parade. I'll be there.

Note that Trumansburg is going through its Main Street Project construction this summer, so it will probably be best if you park and watch the parade from the southern end of town.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Mike Arcuri Blogs

I'm working this week in a place where the hotel's Internet access system is not in good shape. It's a struggle to get to any web page, or to send information out, so I'm finding that I have to exercise some economy in the amount of work that I'm doing online. As a result, my appreciation for the Internet has grown quite a bit in over the last couple of days.

So, I've been mulling over the importance of blogs to a congressional campaign - and to a member of Congress. Someone left a message here last night questioning why people who leave comments here would believe that Michael Arcuri would pay attention to what they have to say. The truth is, I don't know whether the Arcuri for Congress campaign and the Meier for Congress have people who go out online to see what people are saying about the candidates, and make a periodical report back to the campaign committee. If they don't have anyone doing that job, they're making a mistake.

I'm not saying that a blog like this one has much influence in a traditional sense. However, an intelligent candidate will use resources like blogs, and the comments that are written on them, as check on the slanted vision of reality that can be created inside a campaign. An intelligent candidate would want to know how other people perceive the campaign.

When I look at the blogs covering the 24th district, I see a wave of turmoil hitting the Democrats in Oneida County, right in the middle of the campaign.

I see Democratic bloggers suddenly quitting. I see blogs disappearing. I see Democrats writing messages indicating a schism in the county's party, talking about Democrats who are loyal, and those who are not.

I see that, not long after Bob Hyde, fanatic supporter of Michael Arcuri, announces he won't be writing about the Arcuri-Meier contest anymore, the pro-Arcuri blog written under the pseudonym YouGoMike is grinding to a halt. The blog writer suggests that threats of some kind have something to do with it.

Over at http://michaelarcuri.wordpress.com/, the blog has been deleted.

The National Journal recently increased the ranking of our congressional contest here in New York's 24th District. We were the 16th hottest race in the nation. Now, we're reported to be the 11th hottest.

Democratic bloggers ought to be flocking to write about Michael Arcuri, against Ray Meier. They're not. Those blogs that have been around are stumbling apart, shutting down, or being taken out.

Something about this smells.

Michael Arcuri Campaign Web Site Improves

Let's give credit where credit is due. Over the last couple days, the Arcuri for Congress campaign web site has been adjusted to remove its weakest elements.

The link to the page urging voters to stay tuned, for months on end, for Arcuri for Congress trading cards is gone. It seems that no one every really got tuned in to the idea of collecting cards about Mike Arcuri.

The events calendar that had no events has also been taken down. That's not the perfect solution to the problem - it would have been better to put events up on the calendar - but at least action has been taken.

A link to the online competition the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has set up between congressional candidates, with an opportunity for us all to vote in favor of attention for the Arcuri campaign, has also been added to the web site. Many of us may feel uncomfortable having to beg the DCCC for attention in this way, but that's the way that the DCCC works. Michael Arcuri's campaign chose to muscle out his Democratic competitors with the help of the DCCC, so this kind of scrabble for scraps from the DCCC is what we're stuck with.

Though the Arcuri for Congress campaign web site is still not as strong as it could be, it's still a good sign that these changes have been made. These changes indicate that, perhaps, the Arcuri campaign finally understands that the Internet is an important campaign medium. These changes also suggest that the Arcuri campaign understands that its pattern of communication with voters up until now has been a problem.

Acknowledging the problem won't make it go away, but it does make improvement possible. That's more hope than I've had for the Arcuri campaign in a long while.

A Report on Mike Arcuri's Visit to Trumansburg

A couple days ago, I let you all know about Michael Arcuri's coming visit to Trumansburg - it would be about 6 hours ago, now, at the time I was on my way to the Syracuse airport to start this week's business trip. Given that I couldn't be there, I asked if someone who did attend would let me know what the event was like.

About 3 hours ago, the following message arrived in my email box, from a politically active Democrat from Trumansburg:

"I went to the Arcuri talk. After listening to him with an open mind, I'm left feeling a little more pissed off than before. Before, I would read his weak website statement on Iraq, and wonder if someone else wrote it, and hope that he was actually for a timetable. Nope. He said he thought we should redeploy troups to the perimeter of the country - then we could easily send special forces back in for strategic strikes. I said that wasn't good enough, we have to get out, the American people want us out. No answer. Someone asked if he was in favor of Conyers HR635 and if he would investigate wether there were grounds for impeachment. Nope. Someone asked him about economic revitalization of the district - he tried to change the subject to repairing roads - the question was a little over his head.

I don't know why I'm telling you this. I guess because you asked for a report on your blog. I hope he wins. I'll vote for him. I'd vote for a dead fish if thats what the DCCC put on the ballot. I was just hoping for a little inspiration for the phone campaign ya know? A woman from the State Democratic Party spoke a little about the phone campaign. Fortunealtly, the way it works is you call and ask if they support Hillary Clinton and Elliot Spitzer and if they intend to vote. If you get 3 yeses you say thanks, bye and mark em down so we can keep calling them up until the election to make sure they get to the polls. Supposedly this is, the most efficient way to get votes. So I wouldn't have to convince anybody what a great guy Mike Arcuri is."

If anyone else who was at the event has anything to say about it, I'd love to hear more. The same goes for the Democrats over in Caroline. Michael Arcuri was over there too, just a bit before his Trumansburg appearance. I wonder if he got the same kind of questioning there.

Michael Arcuri To Sneak Into Trumansburg

Okay, that's a pretty sneaky title for this blog entry, but let me tell you why I'm using the word "sneak" to describe how Mike Arcuri is coming into my village. I pay attention to this congressional race pretty closely, but until not too long ago, I had no idea that Michael Arcuri had any plans to come to Trumansburg tomorrow.

This morning, I passed by a notice of the event recently stapled up outside a local bar. This afternoon, I got an email about the event. Before that, there was no sign that Arcuri was planning to come.

There was not a word of Arcuri's visit in the Trumansburg Free Press, the widely read local paper. Oh, the community calendar in the paper tells me that there will be a butterfly hike at the Cayuga Nature Center just down the road, and that the Trumansburg Colorguard Boosters club will have a bottle and can drive, along with a Chicken BBQ from 11:00 to 2:00. But word of Arcuri's campaign coming to the village? Nothing about that.

The campaign of Mike Sylvia, the Libertarian candidate for Congress, got an editorial in the Free Press this week. Sylvia also got an entire article devoted just to his campaign. Neither even mentioned that Michael Arcuri even exists. Oh, Michael Arcuri got mentioned in the paper, all right. Someone wrote in to the paper criticizing Arcuri for taking a donation from Skip Anderson. That letter was published. There hasn't been a single pro-Arcuri letter in the paper all year long. Does the Arcuri for Congress campaign have a plan to counter the negative letter? I doubt it. Does the Arcuri campaign even know that an anti-Arcuri letter was published in our paper? I wouldn't be surprised if they were completely ignorant of it.

Well how about the Arcuri for Congress campaign web site? Is there any news there to let people know that Michael Arcuri will be coming to Trumansburg tomorrow? You know very well there isn't. The last time Michael Arcuri's online events calendar had an event on it was in June - and there was just one event for the entire month of June posted there. According to Michael Arcuri's online campaign calendar, the campaign won't be doing a damned thing for the rest of the year.

Yet, here Mike Arcuri is, coming to Trumansburg. How do I reconcile these two incompatible pictures, one of Arcuri doing nothing and another of Arcuri doing something right in front of my eyes?

The only conclusion I can come to is that Michael Arcuri is doing this on purpose: He wants to keep his campaign activities secret. Why else would he keep his campaign web site so obviously bare? Why else would he fail to inform local newspapers that he would be making an official campaign visit to Trumansburg, a visit that's open to the public?

I've seen this strategy before, and whenever I've seen it I've watched it fail. Whenever I see a candidate try the stealth campaigning approach, I think back to the campaign of Mike Bass for Cayuga County District Attorney a few years ago. When I asked Bass what his strategy was, he said that people from the New York State Democratic Committee had advised him to hold back from campaigning until the last minute, and then let loose with a whole bunch of advertisements and appearances in the last three weeks of the campaign season. He'd take his opponent by surprise. His support would surge. The key, he told me, was secrecy in his campaign until he opened it up.

What happenend? Mike Bass never surged. The Republican incumbent, James Vargason, is still in office. The Seabiscuit strategy of purposefully coming from behind did not work.

What is Michael Arcuri afraid of? Is he afraid that people will actually show up to his campaign events, and that he'll have to actually answer questions he hadn't expected? Well, tough. This is not a campaign for dogcatcher we're talking about, here. It's time that Michael Arcuri put on his big boy pants and started letting the public know when and where he's campaigning - before he gets there.

Tomorrow, Michael Arcuri will be meeting with the Democrats in Caroline between 2:00 and 4:00. I don't know exactly where that meeting will be. If you're in Caroline, call a member of your town's Democratic committee and ask. The web site of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee lists Tim Murray as the representative of your town. Call him at 539-7512 - maybe he knows.

Michael Arcuri will be appearing with the Ulysses Democrats here in Trumansburg tomorrow at 6:00 PM in the Fire Hall. Leigh Ann Scheider, who is coordinating the Democratic Neighborhood Project campaign to call voters and build a Democratic Party database, will also be at the gathering.

As luck would have it, I'm scheduled to be out of town on business tomorrow night, so I won't be able to make it to the meeting. If you're there, drop me a line and let me know how it went.

Help Michael Arcuri Gain More DCCC Support

My mini-project of listing ten ways to support the Michael Arcuri for Congress campaign is completed, but heck, more methods for supporting the effort to turn New York's 24th congressional district blue just keep on popping up. Here's one for all you Democratic supporters of Michael Arcuri to do today.

Go to the web site of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and vote for Mike Arcuri in the Candidate for Change Contest.

Michael Arcuri is one of 35 Democratic congressional candidates who are being considered for special extra support by the DCCC. The three candidates who get the most online votes will receive the following bonus items from the DCCC for their campaigns:

A fundraising email from Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi or DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel to the entire DCCC email list

A phone bank run out of the Democratic National Headquarters for their campaign

The feature spot on the DCCC Web site to get their message out, with a link to their campaign contribution page

An online chat with the DCCC community to exchange ideas on the campaign and the future of our country.

Of course, the point of this race isn't really these extra items of support. The point is that the DCCC is trying to encourage Democratic congressional candidates to improve their online campaigning. Those candidates with the best Internet will win the contest - and get extra help that will enable them to surge forward with even more strength into the last few weeks of the campaign.

This ought to be yet another sign to those stubborn luddites in the Oneida County Democratic Party that, yes, the Internet matters. A note to the Arcuri campaign: Putting a link to this contest on the Arcuri Campaign web site to encourage visitors to vote for Michael Arcuri would be helpful.

Arcuri Lead Within Margin of Error

Thanks to a reader who brought more details of that poll Michael Arcuri commissioned to our attention. Here's the information that reader provided yesterday:

"More on poll from Roll Call...

Arcuri Over Meier in Democratic Poll

August 14, 2006

Oneida County District Attorney Mike Arcuri (D) led state Sen. Ray Meier (R) in the race for the open 24th district seat, according to a new poll released by Arcuri’s campaign.

The poll showed Arcuri leading Meier 40 percent to 36 percent and “is significant because Meier is slightly better known and the district has a double-digit edge in Republican registration,” said the memo announcing the survey’s results.

The poll, conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group July 26-30, included 500 likely general election voters and had a 4.4 percent margin of error. The 24th district opened up when Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R) decided to retire.
— Stephanie Woodrow"

As I suspected, Mike Arcuri's supposed 4 percentage point "lead" is within the poll's margin of error. It really can't be considered an actual lead for this reason.

However, the poll is still good news for the Arcuri campaign. The reason is that, right now, Arcuri should be behind, not dead even with, Ray Meier. It's a district that has long been held by the Republicans, and registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats here.

The key to Arcuri's success may have been the large number of registered voters in the 24th district who are independents or members of minor political parties - people who are put off by both the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. This year, with the Republican Congress such a clear disaster, and after over 20 years of giving Republican representation a try (and the district going downhill during that time), it's natural for these voters to lean Democrat.

So, no matter how many big name Republicans Ray Meier's campaign brings into town (or perhaps because of all the big name Republicans Ray Meier's campaign brings into town), most voters are refusing Ray Meier. Keep in mind that those poll numbers are still low for both candidates - 40 percent vs. 36 percent leaves us with 24 percent of voters undecided or just plain unknowledgable about the race.

Who is better poised to pick up most of those votes? Ray Meier, who stands for the worst aspects of the Republicans' failures? No.

I've been sharply critical of the Arcuri campaign's strategy of laying low and doing little, but maybe it is a strategy that can work. In a year like this, with the Republicans so visibly and repeatedly messing things up, maybe it's just best to allow the Republicans to fall down all over themselves, and to present an acceptable, if not highly motivating, alternative.

Get to Dryden for Phone Volunteer Program

The final item on my list of ten easy and independent things that you can do to help the Arcuri for Congress campaign: Go to Dryden tonight.

Tonight, at 7:45 PM, the Dryden Democratic Committee will give a presentation on the Neighborhood Network, a project of the Democratic Party to get the word out about congressional campaigns, person to person instead of TV screen to hypnotized eyeball.

The meeting is at the Dryden Town Hall, 65 East Main Street in Dryden.

Arcuri Leading in Poll Indeed

Thanks to Steve over at the Working Families Party for giving us a link to a news article on the Benenson Strategy Group poll showing Michael Arcuri leading by 4 points.

Ray Meier is right to declare this a statistical dead heat, but in a Republican-leaning district, that's very bad news for him. Besides, Meier can't spin these numbers from the poll: Of those polled, 68% say the country is on the wrong track, compared to 21% who believe we're heading in the right direction.

What's astonishing is the gap between the negative rating for the Republican agenda, and the near-even rating for Arcuri and Meier. Looks like the Arcuri campaign needs to work to make that link more clearly.

More on the poll later.

News of Arcuri's 4 Point Poll Lead Does Not Abound

Last night, at almost 11:00, an anonymous reader left the following question: "No mention of the poll showing Arcuri with a 4 point lead?"

Short answer: No.

Full answer: I'm not mentioning it. The reason? I've haven't really heard much about it.

Is this news of a poll with Arcuri in the lead in the Utica Observer-Dispatch? No. Is the news in any of the pro-Arcuri blogs? No. Is the news on any blogs at all? No. Is the news on Michael Arcuri's campaign web site? No. Is it anywhere else I look? No.

The Republican blogger who calls himself "Biggus Dickus" wrote a story related to polling awhile ago, but that posting wasn't really about a poll on the competition between Arcuri and Meier. Rather, he passed along a questionable comment from the Rothenberg Report that Zogby International is "a controversial pollster". I'm rolling my eyes at that one.

Maybe there is such a poll, and maybe there isn't. I have heard from a couple of sources in the last week that Ray Meier had commissioned a poll and the results would soon be released... if Meier were in the lead. Maybe that's the poll that the anonymous tipster questioned me about last night. Maybe.

So, I'm happy to pass along to you this question about a supposed poll left by a reader who chose to keep his or her name a secret. Take the news for what it's worth, which is not much.

First of all, a poll finding four percent lead does not probably show a lead at all. Typically, that four percent would be within the margin of error, or darn near it.

Secondly, most people, even most likely voters in our district outside of Oneida County (which is most of them) still do not know who Ray Meier and Michael Arcuri are. Given this relative ignorance of the candidates even at this late date, I'll be suspicious of any poll that purports to give a definite answer of who is ahead.

Third, what grabs my attention much more than any supposed poll showing a slight gap between Mike Arcuri and Ray Meier is the more concrete picture of who is covering this story, and who isn't.

Who's covering the story about this poll? Well, so far, there's what I'm writing now. Nobody else is saying anything.

That leaves me with doubts about the veracity of the story - no insult meant to myself. Maybe, in a few hours, the poll results will be officially released, and everyone will be gabbing on about them. That would be great... except not everyone would be gabbing on about them.

Bob Hyde will not be gabbing on about them. Bob Hyde, who already has a blog, and who is a member of the Oneida County Democratic Committee, has announced that he won't be writing about the campaign by Michael Arcuri for the open seat in Congress anymore. He says that he just doesn't have the time anymore.

This congressional race is supposed to be one of the biggest this year, and it's a very big year for congressional races - the biggest in 12 years. Bob Hyde happens to be placed at the epicenter of this story, with close contact with some of the Oneida County Democrats who have been at the core of Arcuri's campaign.

Now, Bob Hyde says he's not going to be bothered writing about Michael Arcuri anymore. Hyde says that he's going to be writing about John Murad, who is running for the 47th state Senate seat, and Dave Gordon, who is running for the for the 115th Assembly seat. That's not exactly hot campaign blog property.

What gives?

I have no reason to think that the Arcuri for Congress campaign ship is sinking (as far as I can tell, it's really never left port), but here we see a rat fleeing the ship at the very time it ought to be clambering toward the galley.

If Michael Arcuri can't keep fanatic supporter Bob Hyde writing about his campaign, how well will Arcuri fare with the rest of the press?

I'll keep writing about this campaign, that's for sure, because it gets more curious with every passing week.

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Reminder:

This morning, Cortland, 10:00 AM, 10 Main Street in front of the Community Restaurant -
RALLY TO PROTEST JOHN BOEHNER AND RAY MEIER
and their plans to destroy Social Security

Rally for Social Security Monday Morning

It's gone from blistering hot to just plain nice outside this week, so enjoy the nice weather on Monday and take part in opportunity #9 to act independently to help out Michael Arcuri's campaign: Join the rally to protest Republican John Boehner, Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and Ray Meier.

John Boehner is coming to Cortland on Monday to help out Ray Meier's campaign for Congress. They'll hold a fundraiser for Meier, and then discuss Ray Meier's "Jobs and the Economy" platform. What platform will that be, pray tell? Why, destroying Social Security, of course!

No kidding. Republican John Boehner says that his first priority on returning to the House of Representatives next year will be dismantling the Social Security Trust Fund, and handing it over to Wall Street financial firms. Boehner wants to wait until after the elections because he realizes that the manuever isn't one that voters support. But Ray Meier - will he stand up to his new boss if he gets into Congress? Don't bet on it.

Take a look at Ray Meier's campaign web site. Search for Social Security there. You won't find it, and there's good reason for that. Ray Meier wants to help George W. Bush destroy Social Security, and siphon off the money that Americans have worked hard for into the bank accounts of financial investment firms on Wall Street. Those same firms are big Republican campaign donors. It's a cozy economic platform for everybody involved - except for American workers.

Citizen Action is organizing a rally in Cortland Monday morning to give us a chance to say no to this radical right wing economic agenda. Be there, and strike a blow against Ray Meier and John Boehner's sneaky plan to cheat you of the Social Security benefits that you have earned.

The information is below, in the flier from Citizen Action:

Celebrate Social Security’s – 71st Birthday
10:00 AM Monday August 14th
10 Main St. - Cortland
In Front of the Community Restaurant

The Big Gun From Congress
Congressional Majority Leader John Boehner
Who’s Top Priority is to
Privatize Social Security
Will be in Cortland on Monday for a Congressional Fundraiser!

Let’s Tell him what we think loud and clear

Boehner Pledges To Privatize Social Security:"We’re Going to Get Serious About This"
In an interview with the Washington Times published July 31,2006. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) promised to privatize Social Security, saying "If I’m around in a leadership role come January, we’re going to get serious about this."

For More Information Contact Citizen Action –723-0110

Republicans Plan to Let War Criminals Off the Hook

While the Republicans are busy trying to make a scandal out of legal donations and old local Utica gossip, there is serious stuff going on in Washington D.C. The Republicans want you to forget that the congressional race between Michael Arcuri and Ray Meier is about what goes in Washington D.C., not what goes on in Utica.

What's happening in D.C.? The Republicans are working on a plan to help war criminals evade prosecution and walk among us as free citizens.

Yesterday, National Public Radio announced that it has obtained secret documents indicating that the White House has been working on legislation to rip the guts out of the War Crimes Act.

The Bush Administration plan would reduce the number of war crimes that can be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act, make it impossible for anyone who has had their rights under the Geneva Convention violated to sue in U.S. courts, and... here's the kicker... do so retroactively to 2001.

I am waiting for you to read that last paragraph a second time, and to put the pieces together.

Do you understand what George W. Bush is preparing to ask Congress to do? Think back now. Think Watergate. Think Ford pardoning Nixon. Think about how it would have been if that pardon was given even before Nixon resigned. That's what Bush is asking Congress to do.

George W. Bush is preparing legislation to amend the War Crimes Act to make war crimes against the Geneva Conventions, which are the law of the United States of America as well as International law, retroactively legal. Bush would not do that unless he knew that the War Crimes Act had been violated. If the President of the United States knows that war crimes have been committed under his authority as Commander in Chief, and is keeping them secret from us, and is allowing them to continue, that is impeachable.

With this heretofore secret legislation, George W. Bush has crafted himself a Get Out of Jail Free Card.

How is this relevant to the congressional campaign in the 24th District? In order for Bush's scheme to work, he needs to get his legislation passed. Who passes legislation at the federal level? Think hard, now. It's the Congress. What are Michael Arcuri and Ray Meier running for? That's right...

What is Michael Arcuri's position on this legislation? He ought to be against it. It's a no-brainer, and Arcuri has nothing to lose by bringing it up.

What is Ray Meier's position on this legislation? That's a bit more tricky. Will Ray Meier, who was recently seen arm in arm with Dick Cheney, be willing to distance himself from the Bush-Cheney White House? Will Ray Meier have the guts to tell the Republican Party no, and take a stand against this plan to let war criminals off the hook? Can Ray Meier afford to look the other way? Can he afford not to?

This issue gets to the heart of whether we can trust Ray Meier to do the right thing. This is a moral issue. Would Ray Meier vote for this legislation? Would Ray Meier allow war criminals to walk free?

Now, I'm asking, I'm begging, I am getting down on my knees and pleading with the Oneida County Democrats, the Utica Democratic bloggers, and above all else, the Arcuri for Congress campaign: Will you please stop treating this like a local campaign, and start speaking on the bigger issues that have an interest that reaches beyond New Hartford?

Ray Meier Moderate - According to Who?

Moderate, moderate, moderate. I predict that, by the time that the 2008 presidential campaign is all done with, the word "moderate" will be taken seriously as the word "joementum".

This word, "moderate", has got to be the most overused and useless phrase of the whole 2006 congressional race. When we hear of a moderate candidate, chances are that that candidate is not moderate at all. "Moderate" has come to be just another careless code word for what truly lies beneath: A right wing agenda.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to what the Republicans have to say on the matter as it pertains to the race going on in our very own district. Ray Meier likes to be called a "moderate", but then he shoots himself in the foot by aligning himself with a right wing special interest group: Rightroots, a political interest group that calls itself "the right side of the web", and says it wants to enact a right wing agenda - not a moderate agenda at all.

Ray Meier has proudly posted a graphic on his site declaring that he is "Rightroots Approved". Who knew that a political candidate in our district needed to be approved by a political action committee with its web site registered down in Alexandria, Virginia?

All this language about Ray Meier being a member of the right wing roots of the Republican Party, and we're supposed to believe that he's moderate? Moderate, my foot.