NY-20: I Voted Today

At about 12:30 today, I walked across Route 203 and cast a ballot in the First District, Town of Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York in the NY-20 congressional election. I'm in the southern part of NY-20, right up against the Massachusetts border, and I've lived here for more than 20 years. I know that Murphy now has one vote.

I live close to the fire department, where the poll is. The polling place was not very busy. The fire trucks were parked outside. This is a small, rural town of 900 people. You can win any town election if you get 300+ votes. The Town voted for Obama, and Gillibrand twice, and Gore and Kerry, and it voted for Hilary Clinton for Senate, but the margins of victory were always quite small. The town supervisor is a Democrat; town board members are from both parties.

Turnout so far today has been brisk. There had been 200+ votes cast when I got there. Apparently, there were about 100 votes as of 9:30 am. The poll workers (why do they always have cakes and cookies?) said they thought there would be a sizeable (their word) turnout today even though there was only one race. They did not think it would be a "heavy" turnout. In other words, my predictions of a slight turnout were, well, wrong. That means that the GOTV effort might be working. Or at least the publicity is getting people to vote.

Most people I talk to, regardless of political persuasion, were amazed at the amount of attention this race has generated in the last few weeks. We all received tons of glossy mailings from both sides. In fact, we received so many that we stopped even looking at them. Had I known there were going to be so many, I would have saved them all so I could do a tally of who sent what. I would have liked to send them back to the originators with a note that they were being profligate, that their campaign was wasteful and not particularly effective. My impression is that we received at least 25 mailings, maybe more.

We also received numerous robo calls. Last night, I got one from Vice President Joe Biden. I also got one from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. And, of course, I also got one from Disco T. I would have liked one from President Obama, but evidently, that was not to happen.

On Northeast Public Radio (WAMC) they are today saying authoritatively (do they say things any other way?) that the race is extremely close, that the turnout is big, and that the win might be determined by just a few votes. Maybe that's so.

Regardless of all of that, it's really unusual for this district to be in the spotlight. You'll recall that for years and years we were represented by Gerry Solomon, a proto-militarist who decided that people convicted of simple marijuana possession should lose their federal financial aid for a year, and then by John Sweeney, Solomon's hand picked successor. When the Republicans ruled this district, its vote was taken for granted and it went unnoticed. It was only recently, very recently, that Kirsten Gillibrand won here. We aren't used to receiving national attention.

I am not surprised that people claim this election is some kind of referendum on the Stimulus. My neighbors all seem to acknowledge that the economy is a mess, and I think they're voting for Murphy because he supports the Stimulus and Disco T doesn't.

A Surprise Reason To Vote For Scott Murphy In NY-20

There is a report in the Albany Times Union that Scott Murphy, democratic candidate for my district, NY-20, has stated that he's opposed to the death penalty for all crimes:

Speaking on Talk 1300-AM, WGDJ, Murphy tells host Fred Dicker he opposes the death penalty in all cases, including for the Sept. 11 terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C.
Murphy says the evidence may not be conclusive in many cases and guilt can’t be guaranteed. He says the cost of making a mistake in a death penalty case is too high.

Jim Tedisco, the Republican candidate in the March 31 special election in the 20th Congressional District, supports the death penalty.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which has been flooding the area with extremely negative TV ads, responded with shop warn outrage:

“Scott Murphy’s comments are both dangerously naïve and appalling. Murphy’s opposition to the death penalty even for those terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center is shocking. As someone who is not native to the state of New York, it is abundantly clear that he is unable or unwilling to empathize with the loss so many families faced on that tragic day.”

So the NRCC, never a fount of reason, would have us believe that empathy with victims mandates state killing. Evidently not believing in this specious equivalence is "dangrously naive and appalling." And so the NRCC response suffers from the same ailment as its TV ads: it's too shocked, too angry, too put off to respond on the merits. This kind of ad, I think, actually turns off voters.

Murphy's statement in opposition to state killing is another reason to support him.

Score One For the Oligarchy

I live in NY-20, the district allegedly represented by Kirsten Gillibrand, and have lived here in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains for more than 22 years. Maybe that has made me cynical. It means I lived here when it was part of militaristic Gerry Solomon's conservative fiefdom. You remember his most memorable contribution to the nation: a law that if you plead guilty to a non-criminal possession of marijuana for personal use, you lose your federal financial aid for a year. Great policy, Gerry! Salute! And then it was represented by his hand picked, militaristic successor, John Sweeney, him with the DWI arrest with a woman, not his wife, allegedly sitting on his lap. When he ran against Gillibrand it was in the wake of allegations that he (still) beat his wife. Great politics, John. Salute!

And now, Kirsten Gillibrand, daughter of a political family and apparently a friend of Alphonse D'Amato, has been selected by Governor David Paterson, who was never elected and who replaced client 9 and is the son of a political family, instead of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of a political family, and Andrew Cuomo, son of a political family, to succeed Hillary Clinton, a member of a political family, in the Senate. Score yet another one for the oligarchy.

Faced with the obvious, that being a political blue blood remains the most important qualification for the Senate, many people who consider themselves Democratic or progressive are now busy making excuses for Kirsten and describing if not how great she'll be in the Senate, how she'll turn out to be ok. You've heard it all. Here, for example. She'll move to the center, and maybe even to the left. She does good constituent work so her 100% NRA rating doesn't matter. She's for/against marriage equality. She's for/against the war in Iraq. She's for/against the environment. She's for/against the Stimulus package. She voted against the bailout/New York. Others have described all of this far, far better than I care to.

The part of this I find most instructive is all of the excuse making. Folks on the left or the just to the left of center are making excuses because we don't want to confront the obvious. The obvious is that Kirsten, who is not on the left, who is not really in the center, and who is a blue dog, is in the Senate from New York because she was already a member of a certain club, and that club is from whence people who are also in the club promote other club members to the Senate.

Chances are, dear reader, that you aren't in that club. And that you never will be. Nor will your children. And it's not because you're not a talented and nice person. And it's not because you wouldn't like to do public service. And it's not because you know nothing about politics. It's because you don't have the money or the time or the connections (any two of these 3 might give you a chance to be in the club). I hope you're not surprised by that. In fact, Barack Obama might prove the rule. He's not old school. He had time and made connections. He didn't have money. An unusual two out of three, but 2 out of 3 nonetheless. This appointment, however, is old school. It's money and connections paying off.

In baseball kids begin getting ready for the Big Leagues when they are 7 or 8 or 9. They advance as their skills grow. There are Little Leagues that feed into minor leagues that feed into the major leagues. Ability matters. Baseball, unlike politics, is a meritocracy. You supposedly cannot play for the Yankees if you cannot catch and throw and hit. Even if you're rich. Even if you father owns the team. That's quite unlike politics. You can still get ahead in politics if your family is already in the business, and if you have money, lots of money, and if you or your family have friends in the club (friends like Al D'Amato, David Paterson, and Hillary Clinton). It doesn't necessarily matter whether or not you can speak in coherent sentences (are you reading this, W?) or can legislate or can perform any of the many other tasks supposedly involved in being a public servant. What matters most is your pedigree.

I'm delighted that Barack Obama doesn't appear to be from the oligarchy. That makes it all the sadder when New York's Senator, appointed after his election, is chosen in the old school way. New York and the nation deserve better.

Such is the state of the American democracy. You can dress up Gillibrand's ascension and coronation however you like. And you can talk about how you're going to give her a Populist Primary and defeat her in 2010. But, alas, I think all of this is just self deception. What we need to notice here is that the oligarchy is still strongly in control. And that we're without the resources to do anything at all about it at the moment, yell and scream as much as we want.