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.