If not now, then when?

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Council member McMahon,
Assemblyperson Lavelle,
Janele Hyer-Spencer,

If the Democratic party can not seed a legitimate opponent to Vito Fossella for the 2006 election, then when are they going to stand up? In my last post I referenced a Staten Island Advance article about Assemblyperson Cusick deciding not to throw his hat into the ring. I want to revisit a quote on the second page;

"Mr. Cusick made the right decision," said one Democrat, who believes that the party's best shot at the seat might come in 2012, when the 13th Congressional District lines will have been redrawn following the 2010 census.

I can't tell you how much I object to this line of thought. With the daily discoveries and indictments stemming from the Republican party's culture of corruption, it is amazing that we can sit back and let this seat go uncontested. Just look at what we are doing with our candidates for TX-22. We ran a candidate against the majority leader Rep. DeLay in 2004 forcing him to campaign and spend $3.1 million in his home district. We now have a well funded challenger for the same seat, who declared long ago and has only reaped the benefits of DeLay's indictments and associations with Abramoff. We are well on our way to kicking DeLay out of office. This is in Texas mind you, not New York City. The point is, if we only contest seats when it is convenient for us, such as is suggested in the above quote, we as Democrats don't deserve to win those seats.

We know that Vito Fossella can easily raise $1.5 million. The question is whether we as a party will stand up and force him to spend it defending his seat or does he put it into races upstate like NY-19 (Rep. Kelly), NY-20 (Rep. Sweeney), and NY-29 (Rep. Kuhl). Personally I am a believer of winning back Congress now, not in 2012. I thank those that have made promoting the Democratic agenda a priority now and not somewhere down the line when maybe it will be easier. I don't know I can afford another six years like this past one. More importantly I don't know if my community and country can either.

So I leave you with this letter. It is a simple plea. Run. Run like you want to win this seat. Run like the future of our country depends on it, because it does.

PS: If you need some motivation just look to our neighbor to the south, Texas. They have a Democratic incumbent or challenger in 31 of 32 congressional districts. Not bad for a big red funny shaped state.