Our Democratic Bench

I had spent some more time focusing on our Democratic office holders down the ballot back when Fossella was still thought to be a man of family values. Since then it has played less of a role with the likelihood of us holding this seat for a while now. Nonetheless there were a few other victories for our side on Tuesday;

State Senator Diane Savino - 78%
Assemblyman Matt Titone - 74%
Assemblyman Mike Cusick - 63%
Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer - 55%
Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny (Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Coney Island) - 70%

We saw what a limited bench did to the Republican party this past election so it is promising to see the future of our party doing so well.

The Republican Bench

via the Advance;

The borough GOP has been accused of becoming too reliant on Fossella in recent years at the expense of developing a strong enough bench.

"Talk about dysfunctional?" said another. "This is dysfunctional."

The Democratic Bench: Janele Hyer-Spencer, part II

As we see the Republican Party fall all around Fossella we see great progress for the Democratic Party. As seats are contested the Democratic Party is showing strength and resolve in New York State. After the Congressional race the next top tier race in the district would have to be Assembly member Hyer-Spencer's seat. After losing her first run at the 60th AD, she pulled off a hard fought victory in 2006, winning by 700 votes. Her performance for her district in Albany has been superb and
her former opponent has taken note;

Anthony Xanthakis, the party first vice chairman who was expected to launch a rematch against Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer (D-East Shore/Brooklyn), last night said he would not run.

from November 8, 2008;

While the implications may be a little more long term, winning very local elections is one way we will retake this Congressional seat, if meerly by reducing the experienced Republican bench.

Janele was the first candidate who took this blog seriously and reached out on several occassions with political knowledge and insight. She impressed me with some early and rather intelligent web research/outreach team. Best of luck to her in Albany. It will be nice to see Assemblywoman Hyer-Spencer campaigning along side our '08 congressional candidate, that is if she is not the nominee.

see also:
The Democratic Bench, Janele Hyer-Spencer, August 16, 2006

The bench: Mike Ryan, District Attorney Candidate

In a race garnering less attention than some more contentious races for seats in Albany or DC, the District Attorney elections are coming up this fall, and one of the few off year elections we will see. The incumbent, is DA Dan Donovan (R) and the challenger, as noted in the title, is Attorney Mike Ryan (D). While it is doubtful there will be messages coming out of this race that we can use to carry over into the Congressional race, there are many lessons. Similar to Manny Innamorato's strategy, Mike Ryan has decided to bring his message directly to the residents of the island campaigning door to door. Via Wrobleski's polit.bureau;

"We're out walking and knocking on doors every night," Ryan told us at Democratic headquarters in Port Richmond. "When we're not out walking, we're speaking to the political clubs."

Instead of focusing on prime voters in Democratic districts, Ryan says he's trying to hit every section of Staten Island possible.

The second part of that quote may be the most important, bringing the message to what otherwise would be considered the Republican base. It would have been sensible to see some Congressional candidates working with Ryan to build off the work of Innamorato's campaign. Rebuilding our efforts every campaign to introduce our Democratic message in the South Shore and mid island is an unnecessary expense of time and money that we need to change.

The Democratic Challengers, where are they?

Upstate!

There are six Republican held Congressional seats in New York state. Thus far three have declared candidates with websites and ground games up and running 18 months prior to the election. Here in the thirteenth we have possibly three great challengers but no declarations and zero ground game. Is this going to be a repeat of the disasterous effects of '06 where candidates sat around and played games before clearing the way for Harrison to run on a very condensed schedule?

NY-03, held by Rep. Peter King (R), no candidates
NY-13, held by Rep. Vito Fossella (R), no candidates
NY-23, held by Rep. McHugh (R), no candidates
NY-25, held by Rep. James Walsh (R), Dan Maffei Democratic Challenger
NY-26, held by Rep. Tom Reynolds (R), Jon Powers Democratic Challenger
NY-29, held by Rep. Randy Kuhl (R), Eric Massa Democratic Challenger

A while back we looked in the PVI, Party Voter Index system that Cook Reports uses to judge the political leanings of Congressional Districts. Rep. Fossella by their measure is in the 12th most Democratic district held by a Republican. He is the third most vulnerable member of Congress in terms of PVI from NY State, behind on Rep. King (NY-03) and Rep. Walsh (NY-25) [who has a challenger]. So you can see that in less Democratic friendly districts we already have optimistic candidates working hard on winning and here we sit idly by without anyone to keep on the offensive against Fossella.

So my question is when are we going to have a candidate running and a ground game in operation? When are we going to start building off the work of challengers like Manny Innamorato and bring our message to the South Shore? When do we start working with Mike Ryan, Democratic Candidate for DA this fall and go door to door offering solutions and possibly more important an interest to listen to the residents of Staten Island (and all of the 13th).

It is June already.

Assemblyman Titone

Congratulations go out tonight to Assemblyman Titone, who won his special election on the north shore with 49% of the vote. 5,876 voters turned out in the 61st AD vs the 3,210 who turned out in the south shore race. This is promising news, considering Titone alone garnered almost as many votes in the Democraticly favored north shore as both candidates in the 62nd AD, a heavily Republican favored south shore race won by Lou Tobacco(R). If one can extrapolate anything from these races, it is that the voter base, the ones who actually turn out for a special election, was either more organized or more motivated for the Dems today.

Tobacco's residency problem

via the SI Advance;

GOP South Shore Assembly candidate Lou Tobacco is fending off charges that he might not be qualified for the ballot because he worked in Arizona between January and June of last year.

The New York state constitution says that Assembly candidates must reside in the district they are running in for a year before the election.

John Mulia (C, D, I) is his opponent in the March 27th election. No campaign site appears to be available yet.