Essex County’s Stu Brody steps down from Dem Rural Conference

Stu Brody has been a fixture in New York politics for years, with his big cowboy hat and his fondness for poking at big-city Democrats.

His rural conference in Lake Placid in 2004 drew the big Democratic contenders, including Hillary Clinton and the eventual nominee John Kerry.

Now Brody is stepping down

In a statement, Brody admits to feuding with Eliot Spitzer (he says Spitzer launched a political “attack” at him, which Brody “survived”) and claims as his biggest victory the election of Darryl Aubertine, “the first Democrat elected in an all rural Senate district in forty years.”

Brody’s campaign mirrored — at a state level — Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. Has it been effective?

It seems the Republican Party’s rural upstate base has been eroded somewhat. But the next big
test will come in November, when small-town voters will decide some big congressional races.

Slated to follow Brody is Irene Stein, chairwoman of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee in Ithaca.