100 Day Sprint: Blogging the NY-21 Race…know any good bloggers?
While the In Box is trying to get as much info out as possible about North Country politics in general — and the NY-21 race in particular — there are several other really good blogs that are helping to keep us all current on the campaigns.
One cool thing is that they give a good geographic spread, offering insights from around the sprawling district.
From the Lake George-Glens Falls-Queensbury region, Maury Thompson writes the All Politics is Local blog for the Glens Falls Post Star.
Thompson was first to report that New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will hold a North Country fundraiser for Bill Owens in mid-August.
Brian Amaral maintains the Public Interest blog for the Watertown Daily Times. He’s been reporting on the effort by Democrats to find new leadership in Jefferson County and generally captures the mood in the western side of the district.
Meanwhile, Chris Morris maintains the News Notebook for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, which is described as “a regular look at news and politics in Lake Placid, Essex County, New York state and the U.S.”
Morris’s blog was the first place I saw notice that Green Party candidate Donald Hassig had been arrested.
Over in Plattsburgh, meanwhile, reporter Joe LoTemplio anchors the Press-Republican’s coverage — including this recent piece on technology issues in the campaign — but doesn’t have a regular blog.
I’m sure there are other good North Country politics blogs. I’d be grateful for any tips, suggestions, to add to the list.
Tags: election12
Is Donald Hassig the best the Green Party can do?
http://www.myabc50.com/news/local/story/Lisbon-man-complains-of-treatment-at-the-border/mLFpMBmOyU2KdAe7l9khiw.cspx
This kind of stuff makes Hassig and the Green Party look like the lunatic fringe. The reality may be otherwise but in politics, perception may be more important.
I do appreciate the 100 Day Sprint prefix. It allows me the skip the boring stuff (and allows the horse race fans to go straight to what they want).
I’m a Green and strong advocate of badly needed multipartyism. I’ve never been a fan of Hassig’s candidacy because I think single-issue campaigns demean not just the Greens but smaller parties in general. We’re trying to get people to take us seriously and this harms more than helps. I’d rather have no candidate than a joke candidate.
Unfortunately, the CD is tough for Greens. Not just politically but geographically. The district is so gargantuan and covers THREE different media markets. Some Greens (like myself) don’t have cars for philosophical reasons which precludes them from running for this office. Greens don’t accept corporate bribes like Democrats and Republicans, so that makes it harder to do good campaigning everywhere even for those who do have transportation. This makes it hard to recruit good candidates from a pool of party members that’s small to begin with.
I have to agree with Larry and Brian here. No candidate is better than Hassig. He makes the whole Green party look bad. I wonder if Hassig realizes this?
From what I’ve read, I’m sure that Hassig knows what month it is.
It’s kind of sad serious greenies can’t do better. I know there must be a couple of hundred in the Tri-Lakes, especially around Paul Smiths. Surely there must be several times that number up in the Canton-Potsdam area.
If Hassig managed to get himself on the ballot, a couple of dozen committed activists might have generated a serious, respected, Green candidate who might generate some serious heartburn for DINO (until November 7th, at least) Owens, and possibly scared him out of some of his more craven votes and positions.
That is, “NOT sure Hassig knows what month it is”. OMG.
Newt: there are a lot of greens in that area, but not too many Greens. NYS Board of Elections lists only 216 registered “active” Greens in Franklin, Clinton, Hamilton and Essex counties combined.
Additionally, the Greens don’t run non-party members like the fake parties WFP and Conservatives.
Brian (MOFYC not NCPR), we’ve already seen one Green make a fool of himself and now you make a comment about Democrats & Republicans taking bribes. And you want to be taken seriously? Really?
I have voted for Green party candidates in the past, in that in general I try to support third parties in the US, I think they are important.
However I think in smaller parties particularly in rural areas you end up with the guy who talks the loudest, is the pushiest, and has a lot of time on his or her hands and you just want to get someone on the ballot, so you let him or her go for it.
Probably not a good strategy to build support however in the long run and this probably happened this time around. I also find it relatively astounding that this candidate got any legit coverage from the news media, outside of the police blotter.
Larry: the campaign finance system particularly since Citizens United is legalized bribery. This is why the system is fundamentally broken, because such bribery is legal. Corporate interests (and yes, unions too) use massive campaign donations to influence Dem and GOP office holders to advance their agenda, ahead of what the people want. This is why they “contribute” money to campaigns in the first place; they don’t do so out of charity.
Bribe, n.: money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view to corrupting the behavior of a person, especially in that person’s performance as an athlete, public official, etc.
It’s hard to see how corporate and union campaign “donations” do not fit this definition.
Brian (MOFYC not NCPR), keep up the disingenuous nonsense and you won’t ever be taken seriously. Lecturing people on the definition of bribery and campaign contributions makes you sound like you think you’re above it all and the rest of us are ignorant idiots. Well, you’re not; you just sound foolish and you do your movement no credit.
Politics is fascinating though in that regard.
I don’t know if laws will help with trying to influence candidates through contributions? I think the essential problem is not the people trying to curry influence, but the politicians trying to raise enough money to fund a campaign. That is the real problem as long as it is so expensive to get elected, the main function of a successful politician will be the ability to raise money.
NPR ran a really interesting piece about the process not long ago, the upshot was that it was politicians who sought out the lobbyists for contributions, NOT the other way around.
Do we have any bloggers who are keeping track of the amount of money these local campaigns are spending?
Mervel, I don’t hear many lobbyists screaming for campaign finance reform. I feel really bad for them. It must be tough having congressmen calling you all the time asking for help.
“That is the real problem as long as it is so expensive to get elected, the main function of a successful politician will be the ability to raise money.”
Mervel, the reason it is so expensive is that corporations are pouring money into the campaigns. If we simply outlawed corporate and union campaign contributions and individual donations over, say, $100, getting elected would suddenly become much much cheaper.
In other words, when one corporation or union gives candidate A a million bucks, suddenly candidate B needs a million bucks that they wouldn’t otherwise have needed. It’s a self-perpetuating system of influence-buying. And it was made vastly worse by Citizens United.
I don’t think so, we live in a mass media culture with tons of “clutter”, to reach anyone with any sort of media message you need millions and millions of dollars and even then it is tough.
The internet offers some hope, but even here you need money to really break into the brains of people.
Can anyone name the third party candidates running for President? Without money to reach several hundred million people, it won’t matter if we band corporate money or not.
Knuckle,
Yeah it was really interesting. What the lobbyists they interviewed really wanted to do was write legislation, the price of doing that was going to all of these luncheons that indeed the congresspeople were begging them to go to and provide these guys money. The lobbyists big concern was if it would pay off or not, I know cry me a river. But still I don’t think it is a situation of the poor congress being pushed around by lobbyists, it is a mutual exchange with the politicians wanting the deal just as much or more than the lobbyists.
I am appalled at the ignorance and negativity exhibited by the posts found above. These awful, small people do not know me. Yet they feel free to make very negative and detracting statements about me. I have never before encountered such a display of bad behavior.
I challenge every one of these awful people to visit my campaign website and open their minds. I am a wonderful Green Party candidate. I have done more to protect the environment of the North Country than all of the other residents of this area put together.
Don speaks the truth even if people do not want to hear it.
What I stated above about having done more than all others put together to protect the environment was said in anger, a just anger that exists because of all the negativity that I have encountered because I do good things in the North Country. I did not think of all the good work that the Onkwehonwe who live on the Akwesasne reserve have done to protect our environment when I made this statement. I want to revise my statement from above. I have done more than all of the other white people put together to protect the environment of the St. Lawrence River Valley and the Adirondack Mountains. I am rightfully proud of this and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to say it on this site.