{"id":17503,"date":"2014-09-13T10:59:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T14:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=17503"},"modified":"2014-09-15T12:51:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T16:51:55","slug":"are-questions-about-stefaniks-personal-life-sexist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/09\/13\/are-questions-about-stefaniks-personal-life-sexist\/","title":{"rendered":"Are questions about Stefanik’s personal life sexist?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"stefanik\"<\/a>

Elise Stefanik is the front-runner in New York’s 21st district House race. Photo: NYS GOP<\/p><\/div>\n

In case you’ve missed it, one of the more complex kerfuffles in this year’s NY21 congressional race has been the give-and-take over a letter sent to the Watertown Daily Times by occasional Democratic activist Mike Flynn.\u00a0 In that letter, Flynn challenged Republican Elise Stefanik, a single woman who turned thirty this summer, to tell voters more about her personal life.\u00a0 \u201cDoes Elise Stefanik have a private relationship with anyone?” Flynn asked.<\/p>\n

The letter set off a round of zingers.\u00a0 Democratic candidate Aaron Woolf quickly distanced himself from Flynn, calling the letter \u201creprehensible and antithetic to what this campaign does or should represent.\u201d\u00a0 The Republican spin machine fired off an e-mail blast describing Flynn as a “Woolf volunteer” and blasting what they described as a “sexist rant.”<\/p>\n

In modern American politics, this kind of thing is viewed as prime gotcha-bait.\u00a0 “Can a single woman enter politics without her dating life being invaded?” asked the Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow in an opinion piece.\u00a0 “Would Flynn be asking this question of a successful, single man running for office?”<\/p>\n

The New York Post characterized the letter as part of a war on Republican women.\u00a0 That view has been shared in a series of blog posts by Stefanik supporter Jeff Graham, the Watertown mayor, who has sought throughout the campaign to portray anyone asking questions about Stefanik’s background as cynical.<\/p>\n

No, questions about a candidate’s personal life are not sexist<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the reality is that family, personal life and even that tough-to-define issue of character have always been issues in American elections.\u00a0 All politics ain’t just local — it’s domestic.\u00a0 When Matt Doheny ran as single man, then engaged to be married, his personal life was a significant focus of coverage, before and after photos surfaced suggesting that he might have been overly intimate with “another” woman in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

When current Rep. Bill Owens got zinged for traveling to Taiwan on a trip paid for by the Taiwanese government, one of the major issues of that mini-scandal was that he made the trip with his wife, whose trip was also paid for.\u00a0 To many in the district, it appeared to be an all-expense paid trip for a couple, rather than the kind of junket that might actually serve the interests of the 21st district.\u00a0 (Owens later apologized and paid for his and his wife’s trip out of his own pocket.)<\/p>\n

Which is not to say that asking questions about a candidate’s life outside politics needs to be about scandal.\u00a0 Here’s the heart of Flynn’s letter:<\/p>\n

“In a congressional race, I think it not only fair but necessary to go on the record about your relationships. I don\u2019t think this falls under the heading of prying eyes; it\u2019s an indicator of what you are about as a person and candidate for congressional office.\u00a0 How at this stage of the campaign has not one question appeared in print that would inquire if Ms. Stefanik has a significant other in a relationship that she could talk to us about? Well, let\u2019s just say it\u2019s unusual.”<\/p>\n

The truth is, for all the goofy rhetoric that has surrounded his letter — including some of Flynn’s own over-the-top rhetoric — he has an argument.\u00a0 It’s not that Ms. Stefanik would be a single person representing the district.\u00a0 John McHugh represented the North Country ably as a single man for years.\u00a0 But McHugh was rooted deeply in the district, had family ties here, a record of associations and known roles.\u00a0 We knew him.<\/p>\n

Getting to know Elise Stefanik<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, Elise Stefanik is the odds-on favorite to win this House seat.\u00a0 She’s well ahead of her competition and her main opponent, Democrat Aaron Woolf faces a deeply divided voter base with a campaign that has been less than inspirational so far.\u00a0 But with that front-runner status comes closer scrutiny.\u00a0 And the fact is that Stefanik doesn’t have the kind of hometown, we-all-know-you track record that voters enjoyed with Owens and McHugh.<\/p>\n

She moved to the district last year to prepare for the race.\u00a0 NCPR’s reporting has found that her campaign story about deep ties to Willsboro, where her parents own a seasonal home, were not entirely matched by the facts or by local sentiment.\u00a0 During our visits to the Essex County hamlet it proved difficult to find people who knew of Stefanik or recognized her name.<\/p>\n

It matters that so many GOP leaders have embraced Stefanik.\u00a0 One assumes that they vetted her closely and their backing is a strong sign of confidence.<\/p>\n

But her claims that she moved to the district because she suddenly discovered a passion for her parents’ lumber business also triggers a big sniff test.\u00a0 Is it really plausible that a high-flying Washington DC policy analyst, Harvard trained, with close ties to some of the most powerful Republicans in the country, suddenly had a hankering to do customer service on plywood deliveries in Essex County?\u00a0 And just happened to discover an interesting political opportunity?<\/p>\n

Even her official bio, describing her as having been “born and raised in Upstate New York,” is remarkably thin.\u00a0 The gaps in that narrative mean that voters deserve to get to know Ms. Stefanik much, much better before casting their ballots.\u00a0 Obviously, those efforts come with a burden of civility and respect.\u00a0 There is absolutely a risk of questions about her age and her relationships sounding (or being) sexist.<\/p>\n

But it’s worth noting that, when making her own foray into journalism, Stefanik found these issues interesting and worthy of investigation.\u00a0 Writing for the Harvard Crimson, she wrote eloquently about the intersection of love and relationships and ambition and career.\u00a0 “But even if it\u2019s just our nature, are we missing out on the best parts of life?” she asked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We, at Harvard, can still meticulously prepare to make gazillions of dollars, change the world, found a nonprofit and be elected senator. But every once in a while, the best decision we will make is allowing ourselves to fall\u2014the way Elvis and Romeo do.”<\/p>\n

We need to know more about all these candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n

It helps, too, to ease the danger of these questions reflecting unfair treatment of a woman that these same questions need to be asked of the men in the race, Matt Funiciello and Aaron Woolf.\u00a0 They too are almost completely unknown to voters.\u00a0 Who are they as people?\u00a0 Do they have kids in our public schools?\u00a0 Are their spouses or partners rooted here in our community?\u00a0 Do they go to church?\u00a0 Do they have hobbies?\u00a0 Put bluntly, who the heck are these folks?<\/p>\n

In the case of Woolf, it’s particularly important to know whether his family plans to relocate to the North Country if he wins our House seat.\u00a0 But as a journalist and voter, I want to know a lot more about Matt Funiciello as a person too.\u00a0 Married, single?\u00a0 Other powerful interests and beliefs?\u00a0 Other than running a business, who is he as a person?<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that this race is different.\u00a0 Voters are being asked to choose among three candidates who are almost complete strangers, candidates who have so far only been willing to share policy ideas and opinions that are relatively safe, anodyne, and boiler-plate.\u00a0 Most of the rhetoric so far could be coming from any Republican, any Democrat, any Green, running in almost any district in the country.<\/p>\n

Given how unwilling the politicians have been to reveal themselves, and how little candor we’ve seen on the campaign trail, the job of the public (and journalists) is to dig beneath the surface, to learn everything we can about these individuals who are auditioning to be our representatives in Washington DC.\u00a0 If that means occasionally risking the boundaries of political correctness, that’s fine.\u00a0 Politics, as they say, ain’t bean bag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In case you’ve missed it, one of the more complex kerfuffles in this year’s NY21 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[13570,6862,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17503"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17534,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17503\/revisions\/17534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}