{"id":5930,"date":"2012-05-05T21:02:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T01:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5930"},"modified":"2012-05-08T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T13:37:09","slug":"the-two-party-system-flops-in-the-114th-assembly-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/05\/05\/the-two-party-system-flops-in-the-114th-assembly-district\/","title":{"rendered":"The two-party system flops in the 114th Assembly district"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

It looks like Dan Stec will take the 114th Assembly seat without a contest. And that's too bad.<\/p><\/div>\n

The last few months, the 114th Assembly district race — in the western Adirondacks, southern Champlain Valley and the Glens Falls region — has degenerated from a spirited and hard-fought contest to a ho-hum coronation.<\/p>\n

Queensbury town supervisor Dan Stec stared down a laundry list of Republican challengers, racking up so many endorsements and nods from party leaders that everybody else scrambled for the exits.<\/p>\n

It was a masterful bit of politicking, but it doesn’t do voters — or the residents of the district — a darned bit of good.<\/p>\n

The opportunity for debate, and real choice, in the GOP primary evaporated and in the end the party bosses made the pick.<\/p>\n

Democrats have fared even worse.\u00a0 Essex County board of supervisors chair Randy Douglas was the obvious top name on the list to challenge for the seat.\u00a0 He opted out, citing family concerns and the continuing clean-up from tropical storm Irene.<\/p>\n

But the 114th is a big district and in recent years Democrats have fared pretty well, putting up respectable numbers in any number of local races.\u00a0 Was there really no one else on the bench willing to take a go at it?<\/p>\n

This wouldn’t matter so much if this chunk of New York state were humming along fine and dandy.\u00a0 But the truth is, there’s a lot here that deserves open debate.<\/p>\n

This is the district that includes some of the Finch, Pruyn land that is expected to be part of a state-financed conservation deal in the next few years.\u00a0 It’s a district that has struggled economically.<\/p>\n

The future approach of the Adirondack Park Agency is being debated.\u00a0 The Regional Economic Development Councils are still evolving.\u00a0 Property taxes remain a vital issue, as do state mandates.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many of our small communities face big, even historic, questions about their futures.<\/p>\n

In a healthy democracy, candidates and parties use elections to offer up fresh ideas about issues like these.\u00a0 We all have a chance to debate the old ideas and the old approaches.<\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise that candidates and party leaders tend to think it’s all about who wins or loses, but it’s bigger than that.<\/p>\n

Elections are a time when an educated and engaged community of citizens learns about the political system.\u00a0 We chew over the issues.\u00a0 We get rare, up-close access to the politicians.<\/p>\n

It’s also a time when the candidates are forced into direct and constant intimacy with voters.\u00a0 They get an earful and an eyeful of life far from the muddle of Albany.<\/p>\n

I know that Dan Stec is making a respectable job of getting around the district, meeting with people, going through the honorable motions of a real election.<\/p>\n

But it’s not the same.\u00a0 I guarantee you that if there were two (or more) candidates sparring for your vote, Stec and all the others would be going at it with far more vigor.<\/p>\n

This is also a missed opportunity because this transition — with long-time Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward stepping aside — is likely to usher in another long period of ho-hum political seasons.<\/p>\n

Unless he messes up big time, Stec will likely cruise to re-election as long as he wants the seat.\u00a0 Which means that this was almost certainly going to be the last interesting, vibrant voting season for a very long time.<\/p>\n

But alas, no dice.\u00a0 In every meaningful sense, the baton is being passed from Sayward to Stec without a single vote being cast.<\/p>\n

I should say that there is absolutely nothing in Dan Stec’s record to suggest that he won’t do a great job in Albany.\u00a0\u00a0 He appears to be thoughtful, seasoned and knowledgeable about the North Country beyond Glens Falls.<\/p>\n

But the two parties still deserve a firm rap from voters.<\/p>\n

Demoratic and Republican leaders (and the leaders of third parties) have a responsibility to give the rest of us a choice.\u00a0 Then it’s the people who are supposed to decide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last few months, the 114th Assembly district race — in the western Adirondacks, southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[6548,6550,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930"}],"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=5930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5932,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5930\/revisions\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}