Life, the Election and Everything--Allons-y!

I bet you all thought I forgot about you!  I promise I did not.  I care deeply about the quality of my writing not to mention the quality of the thoughts behind those words.  If I feel either of those components are compromised, I stand down from the keyboard: And so it was in the days leading up to the election.  I am involved in a great many political interests on a local level.  I participated in a last minute push and campaigned hard for my local Congressional candidate, Nate Shinagawa, who ran a beautifully executed, true-blue grass-roots campaign, but in the end was unable to overcome the influence of outside money to the Tea Party incumbent.  

I also attended a rally on election eve where my daughter Tabitha finally had an opportunity to meet Nate, which was a very big thrill for a politically interested ten-year-old little girl.  I also worked as a NY Poll Inspector, doing my part to insure that our election in Yates County NY was fair and everyone who was eligible had an opportunity to cast their ballot and make their voice heard.  It was a grueling 17 hour day--but so exciting!  I'll share more about it another time.  As you can see it was a very busy time for me and something had to give.  I'm sorry it was our time together that I sacrificed, but sometimes we have to make tough choices!  In any event--I'm back now!  

This is a perfect opportunity to spotlight one of the on-going issues within our party.  Big Poppa Democrat decides which candidates are worth financial backing and which are not.  We've seen it here before back when we were humbly NY-29, a small and ubiquitous district Upstate.  We have no flashy candidates.  We're regular working folks--manufacturing, agriculture, viticulture and tourism are our lifeblood of the Finger Lakes.  One of our shining stars is a NASCAR race in Watkins Glen (the formerly cool sounding Bud At the Glen--now the groan-worthy "Helluva Good Dips At the Glen").  No matter how campy the name, it brings millions of tourism dollars to our local economy. 

 Now that our district lines have been redrawn, we've welcomed Ithaca, NY (home of the illustrious Cornell University) to our district and have struck somewhat of a balance between urban and rural areas. Due to the absence of "star-quality" candidates, though, we are largely overlooked by the Democratic Committee when it comes time to invest in campaigns.  We saw this demonstrated a few years back with Eric Massa--yes, that was us.  We elected "Tickle Me Massa", the Congressman who was quasi-outed and proceeded to melt down on Fox News for the world to see, in an attempt to drag then White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel with him.  

Despite the scandal and the public way in which he was forced to face his own personal demons, Massa was a man with solid ideas and a firm grasp of policy.  In his first bid at election against Randy Kuhl, like Shinagawa, he was ignored financially by the State and National Dem Party.  Once they saw that he ran a close race and was a viable candidate, they carried through on their offers to back him in his second election bid, which was then successful.  Some would call this solid fiscal stewardship of the Democrats meager funds.  The cautious watch-and-see stance ensures that their money is not unnecessarily put at risk.  I disagree.  I think that the State and National party is missing many opportunities to be bold and advance our party's platform and agenda.  In the case of Nate Shinagawa, it is certain that the withholding of financial support cost our Democratic challenger the election.  Without the assistance of the DNC, Shinagawa came within 4 points of victory; a solid showing for a man who was outspent 3 to 1.  The bulk of the Republican incumbent's campaign coffers consisted of funding from special interest groups and SuperPac money.  

With the careful vetting of candidates in smaller districts (although NY-23 hardly qualifies as small with a land area roughly equivalent to something between CT and NJ), Democrats have an opportunity to tip the balance in the House.  Instead, the DNC focuses its attention and finances on larger, more public races.  Not that I begrudge Elizabeth Warren her fair share--she will be a brilliant asset to the Democratic cause in the Senate, but Big Poppa Democrat is missing many, many opportunities, and leaving the less stellar districts to battle alone.  

That being said, a brief recap on how we did with the "Meet the Candidates" feature in the October blogs.  I wrote a spotlight piece on four Democratic challengers across the country that were either on the DCCC's Red to Blue or Emerging Races lists.  I shared information on Kyrsten Sinema in AZ, Jim Delaney in MD, Rob Zerban in WI and, of course, Nate Shinagawa in NY.  I'm proud to say that we batted .500 with Kyrsten Sinema becoming the nation's first openly bi-sexual Senator (a fact I intentionally omitted in the spotlight piece, as it has no bearing on her ability to serve) and Jim Delaney sending the reprehensible Roscoe Bartlett home where he belongs.  I offer my sincere congratulations to both the candidates and their constituents.  They will be well served by their choices.  
I'm still drying my tears over my own candidate's defeat, wondering what might have been.  It is my fondest wish that Nate Shinagawa will agree to run on our behalf once more in 2014.  He has so much to offer our district, and his expertise on healthcare issues is desperately needed in Washington.  It was both an honor and a privilege to volunteer my time to his campaign and should he choose to try again, I will be among the first in line to offer my time and talents to his cause.  I still believe!  

I want to assure you all that I will continue to write this blog.  We have so much ground to cover and so far to go.  The road is long and the obstacles are many, and sharing our opinions and ideas is critical to the success of our nation.  So, let's keep the conversation going here--even in the absence of a national campaign.  We have so much to talk about as we move forward.  It's an exciting time to be politically active, from the local level, all the way to the White House and, as you all know--It Matters!!