On March 31st, there will be a special election to fill Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's vacated seat in the House of Representatives. Her old district, the New York 20th, encompasses much of the Hudson Valley, centering near Albany. President Obama won the district 50.70%--47.70%, which is 4.25% below his national average but still provides the district a light-blue hue.
Glens Falls venture capitalist Scott Murphy is the Democrats' choice to take on Republican James Tedisco for the 20th Congressional District seat.
Democratic committee chairmen from 10 counties on Sunday chose Murphy from the narrowed-down list of four hopefuls at a meeting at the Gateway Diner in Colonie.
I am going to take a pass on this election, and take it pretty loudly (if this blog post counts as "loudly.") Best of luck Mr. Murphy, but you will get no resource assistance from this website. In the extended entry, I explain why.
There was a time when we needed more Democrats simply to remove Republicans from power. Now, however, if we lose the election, then the Democratic majority in the House drops from 40 to 39 seats. Such a drop won't impact a single piece of legislation over the next two years. Further, no matter who wins the election, the Republican plus Blue Dog majority in the U.S. House stays constant at 229-206. That is the majority we need to be concerned about--and work toward--flipping right now.
As long as the Blue Dogs are extracting right-wing policy promises from the Obama administration, giving credence to Republican opposition to even to tepid legislative proposals that are probably inadequate to solve our myriad crises, and making not so subtly veiled threats to cut Social Security and Medicare in the form of "fiscal responsibility summits," progressives should not be assisting them in elections. In fact, progressives should not only deny assistance, but they should be loud in clear in their denial. Elections are one of the few areas where we can provide or deny politicians with something they truly value: namely, the resources required to win elections. As Mike Lux wrote in mid-2008:
For me, being able to hold a politician accountable is having the real power to actually have a negative impact on something they really care about, namely getting elected and passing legislation they want to pass (although there might be a few other smaller things some politicians might care about). Unless you have the ability and willingness to mess with a politician in a serious way on either of those things, I don't think you can hold them accountable.
If we want to hold Blue Dogs accountable for their abominable performance on the stimulus, then the absolute last thing we should do is funnel money toward a perspective member in the days immediately following the stimulus fight. That would actually reward their performance.
Consider sitting on your hands to be a form of Blue Dog accountability for extracting a PAYGO promise in return for partial stimulus support. Consider sitting on your hands to be a form of Blue Dog accountability for extracting a "fiscal responsibility summit" from the Obama administration. Consider sitting on your hands in NY-20 to be a form of Blue Dog accountability for the constant threats they issue other Democrats about blocking progressive legislation. If you give Scott Murphy money now, it shows that you are not serious at all about changing Blue Dog behavior.
We were even denied a primary election, which is the most basic time to pursue alternatives. Given the current political climate, a progressive Democrat, or at least a non-Blue Dog Democrat, could have potentially won both the primary and the general election. Now, we will never know.
If Scott Murphy wants me to help him raise money, then I have a simple demand: he must withdraw his application from the Blue Dog caucus. Until he does so, there is no way I can help him fundraise right now. We need to work toward overthrowing the narrow Republican plus Blue Dog majority in the U.S. House, not reward it with our money right after it pushed the Obama administration to the right on the stimulus package.
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