Geez, you guys need to cut the crap with the "we've got long memories" stuff, the making snap decisions because Democrat so-and-so is less than up to snuff on some meta stuff. Yeah, this stuff from Spitzer falls somewhere between timid and craven--because of that you're going to declare some future campaign "flushed?" Get a grip.

We think alike -- I've written several comments to this effect over on Kos today!  NYS politics are appalling -- a bunch of infantilized politicians who are more than happy with the "3 men in a room" system, as long as they get their perks; they get off a whole lot more on playing inside baseball games than actually governing!

I know of at least one other Senate candidate whom the "leadership" (including Spitzer's folks) rebuffed when he approached them for support -- but hey, Spitzer "endorsed" him, so wasn't that enough....? (That and $3 would get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.)

I really despair of a bunch of pols who represent a great argument for term limits.

Calling Dr Dean -- New Yorkers who actually care about our state care need you!!!

regards,

We didn't even have a Democratic candidate in the three Senate districts that carve into Tompkins County.  That said, Republican Jim Seward was running lots of commercials on the radio during the campaign.

I think the main problem here was when Spitzer picked Senate Democratic Leader David Patterson as his candidate for Lt. Governor. Patterson had been focused on making inroads in the State Senate, but pretty much abandoned his efforts after joining the Spitzer team. It is pretty hard for a team to perform properly when they have no leader.

I think all the '12 chatter about Spitzer just got flushed.

People can still chatter about Spitzer. It's the '08 chatter about Warner that got flushed.

Assume I'm an idiot and I know nothing about New York politics. Explain to me.

The "Spitzer should have shared money" thing makes sense on general principle, but why was it his responsibility specifically to win those races? Why blame him and not the candidates? Why not blame other New York Democrats who also had money to spare? Would more money have even been enough to win those races?

Is there any reason to blame Spitzer for state legislature races, or expect him to influence those races, except that as governor he'll need to work with the state legislature?

And what does "'12 chatter about Spitzer" mean?

I agree.  The Dems should have fought harder to take the State Senate.  And Spitzer should have led them.

The Dems should have fought harder to take the State Senate.

Care to explain to this New Yorker why the Working People's Party endorsed the rightwing candidate for the assembly in my district as well as Spitzer and Clinton?

I voted for the Democrat who is a perennial candidate.

New York politics is byzantine.

Best,  Terry

...under the bus?

I pulled together a few strands on this here.  Short version: one-party control of New York government would have meant no-excuses accountability, and ultimately I don't think the NY Democrats were ready for that.  Yes, Spitzer should be held responsible to a certain extent, since he basically coasted to victory and did not campaign with NY Senate candidates very much.  So should Hillary Clinton, storing up money for her presidential run.  And so should the NY DSCC, which did not spend nearly half the money it raised.

On a great day almost everywhere, the failure of the NYDems to make a real attempt at taking the State Senate is the one thing that is still pissing me off.

Having worked in NYC politics for five years, I can tell you there is plenty of blame to go around.

1. Top of the ticket. Spitzer, Hillary raised millions of dollars to run up the numbers in their own races but did little to nothing the help Dems take back the Senate. Hillary's spending was just her actingly largely out of self interest (eg: '08), which doesn't excuse her but my expectations are so low at this point that i barely get worked up. But Spitzer is going to be gov. of NY, and his agenda will be stalled by the Repub. State Senate. ALL New Yorkers who want to see progressive change in NY should be angry about it, and my sympathy for Spitzer will be minimal when it happens.

2. NY State Democratic Party. In 2004, largely under the guidance of a VERY able team put together by NY State Sen. Eric Schniederman, the Dems make real gains in the State Senate. One year later, due to a variety of factors - that team was no longer there; then minority leader David Patterson (soon to be Spitzer's Lt. Gov. running mate) did NOTHING in his role as minority leader to recruit candidates, raise money, etc....  Everyone knew with Spitzer and Hillary on the ticket there would be great coattails; the NY State Dems did NOTHING to take advantage of them.

3. NY State Interest Groups. I understand why they do what they do, but many progressive (or so-called progressive) interest groups, unions, etc... support State Senate Republicans because the system more or less works for these interest groups. Access and influence are what is important; the bigger picture is not really a factor. So many of the most powerful interests in the state that are natural Dem allies line up behind Joe Bruno and the rest of the Rep State Senate candidates each year, making it hard to beat them.

4. NY State Assembly. It is not in Dem Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver's interest for the State Senate to be run by Dems, because it would reduce his influence. He has long had a working agreement with the Rep. head of the State Sen. Joe Bruno to leave the other alone. Dems get the Assembly, Reps get the Senate - seats are gerrymandered as per the instructions of the leaders to make it as difficult as possible for the Reps to lose the Senate and for the Dems to loose a VETO PROOF MAJORITY in the assembly.

So, Spitzer deserves some blame here, but there is plenty to go around. He could fix things a lot by cleaning up the state party...

I just wanted to comment on a Jerome thread that although I've read voraciously late last night and all through today, nowhere have I seen the beautiful words Gates Got Crashed. In any form or tense.

I know it wasn't complete even though the Reeps got thumped, thanks to the so called 'centrist' hearing-the-siren-song of K street weenies, but some gates got crashed didn't they?

This is silly. The grassroots orgs in NYC have been bellowing at the Senate leadership for going on two years now to put some muscle in the effort, and they have consistently said no.

There are infuriating reasons why the Senate Dems didn't do more - career reasons, jockeying for position, whatnot - and the responsibility lies very squarely on their shoulders. Eliot, not so much. Jerome should cool off a bit.

You're all out of your league on this. Allow me to explain.

1. Remember that each candidate is responsible for his/her campaign. Stewart-Cousins won THIS year, because she ran a fantastic campaign in 2004. The DSCC, Spitzer, & any other groups provide resources BEYOND the campaign's capabilities in competitive races. The whole 'blame game' is ridiculous, anyways.

2. Each candidate inherits a district. Each district has it's own composition, voter registration, and attitudes. Even well-funded, heavily resourced candidates can't always win in districts that are heavily Republican.

3. There are only a few races in play each year. There may have been 4-6 playable seats this year. That includes defending Valesky's seat.

4. In the past, the DSCC used the "everyone wins" formula where everyone got money and no one actually won. Since that changed, the Democrats have won 4 seats in 2 years. More will come.

5. Eliot Spitzer & Hillary Clinton were committed to the State Senate Democrats. If you don't know or believe that, you're out of touch. Where do you think Spitzer's staff/resources were in the last week?

Syracuse, Westchester, Long Island, and all over the State.

6. The State Senate Democrats have great leadership and experienced talent. Let them do their job.

Lastly, consider:

A. The Democrats defeated a the third most powerful Republican, a twenty year incumbent.

B. The NYS Assembly was absent in these races. The huge coffers + staff + resources of the NYS Assembly could have helped swing an extra race.

C. Maltese's race could have been one. That's a good thing: It will get taken.

D. It's been almost a century since the Democrats
truly controlled the State Senate. How can we allocate blame to Spitzer & the DSCC?

It's ridiculous to believe that Democrats didn't want to win the State Senate. If you want to continue believing that the State Senate Democrats lost these seats for "career reasons" or "fear of accountability". If you believe these statements, I invite you to leave your keyboard and enter the real world.

Reading some of the posts today you'd have thought the Dems got killed.  

While I agree with Matt's sentiments about Rahm Emanuel (he botched the IL-6 race big time), I'm not so sure it does any good to start criticizing Democrats like Spitzer -- it begins to sound like what the religous right has done to the Republicans.

The bottom line is that, as a party, there are some rather high profile people who underperform, who are so self-concerned that little can be expected of them, party-wise.

But that's something we will all have to live with.  Now is not the time to line up the circular firing squad -- after all, we won.  Maybe the feeling is so strange that some people don't know how to react.  

Here is a suggestion: win with grace.  Win, but remember who brought you the victory, and who didn't -- but win with grace.

Likewise, we have all learned a lession from '04: lose with grace, but stay angry and get your revenge at the ballot box.  That happened yesterday.

Evidently some of you know very little about NYS politics.  

The Democrats had a great night.  We picked up 3 Congressional seats, 3 Assembly seats, and one State Senate seat.  The wins by Stewart-Cousins & Valesky in the State Senate were huge as the GOP pumped more than a million dollars into each race.  

All the State Senate seats are gerrymandered, so plus 4 in two cycles is great progress.

Spitzer & Clinton could have written big checks like Bloomberg did for the Republicans, but that would not necessarily have made the difference.  Until the unions stop bankrolling and backing the conservatives in charge of the State Senate, the Democrats will always be the underdogs in these contests.

Finally, the Albany Times Union reported that Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno called Spitzer two weeks ago and threatened to veto his entire reform agenda unless Eliot got out of Yonkers & Syracuse (read Stewart-Cousins & Valesky).  Spitzer told him to pound salt and campaigned with his fellow Democrats.  A tip of the hat would be more appropriate than most of the nonsense written in this line.

Also, I worked for the Senate Democrats for 10 long years struggling to make political gains, so I know something about this stuff.

I would be interested in knowing what, if any, overlap there is between the Republican state senate districts and the Republican congressional districts.  I'm wondering if strong Dem state senate campaigns might have made a difference for the congressional races where Dems narrowly lost.  I'm a subscriber to the belief that a strong Dem ticket up and down a ballot pays off for all Dems on that ballot.  I rejoice in the Democratic victories that we had, but I know that so much more could have been achieved.  And even out here in San Diego, I know a lot about Joe Bruno and the Republicant-controlled NY state senate.

Jesus Freakin' H Christ, it's not even 24 hours since we scored the biggest political victory in state and national history in at least 12 years, and you're ALREADY starting with the circular firing squad crap? Give it a rest, Jerome, please. You've done some really great things to help the party and country but this is NOT one of them. The SUREST path to our regaining the minority is if we're going to snipe at each other every time we don't get our way or waste our energy on complaining that this or that politician doesn't live up to our own personal purity test 100%. Instead of focusing on our MASSIVE gains, you choose to focus on something negative THE DAY AFTER. I have no idea why. There will be a time to do a proper post-mortem, and a proper way to do it. This is not that time or way.

And I think you know it.

With victory comes responsibility, among which is the need to be more careful about letting our emotions dominate our thoughts. We're not on the outside anymore. We ARE the inside now, so let's start acting like it.

Okay, I am in NY (currently Albany actually) so I have explicit knowledge about the Senate seats in the state.  I don't believe that Spitzer was being attacked for anything unwarranted. (really it was only attacking Spitzer for his Presidential chances in '12

Dems picked up 3 seats in 04 despite Bush actually IMPROVING his totals here. Spano only won that year by 18 votes.We had EVERY REASON to take back at least as many  seats this year with 2 huge Dems top ticket in the middle of a national Dem rout.

There are a few reasons that we didnt, and make no mistake...the Democratic leadership in NY holds a great share of the fault for it.  

If the Senate goes Democrat, SPeaker Silver loses a great deal of his power.  The state is no longer necessarily a 3 men in a room strategy state.  

Spitzer should have stepped up as should have Hillary. Patterson let us down as well. Dont misunderstand what I am saying, I have high hopes  for Spitzer and Patterson, 2 individuals that have proven themselves greatly policywise in New York State. Its just that when you want the support of grasroots NY Democrats some of us expect you to step up for the state party and end the ridiculous  "protect eachother's incumbents" strategy perpetrated by each party's leadership since 1964

That's because Governor Patrick, when he's done fixing Massachusetts, will be a perfect fit for leadership at the national level.

OK, I'm dreaming here, but I'm just so excited by our decisive grassroots victory. I don't even know if he's interested in moving upwards from governor of our great state. (There's absolutely no indication that he is, actually. He is really keen on being governor.)

I squealed when I saw a local TV interview with Deval Patrick with "Governor-elect" at the bottom of the scream.

Seriously, if you haven't met Patrick (online), go listen to him at www.devalpatrick.tv. Listen to the full speech on the Boston Common in the speech section.

I really do hope he has it in him to run for further office after 8 or 12 years.

Kovie said it right, we just had the biggest day in America in years and you're already playing the blame game.

If your State Senate candidate lost, I'm sorry. But some people are actually enjoying a Statewide sweep plus huge wins in Valesky & Stewart-Cousins.

And you're still wrong:

Spitzer and Hillary were very helpful in the competitive races. They raised money, made campaign appearances, and provided staff.

Also, two points:

1) Money has diminishing returns. Eventually, each candidate has to face the realities of their district: voter registration, past voting trends, and the ability to move against the incumbent.

2) Spitzer & Clinton had polling numbers on these races, just like the DSCC. They weren't picking races blindly. If the numbers weren't there, it's counterproductive to step in. When we stretch ourselves thin, we lose. When we focus our resources, we win. Fact.

Also, as a follow up.

There's no doubt that the Assembly didn't step in to protect their delicate relationships with the State Senate.

And perhaps the Democrats should have foreseen Maltese's race. Once again, now that seats in play.

After last night, there are probably already 3 seats we can identify as takeable.

Hillary contributed and raised $550,000 for the New York State Democratic Party in this cycle, and HILLPAC-NY contributed $96,000 directly to New York candidates. She headlined events that raised more than $600,000 for New York Democratic candidates; made more than 45 appearances with New York Democratic candidates, recorded robo-calls, and sent e-mails and letters of support. President Bill Clinton went on the campaign trail in New York in the last days of the campaign, including for all 3 successful congressional candidates.

The trashing of Spitzer doesn't reflect what was going on in Ulster County with the State Senate Race Zimmet(D) v Boniac(R).  I couldn't watch an hour of cable TV without seeing an ad with Zimmet and Spitzer talking about how he need her help in Albany. I must have seen at least 100 ads in the three weeks before election day.  I won't tell you how many calls I got urging me to vote including a personal call from the  Democratic coordinated GOTV.

How she lost both that is more a reflection of the effort the State Republicans threw into the race.  I'm going to heat my house this winter with all of the mailings I got from them.