Anonymous MyDD commenter addressing me, July 21, 2004:
Let's take NY's 25th, were I also grew up, for example. The Democrats did have a candidate, but he dropped out right after he was nominated. Then someone offered to run, but he/she is infact a crossdresser. Finally two days before petitions were due, someone else volunteered to run, but did not have enough signatures by the filing deadline. Now even so, oh great recruiter and knower of all districts, please tell me who in NY 25th that the Democrats could even have recruited to run a competitive race against Jim Walsh?
Latest poll on NY-25, September 25, 2006: (July results in parenthesis)
Walsh (R): 44% (52%)
Maffei (D): 40% (23%)
Yes, it is an internal poll. However, we haven't seen anything from Walsh when it comes to polling, and this poll was conducted as a straight trial heat--no message testing. I can tell you, as much as I love my new home in Philadelphia, there is a large part of me that wants to be back in Liverpool, New York right now, knocking on doors for
Dan Maffei. Autumn is beautiful up there. You can already see your breath at night, but as the leaves crinkle under your feet, and as you distinctly smell leaves burning in the distance, you just don't care. Just let me knock on another door. When we are done with that door, I'll beg you to let me knock on another. I promise to buy the first round at Clark's if you just keep knocking on doors with me for another half an hour. Enough with the charade that Central New York is supposedly Republican territory. Enough with the lie that has become Jim Walsh's "moderate" label. This is our chance--our first good chance in
ten years to retake the 25th. Let's not waste it now.
I don't know every district, and I don't claim to. That anonymous poster wasn't the only insider who chided me for demanding a more wide-ranging, contest every seat, fifty-state strategy either. All I know is that those people will never know the joy of contesting every seat. I know that Jim Walsh is dropping like a rock, and Dan Maffei is rising fast. I know that this district has a PVI of Democratic + 3.4, making it the 11th most Democratic district held by a Republican in the country. I know that Walsh, who once was a "moderate," hasn't voted against the Republican leadership on almost anything since he won his seat on the appropriations committee, and thus the conservative movement swept into my hometown without anyone even noticing. I know what it is like to walk around and knock on doors in Onondaga County in the fall. I know that this seat is very winnable, and almost every sign of a national wave is starting to appear clearly on the horizon. I know that in 2004 Democrats didn't even bother to contest the NY-25th, but now that I know many are starting to experience the joy of contesting every seat.
I wish that we could have added every Democrat running for congress to the netroots page, because I know hat around the country a lot of people are starting to see their district the way NY-25 now looks.
We can actually win, and we can even win in a lot of surprising places that we didn't think were even going to be competitive. Maybe we won't win everywhere when it is all over, but we will have changed the way people look at this district for a long time. Democrats can compete here too.
I wish we could have endorsed every candidate, but we can't. I think we have a lot of good choices, and please,
contribute today. More importantly,
find a Democratic campaign in your area, and get out there and go to work for that campaign. Experience the joy of contesting every seat. A wave is building, and we can ride this one a long way. As Senator Feingold said in his speech today, let's not just win on November 7th, but win in a way that will keep us in power for years, if not decades, to come.
P.S.
Rochester Turning is becoming an exceptionally good blog on Upstate New York politics. In the 25th itself, you can't miss
The Walsh Watch.
