Spitzer vs. Suozzi - Updated
So, I was pretty set on Spitzer. I haven’t done a lot of hard research on either of them, but the narrative I’d gotten from word-of-mouth, the national blogs, and the ads was this: Spitzer’s a quixotic, white-horsed hero who goes after corporations and organizations trying to screw the little guy, while Suozzi’s running to the right of him, funded by the big businesses Spitzer’s pissed off, in a kind of revenge move.
A friend of mine said the story really is: we need someone who’s going to be a reformer in Albany, and since all the Albany insiders are supporting Spitzer, he’s going to be beholden to them and not rock the boat, while Suozzi can get in there and start kicking ass right and left.
Heavy-hitters like NYCO who have a pretty good finger on the pulse of upstate, believe that Spitzer will make a bad gov for upstaters, given his lack of focus on upstate issues during the debates (at least the one he did on NY-1 that didn’t even get broadcast in Buffalo) and Q&A sessions, and a preponderance of focus on downstate issues.Â
[Update: NYCO corrected my misremembering in the comments: "I don’t believe that Spitzer will make a bad guv for upstaters, but I do want him to “be all that he can beâ€â€¦ " Hear, hear.]
I didn’t catch the debate last night, but I was curious if anyone did and what their take was. I’d also like folks to weigh in on who they like, and why. (Even if they like Faso. I guess.)
Well said.
The real test for Spitzer will be whether he can end the Bruno-Silver reign of terror and bring actual representative democracy back to Albany. I don’t think he’ll be able to do it. But I think he has the best chance of anyone.
I was at the Town Hall Meeting. It is clear to me that Souzzi, dispite his frequent recitation of upstate geography, is much more downstate-centric than Spitzer. All the candidates knew that the weight of the debate watchers were NYC viewers, so it is reasonable to expect them to focus their remarks on that audience. Same thing happened in the Attorney General Town Hall meeting. I had a chance to ask Maloney a wide open question: where would you focus your consumer advocacy energy. He used the question to play directly to the NYC audience and suggest that the power authority be investigated because of the recent power outage in NYC.
I also don’t think we can judge Spitzer entirely on the money he raises. Insider money is doled out on the basis of viability (likelihood of winning) - everybody wants to back a winner, and there couldn’t be a more obvious frontrunner. I think that says more about the organizations that are giving to Spitzer, and their winningness to pander, than it does about Spitzer.
Finally, Spitzer’s ability to bring reform to Albany depends upon the voters bringing Spitzer a new set of leaders. The Assembly majority is too overwhelming for Sheldon Silver’s leadership to be threatened, but only four (4) seats need to change for Sen. Bruno to loss his crown. Spitzer can’t bring reform without at least one of the entrenched power-brokers seeing the door. The 56th District is ripe for returning to Democratic Party representation, and I’m excited about the possibility of playing a significant role in bringing reform to Albany.
That’s a good point about the smart money backing the obvious front runner. Just because Sheldon Silver backs Spitzer doesn’t mean that Spitzer’s a business as usual candidate– it could just as well mean that Silver doesn’t want to piss off someone who very likely will be the next gov.
And you make another good point about this– if you want change in Albany, where’s the most likely change point? According to Wikipedia, the Assy currently has 150 members– with 104 Dems. Not gonna change this year.
I caught a snippet on R News of Suozzi in a debate today. He was talking about the disparity in school (property) tax collection in the suburbs vs. urban areas, and said “that needs to be fixed.” (paraphrase). Sounded like he was advocating sending upstate property tax revenue to NYC schools. Screw that.
I don’t believe that Spitzer will make a bad guv for upstaters, but I do want him to “be all that he can be”…
Sorry NYCO! I didn’t mean to misquote you. I thought I remembered you having a diary on dailykos entitled “Spitzer will be a bad governor for upstate NY” or something, in the wake of the first debate, and you cited his lack of addressing anything much upstate as an indicator of his downstate-ism. I just did a search, and it’s weird– a number of your dkos diaries are gone (although Google’s cached them). Anyway, I’ll correct the post. Thanks.
[...] with the September 06 NYS primaries around the corner, we had Eliot Spitzer facing off against Tom Suozzi and John Faso (remember them?) in a Rochester [...]