Craig Johnson for State Senate
It’s no secret that newly minted Governor Spitzer has an ambitious agenda to reform
Albany. It’s one of the reasons he won the election so overwhelmingly. But it’s also no secret that one of the biggest challenges to implementing those reforms is the GOP-controlled state Senate. Even the D&C thinks so. And the recent ridiculousness where Senate Dems put up a set of reforms for a vote and got shut out by Joe Bruno and his pals only confirms that.
Our best hope right now for moving forward as a state is to flip the Senate to Dem control. Then Albany Dems will have no-one to hide behind or blame for holding back reform, and we’ll be that much closer to progress.
There’s a special election coming up for a state senate seat. It’s in a Dem-leaning area and up till recently, had a Republican senator. Spitzer picked that senator for a Homeland Security post, and the seat is up for grabs. Craig Johnson, Democratic Nassau county legislator, is running for that seat.
Eliot Spitzer knows that winning this seat is a key step to reform, so he’s initiating a full-court press to support Craig. Governor Spitzer has even reached out to the NY progressive blogosphere to enlist our support. (Color me suprised, pleased, and hopeful that Spitzer “gets it” when it comes to the netroots.) Some of the sites involved in this coordinated push are thealbanyproject.com, dailygotham.com, democracyinalbany.com, swingstateproject.com, and wnymedia.net. This is big, folks.
Here’s an ad Spitzer’s team put together for Craig, to give you a little flava:
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There’s going to be a major fundraiser for Craig on February first. You may have noticed a little ad talking about it in the middle column. We’ll have more info as it gets closer. It’s in NYC, but it’ll be liveblogged, and we’ll have info on that too.
These are exciting times, and change is in the air.
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Thanks, btp. I was going to blog about this, but I’m glad you beat me to it!
[...] The NY Democratic Party is holding fundraiser next month for state Senate candidate Craig Johnson, the one who’s running to replace Michael Balboni, who Gov. Spitzer so deftly plucked from the GOP ranks to serve as his h#%$^land security guy. Many bloggers are very excited about this shindig because the NY Dem party seems to be finally interested in them. Rochester Turning has more. [...]
How about a Rochester to Nassau roadtrip? Or the other way around? I always thought what NYS needs is a good “student exchange program” to make us more of one state. Maybe we could start with the Liberal Drinkers Club. It would be easy; hop on Amtrak and drink with the local chapter. Accommodations would be easy; real liberals sleep on the couch, especially after drinking.
As someone who actually LIVES in the Senatorial District in which Mr. Johnson is running, I don’t share your excitement about him.
Your concern may be about the balance of power in the Senate, but mine is about being represented by someone who, until he took over his late mother’s legislative seat, had no political experience, involvement or even much about what happened in Nassau County.
Could you maybe just try to balance your Senate somewhere else. Please. Pretty please.
[...] We recently announced a little fundraiser being held for Craig Johnson (yeah, it’s that big ‘ol ad down the middle of the page), and it attracted an interesting response in the form of a comment. Normally I’d laugh it off since it’s not very constructive, but I’m feeling a leeetle punchy right now so instead I’m going to use it as an opportunity to plug Craig. [...]
[...] Spitzer, determined to flip the State Senate, appointed a Republican Senator to an administration position setting up a special election for a downstate senate seat, which was won by Dem Craig Johnson. [...]