The 62 County Strategy
UpstateBlue has an idea for NYS: a 62 County Strategy, one where we contest every election in every county (!):
I was greatly disappointed to find out today that right-wing Republican George Amedore defeated progressive Democrat Ed Kosiur in the recent special election for the Schenectady-based 105th Assembly District where the Democrats currently hold a fairly large registration advantage (39% Dem to 32% Rep). What’s a person who has stood strongly against unions, paid family leave, and embryonic stem cell research doing representing a moderate, working-class district like this?
All in all, I think that the New York State Democratic Committee needs to show a much greater committment towards building an adequate party infastructure in Upstate New York. Many of these Upstate areas would vote Democratic far more consistently if the party establishment would actually get its act together and devote far more resources towards this part of the state. Kosiur barely had the resources available to run an effective campaign against the personally wealthy George Amedore, who was able to outraise Kosiur by about 3 to 1.
State Democratic party co-chair Dave Pollack responds over at The Albany Project:
We agree with Colin from Upstate Blue that the New York Democratic Party needs a 62 county strategy based on DNC Chairman, Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy. This has been a guiding principal for us since our election in December of 2006.
In fact, State Chair June O’Neill and I know that for New York to become a truly Blue state we must build infrastructure to compete in all of our 62 counties from Erie to Suffolk, and we have begun to do just that. We just concluded a 7 day 12 county road trip meeting with county leaders to discuss the upcoming elections, strategies, strengths and opportunities. In addition, we recently launched a first-of-its-kind online County Chair Survey to catalog the technological and political capabilities of the Party statewide.
Even early on in the implemention of our 62 county strategy, our focus has already paid off with electoral results. Since January 1st there have been 6 special elections in NY and the Democrats have won 5 of them - including Craig Johnson’s victory on Long Island for a Senate seat held by Republicans for generations.
What I hate is that I get frequent e-mails from the NYS Democratic Party and the NYS Young Dems. Practically all their events are held downstate, notably NYC. What good does that do me, a dedicated Dem, up here in WNY?
Just like the 50 state strategy, this state needs a 62 county strategy. Western New York needs more Democrats. I know we have three candidates for Legislature in Orleans County, but the current Legislature consists of seven Republicans! So even if the Democrats get on, they’re at a disadvantage. We need more.
The same thinking leads me to believe that we should push hard in all the lej districts this fall.
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pollack and o’neil were recently in rochester stumping for potential alesi opponent dave koon. they seemed serious in trying to turn the shame of being the only urban area in ny without a dem senator. i know this site is a fan of koon, so we should all be gearing up for that battle against ‘gentleman jim’. and i know it is an 08 race, but against bruno’s minions, you have to start early.