Use it or Lose it - What to do with a Campaign War Chest when there is no “War”
My State Assembly Race pits Joe Morrelle against Joe Morelle - there are no other names in that column.
Joe, of course, is on the Democratic Line as well as the Independent line and rest assured, one of them will win.
Now - The question is what is Assemblyman Joe Morelle doing to help other candidates win in terms of financial support. Something beyond the work he is doing as MCDC chair.
See, Joe is currently sitting on over a half a million dollars in cash ostensibly raised for his reelection run for Assembly. Specifically he has $531K in cash.
Now to be fair, the report has expenditures up to and including September 25th (22 days ago). He could be writing all kinds of checks to local candidates since then and we will have to wait until the next filing to really see but taking this report at face value - to date (last couple of months) Joe has donated
- $ 200 dollars to the 23rd LD
- $1000 dollars to COMMITTEE TO ELECT ADDIE JENNE RUSSELL
- $1000 dollars to CITIZENS FOR SAM HOYT
- $1000 dollars to FRIENDS OF CARL HEASTIE
- $1000 dollars to FRIENDS OF ADRIANO ESPAILLAT
- $2000 dollars to COMMITTEE TO ELECT PHILIP RAMOS
I may have missed some but that is $6200 in campaign contributions from his Assembly account.
Remember, there are $531,000 dollars in the bank (He started the period with 517K). These donations were made in August. Imagine if some seed money was given to local candidates.
Garretson and Hasman immediately come to mind both of whom could use funds. Want to convert Assembly bills into law? Then Capanna and Dollinger come to mind (Nachbar shouldn’t have have financial issues).
Like I said, Joe could have opened the purse strings after September 25th and those numbers will be on the next report. I suppose we will have to wait until the next report -
Still, we have some tremendous local opportunities and we wouldn’t want to squander them.
One thing for sure - After the election, I don’t think we want to hear about a serious candidate who lost because they could not get access to funds.
Related posts:
gee. another story about Joe letting us down? that comes as a real shocker.
The problem with Morelle is he works for Morelle. Last year he credited wins to the hard work of MCDC and others when in fact the Fair plan and Bush are why Democrats did fair. I lived in Michigan for many years before moving to Rochester.
From what my neighbors have told me Morelle goes unopposed election after election. Last year a friend of theirs ran for office and had literally no support from the Monroe County Democratic Committee. The claim was that no money was available to help local races yet no attempts were made to raise that money either.
One must ask oneself why the republicans do not run anyone against him. Why would they not try and oust a person who leads the county democrats? That would be a great victory where I came from.
Hopefully he will step up to bat and help campaigns that need funds this year. Perhaps last year he was smart enough to know that Bush and Brooks were better than money. This year given recent events he has the chance to really make a difference for all of us in the county.
If he does not do so then county democrats need consider removing him and come next election if the Republicans do not run anyone we should all seek a Democrat to run against him.
The Republicans don’t want to oust him because there couldn’t be a less effective Democratic leader around. So why mess with success? He’s their best friend here.
all this morelle hate has got to stop. have any of you been down to the HQ on university ave? it’s the best county committee office in the state - and that includes NYC. you guys shit on joe for not giving up any of his ‘war chest’, while not realizing that he’s helped raised tens of thousands of dollars for other candidates, just not in ways that find themselves into the papers or the blogs.
as for him being the republicans’ best friend… wtf are you talking about? the dems have been gaining in the county leg for the past two cycles, are about to flip two congressional and a state senate seat, are sitting on a boatload of money for local candidates next year and have a passionate, dedicated office staff. minarik had to step down because he was about to stroke out from all the pressure he was facing for not doing a good enough job at running his party, ffs.
you guys need to put down the glass of JM haterade and be thankful we’re not like erie.
The fact of the matter is Joe has a 500K war chest without a war. As I said in my post - I don’t want to hear about any candidate complaining about being underfunded. State Senate, Assembly and Clerk races immediately come to mind.
Geez, the DCCC just took a 15 million dollar loan to capitalize on the political climate and win seats.
The point of this post is that we don’t want to leave anything on the table.
As to comments by other commenters - they can defend their own arguments - I’ll defend mine.
Joe is running for higher office. Plain and simple. Louise Slaughter isn’t going to be in the House forever. Here is a scenario that could be likely if Obama wins: Hillary becomes Health and Human Services Secretary or Ambassador to the UN, Paterson looks for a woman to fill her seat but wants to court upstate voters for his re-election, so down-stater Nita Lowey is out of the picture…who else is going to turn to?? Louise..who is in a safe Dem district…who runs for her seat? Joe Morelle…need I say more?
i agree that the morelle hating should stop. given the effectivenss of previous chairs (who were losing elections during the golden clinton age) we should realize what an asset he has become. and did someone mention he is ambitious? you think? a guy who was elected in his 20’s to the county leg? a guy who has worked his way from nowhere to committee chair and a chance at comptroller on the state level? if being a good chair fills his goals, that is a win/win for the rest of us. and it is possible that people gave him some of that money and not the party because they support him and not the party and wouldn’t want it used as his personal influence buying stash. would it be nice to spread around? sure. but that is between him, er the friends of jomo, and his donors.
OK everyone - let’s not confuse or substitute the concept of “constructive criticism” or “suggestion” with “hating”. This post simply asked a question about campaign money and Joe’s obligation as MCDC chair.
I’ll agree with that cheap shots at Joe are unwarranted. I don’t think you have seen cheap shots from the front pages of RT.
Now Dennis- This sentence is odd
So when Robert Hurlbut of COMIDA and nursing home fame gives Joe money there are strings attached? Is that what you are implying here?
Look, give money to a candidate and the candidate does with it as they see fit within the law. Hopefully running and winning a race.
Candidates give money to other candidates who are running as well. This really is business as usual and frankly expected.
“win/win for the rest of us.”
Screw that! Who wants a chair looking for the next ride out of town?
The guy is holding the party back and in turn this community.
Nominations from the floor?
[...] only he had listened to stlo7, who prophetically wrote about how Morelle was just sitting on his campaign chest. He had well over 500K in funds. In the [...]