NY-29: Why Kuhl Lost
On F29, Rotten has an interesting & thoughtful take on why Kuhl lost. He feels that the 2006 Kuhl might’ve won, but that replacing the town meetings (which even RT grudgingly complimented him for) with lame closed-door appointment-only meetings, as well as skipping debates, lost him the connection with the district.
The worst aspect of Kuhl ducking town-hall meetings was how weak it made Randy look. If a few noisy radicals in Monroe County cause him to back away from a lifetime commitment to constituent interaction, voters start to wonder if Randy can stand up for them in the far tougher environs of Washington, DC.
I always thought that was a weird choice. If you look at any of the videos we posted of his town meetings (here’s an example), you’ll see that even in the face of exuberant protesting he was usually able to calmly talk his way out of potential trouble. Not that he was right on the issues, but he could definitely handle himself. Why would you willingly walk away from a successful branding point (”…visits every town in the district…”) towards the opposite, which just makes you look lame? Rotten blames it on bad advice from GOP Washington insiders, which may not be far from the truth.
Related posts:
This is why the Reps lost (if you want to believe Reps):
“The Democrats are better salesmen than Republicans on many levels,” he said. “I think sometimes, we (Republicans) are too concerned with doing the work of government and we forget to do all the things that go into being elected.”
-Ralph Esposito, today’s D&C
Any takers on who buys that statement?
He’s a dork.
republicans are too busy doing the work of government? If he truly believes that the case then why has the nation went from one disaster to another disaster… to yet another disaster and the GOP has not in any way responded to said disasters responsibly or for that matter even said, “We screwed up”. Its hard to determine which disaster to start with. 9/11/2001? Invading Iraq? Afghanistan? Pakistan? Economy? Hurricane Katrina? Gas prices?
The GOP is like Medusa except the difference being Medusa turned things to stone. The GOP turns it into disaster, crap if you will. Single handedly taking America from a nation perceived in the world as a beacon of light and hope to one of distrust and disaster. Not that the US was a beacon of hope… While nations leaders knew this the people of the word still looked to America. Perhaps Obama can reverse this?
If Mr. Esposito truly believes that statement then he is an extremely stupid individual. Perhaps he’s just spouting the GOP recording. The GOP has become “The Borg” from Star Trek, a bunch of robots who dont know the difference between right and wrong. Cept’ they are a whole lot less smart, most are less smart than the constituents they pretend to represent.
Dem’s are better salesman?
The nations people CAN tell the difference between being prosperous and being flushed down the toilet. Thats the current GOP legacy.
So locally Dem’s lost big because they are bad salesman? Perhaps its because the Monroe County sales manager is bad, course’ his job had no other applicants.
I have a better explanation for the results in the county here. Rochester is pretty much known (which I did not know when I moved here or I would not have) as being an area known for rude people. While I have not been treated real rude like here certain things are clear.
This community has very little in the way of community. Whether its because of people or leadership I cannot say since I have not been here a long time. I’d have to guess however that its leadership since other places I have lived have far more sense of community instilled in the people. Here it’s like people think, “Its not my problem”, “Its not my fault”, “Nothing I can do about it”, “Its their fault” on and on, even when it comes directly home to roost be that in their kids, neighborhood, jobs and family. Like the community might as well be on the moon .vs. part of the nation.
I have noticed that local government does divide the community an actively tries. This year I was very surprised as I fully expected the people in the county to wake up and say, “We’ve had enough” but nope… Apparently they still believe that the GOP ways are good for Monroe County.
People who vote complete party politics are drones. Those I know of in the GOP could not even tell you WHY they are Republicans. The GOP they, their parents etc. believe in IS NOT HERE. While it may still exist in other areas of the country HERE in Monroe County it DOES NOT EXIST. Our “GOP Leaders” are as far from being Republicans as Democrats are and any normal Republican citizen in this community *IF* they simply stepped back and looked down at it (instead of UP which is what the local GOP does, uses, divides & conquers with) they would see clear as the nose on their face this fact.
Our local GOP leaders are not Republicans but they will USE the poor republican public by turning neighbor against neighbor, by turning citizen against citizen. You do NOT hear them SAY, “We are all Americans”. You hear them say, GOP, Dem. Reality is we are all AMERICANS yet many Dem’s and many MORE Republicans locally dont see things that way. They see things as “Us .vs. Them” which equates these poor slobs to being no more intelligent than people who engage in “X-Box is better than Playstation”.