Matt Ryan, the Democratic candidate, was elected mayor of Binghamton, New York yesterday. Binghamton is typical of the many cities in the Northeast that struggle along in post-industrial America. It has a population of 40,000 and would never be accused of being a vital electoral battleground.
What makes his victory really intersting was the fact that Ryan won despite (and I believe perhaps because of)his being the subject of an extensive dirty tricks campaign by the local Republican party and its candidate.
The area was subjected to a push poll campaign that the local paper managed to trace it back to the Republicans,who refused to confirm or deny the contents of the poll. The county party chairman would only say that "Anything that I do out of my office is truthful, accurate and informative." Yea, right.
The citizens of Binghamton received flyers from the Republican party that implied an endorsement from the local paper, the Press & Sun Bulletin, an endorsement that was never made. They paper wrote an editorial condemning the flyer. Another flyer accused him of defending rapists, implying that he had choosen to do so, in spite of the fact that he was fulfilling the Constitutionally mandated role of public defender. At this point, the paper wrote an editorial that stated.
The latest in a scurrilous series of fliers mailed by the Broome County Republican Party plummets to a new depth although one thought the bottom of the barrel had already been scraped.
The strangest incident was when a Democratic challenger for mayor who Ryan had defeated in the primary, filed charges of harrasment against him. I have no idea what actually happened, but I do think it is a strange coincidence that one of Ryan's most vocal accusers wound up working for the Republican candidate.
At this point, I am undecided whether Ryan won despite these attacks or if the voters of Binghamton chose him because they didn't want to have a mayor with that much slime on her hands. Even if, as she claimed, she did not have anything to do with the dirty tricks, she never came out and clearly denounced them. Ryan summed it up when he said,
Naima Kradjian (his Republican opponent) denies that she knows what's going on. Does this demonstrate good management and leadership? I don't believe this is the kind of mayor who will be good for Binghamton.
The funniest thing about the election was that their candidate (who was the best funded in the field, the paper referred to her funding as "purse/puppet strings") came in third behind Ryan and the Independent candidate.
While the mayoral campaign for Binghamton will never be considered a bell weather for the nation, these kind of victories have a cumulative effect, strengthening the party from the ground up. Congratulations to Ryan and all of the other Democrats who won at the local level! It all adds up.