Democracy for NYC recently held a forum and endorsement vote in the Democratic Primary in NYC's 13th Congressional district, currently represented by incumbent Republican Vito Fossella. Steve Harrison has won our endorsement with an unprecedented 100% of the vote!
Yep! One hundred per cent of the vote.
The reason may be that the only other declared Dem for this seat managed not only to avoid the DFNYC candidate forum but also missed two other public meeting with Steve this year.
I'll tell you more about the race below:
Yes!
This is the district (NY-13) presently (mis)represented by Vito (No More Vino) Fossella of recent DUI fame.
Fossella faces a mandatory 5 days in jail for being WAY over the limit 0.17% in Virginia.
(For a holier-than-thou Bush clone the thought of the photo-ops must be haunting)
This race was already a target for us this year.
Steve ran in '06 and was outspent 13 to 1. He still got more votes (44%) than any other Dem in this District configuration.
Fossella is a Bush-clone and a rubber-stamp Republican, the only R Representative in New York City. Our district is all of Staten Island and a sliver of Brooklyn (that resembles a random walk by a guy with a bucket of paint). While the reputation of Staten Island is staunch Repub it really is more complex (ex. majority Dem. registration). The repub brand is as sour in NY as anywhere and the tabloids are having fun at Vito's expense.
We have a pickup opportunity.
Back to the DFNYC endorsement and Primary
Do we have a candidate?
Well I do and DFNYC does and .....
Steve Harrison is a life-long real-life Democrat who can proudly use the word "liberal" and was one of the original signers of Darcy Burner's Responsible Plan for Iraq.
Steve is for single payer health care, sensible gun laws, fair taxes, Green initiatives ... If you get to know him you are really going to like this guy.
The best way you can do that is to go to
SteveHarrisonforcongress.com .
The biggest problem Steve has at the moment is a Primary opponent, one Dominick Recchia a soon-to-be-term-limited City Councilman. Although he received some large Real Estate donations he is running a stealth campaign. He does not even have a campaign website ?!?! His (possibly unintended) function seems to be preventing national attention from getting to Steve Harrison.
The solution is that Steve can get support from DCCC and the national structure if he can can out raise Recchia. Once we have a nominee the prospect of turning all of NYC Blue and registering more Dems will attract national interest.
Fossella has BIG funding problems (not the least of which ais that his campaign treasurer was Chris Ward, the same guy who the RNCC fired after the FBI arrested him for fraud.)
I know everyone needs money, I know how it feels to get to the end of a diary and read the begging but ...(if it was for me, I'd be too ashamed to beg like this, but for my country I'll do it)
Can you give $5 ( a dollar a day for each day Vito (No More Vino) Fossella will do in the pokey or, even better $10.50 for the 10.5 miles he drove while s**t-faced.
Give it to Steve's ActBlue page.
steve harrison for congress