Wingnut Wendy Long is the likely challenger to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, though she still has to win a Republican primary next month.
Long has the support of the Conservative Party, which only cares about regulating ladyparts, hating on gays, and patronage jobs for Conservative hacks.
She has also been endorsed by way-former Rep. Joe DioGuardi, who was the Republican/Conservative challenger to Gillibrand in 2010 who lost by about 2-1 in the tea party's one-and-only wave year.
And Long's softball-interview by Kathryn Jean Lopez was posted at National Review Online, another sign that Wingnut Wendy is the choice of the Beltway right-wing, in which she worked for most of her adult life.
Details, below.
The NRO headline -- "Wendy's No Long-shot" -- presumes that New York might elect a conservative Republican to replace an incumbent Democratic Senator.
Which has not happened in anyone's memory, if ever.
Long is a very conservative Catholic, like Lopez and many at NRO who believe that there's some silent majority of voters in New York who will be somehow inspired to vote for an anti-choice, anti-marriage equality, pro-bishops-who-protected-child-molesters candidate.
Long also ties Gillibrand to Obama, in a state that Obama will carry by at least 10 percent.
Lopez asks Long if a pro-life woman can "really win in New York," and Long responds cluelessly:
Yes. First of all, abortion, euthanasia, and the whole spectrum of “life” issues are properly matters of state law, not federal law, and I’m running for federal office.
snip
I’m closer to most people’s views on the life issues, too. I don’t think that seniors should be denied the kind of care they will be unable to get under Obamacare. I don’t think care for the elderly, sick, or disabled should be curtailed and rationed because some panel of bureaucrats says so. And even on abortion per se, Senator Gillibrand’s views are far more extreme than most New Yorkers’. She would not permit even very mild and reasonable restrictions on abortion that most New Yorkers, and most Americans, support.
snip
So the answer is yes: I can win, because my views are actually mainstream.
Not exactly -- opposing Roe v. Wade is not mainstream, repeating Palin's death panel lies is not mainstream, and imposing onerous restrictions on abortion that would substantially limit choice is not mainstream.
In New York anyway.
Long also jumps on the bishops' political bandwagon regarding contraception coverage for employees of Catholic colleges and hospitals.
All people of good will — not just Catholics — should stand up for the basic right of conscience in an institution that has done so much for so many, and sits in judgment of no one.
Long is a well-educated adult Catholic convert who should know that while the Catholic church may no longer burn heretics, it surely "sits in judgment" of
American nuns, Catholic politicians who don't do what the Pope wants, millions of Catholic women who use birth control, and gay people.
One thing Long said in the Lopez interview hit home for me -- Long says she "nursed my mother through five years of decline and death from ALS."
There is no five-year, or even one-year, gap in Long's CV that would indicate she spent any substantial time caring for her dying mother.
Who probably was in New Hampshire, while Wingnut Wendy was in NYC or DC.
Long said this, right after her tale about "nursing" her mother:
I think a society as civilized and advanced as ours has an obligation to take care of its weakest and most vulnerable members.
From my experience, it is great that Medicare "takes care" of 65+ ALS patients who are indeed "weakest and most vulnerable."
Long presumably is similarly pleased that Medicare paid for her mother's medical and palliative care.
Though now Long is running on the standard tea party/wingnut platform of privatizing Medicare.
Which is really unpopular in NY.
Republican hypocrisy/wingnuttery like Long's may not be a problem for statewide candidates in Alabama, where they win as long as they're white and claim to love Jesus and hate Democrats.
Voters in New York are more intelligent, and far less willing to buy into Long's extremism.
Kirsten Gillibrand has been an excellent Senator, ably representing New Yorkers from Buffalo to Montauk.
Wendy Long is a career far-right wingnut who will connect with the Carl Paladino 34 percent, but precious few other voters.