Hi, everyone! I’m running for State Senate in NY against one of the founders of the nefarious “Independent Democratic Caucus.” The goal is to flip the Senate from red to True Blue, so we can pass health care for all, pursue a just transition to clean energy, bring NY’s election laws into the 21st century, and otherwise make NY the blue leader it should be. My team includes a talented filmmaker who recently graduated from Syracuse University, and I want to share the fun video he made about my race. Please help me make it go viral! Up here in Central New York, there isn’t a lot of press coverage of legislative races, and I can use all the social media help I can get.
About the race: The IDC was a group of so-called Democrats who made it their priority for most of this decade to assure permanent GOP control of the Senate, in spite of a HUGE majority of Democratic voters in New York state. In exchange, my opponent and his co-conspirators reaped a lot of benefits: ethically dubious cash bonuses, extra staff, extra pork, and access to big-money GOP donors. They also got to run unopposed, year after year.
The IDC has supposedly disbanded now, thanks to our efforts to get out the word about their betrayal of Democratic voters, and to their fear of our primary challenges. But they still draw on their apparently illegal stockpile of ill-gotten donations, and my opponent has not promised that he won’t return to supporting the GOP leadership in the future.
Yes, it is critical that Democrats take control of the US Congress, but we also need to flip state legislatures, and New York’s is the lowest-hanging fruit out there. Democrats have had a majority for most of this decade, we just need to get the right Democrats into office.