This afternoon, I attended one of dozens of house parties that the
Eliot Spitzer for NY governor campaign set up for Earth Day.
Spitzer is headed for a landslide victory in November, and does not need to do such stuff to win. He's presumably doing it to keep in touch with the activist base, and, in this instance, to highlight his exceptional environmental record.
The highlight was a statewide conference call featuring Spitzer and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but almost as interesting was being with local Democrats, who are fired up to erase the Pataki stain on New York.
Details below.
Spitzer is mostly known nationally for his work on various Wall Street rip-offs.
But he's done a lot for the environment, primarily in suing to get the Bushites to enforce the Clean Air Act and make polluting utilities obey the law.
He spoke about that, of course, and about renewable energy as an economic development (as well as environmental) priority, about cleaning up the Hudson River and about shutting dowm the aging nuclear power plants at Indian Point in Westchester County, for which there can never be a credible evacuation plan.
Spitzer gave props to one of the best members of Congress -- Maurice Hinchey, an environmental hero in Congress and before that in the Assembly -- and to Kirsten Gillibrand, who is running the strongest challenge ever to an upstate Bush/DeLay dittohead Congressman.
Spitzer made the unassailable point that winning back Congress this year is essential to reversing the Bushites' pro-pollution agenda.
Spitzer also mentioned that Bush was the Worst President Ever. I wasn't talking notes, so he may have qualified it somewhat. But he seemed well aware that opposition to Bush is an important electoral factor even for someone who will win in a walk.
The house party was in Colonie, a suburban town outside Albany that has not elected a Democratic town official since before FDR. But the Dems hold five of the town's 10 seats in the county Legislature (up from just one before the last election) and the state Assembly and Senate seats, and the Dems came within 600 votes of winning a town board seat last year.
And Colonie has not voted for a Republican for president since before Clinton. The suburbs are becoming more Democratic, here and all across the country, one election at a time.
I chatted a bit with Bob Reilly, a first-term assemblyman who beat a longtime GOP incumbent two years ago. He has no opponent yet, in a district that has a 3-2 Republican registration edge.
Reilly is confident that he will win re-election, in part because most of his strongest challengers have bowed out, in part because this will be a big Democratic year, and mostly because he's done a good job in representing the district and getting the word out about it.
Others I chatted with are like people here, Democrats who are energized as never before, not just to elect a heavy favorite for governor, but also to win all the offices on the ballot.
A statewide candidate -- Denise O'Donnell, running for attorney general -- stopped by and spoke for a few minutes.
I was leaning toward another candidate, but I've been to two local Democratic events this year, and she showed up at both -- not as the main attraction, but as a Democrat working hard to touch base with the base.
O'Donnell provides a necessary balance -- she's from Buffalo, and if she wins the primary, would be the only woman and the only upstater on the statewide ticket.
Plus, she's a former US attorney, so she has more relevant experience to be attorney general than the current front-runner, a former governor's son.
Back to the environment, this is a major issue where a vast majority of voters support the Democrats. So voters should be reminded a lot this year about the Bush/DeLay/Republican pro-pollution policies.
Because we all want to breathe clean air and drink clean water. And the Republicans have been bribed by polluters to be the party of dirty air and dirty water.