This will be brief.
Today was Democratic primary day in Staten Island. A hotly contested race for Michael McMahon's vacated City Council seat (which was vacated when he became a congressman, jumping into a primary to defeat our truly progressive candidate, Steve Harrison in the '06 election, the seat vacated by our disgraced republican Vito Fossella), was won handily tonight by a truly progressive "community organizer" Debi Rose against Democratic Congressman Mike McMahon's sock puppet, Ken Mitchell.
McMahon won his congressional with tacit approval of the Island's Republican party. They (the Republicans) were feuding amongst themselves and couldn't put up a decent contender after Fossella's demise. I was there at headquarters election night and saw our Republican Borough President in attendance celebrating the McMahon win.
Last spring there was a special election to temporarily fill McMahon's vacated City Council seat. McMahon's hand picked guy Mitchell (a staffer) was challenged by African-American community activist Debi Rose. The results were so close they required a recount, but Mitchell won the day back then.
But now came the September primary for the permanent decision on the Dem choice. Debi ran again and with an incredible campaign effort, trounced the "machine" Dem candidate Mitchell 55% to 39%!
My wife and I were conflicted over our choice on this one. All of our friends (I think of them as our Staten Island "artsy fartsy" friends) were for Mitchell.
We were not sure who to vote for until we had arrived at our polling place. My wife produced the candidate statements from both of them.
Rose: Fix the deplorable health care situation on SI, fix the deplorable schools, etc.
Mitchell: Create & protect jobs (that's all, folks!)
Well for us, that "protect and create jobs" is code for "protect the big business real estate industry on SI that has devastated our historic neighborhoods and green areas with high density cheap housing projects".
Our "established Dems" have always been in league with Republican friends in that department. It's why BP Molinari celebrated McMahon's victory with him, in my opinion.
Well, the establishment got a surprise tonight!
And the kicker? It's reported that Mitchell will seek to run in the general election on the Conservative party line!
I know it's a very local election, below the radar for most readers here. But it's down here at the grass roots where inroads are made a step at a time. This was a pretty big step around here.
Congrats, Debi Rose, on a hard fought campaign and well earned victory.