The GOP candidates gathered last night in Gouverneur, all 9 of them, for their presentations to committee members asking for their support.
The presentations ranged from painful to extremely colorful. The painful presenter will not be identified, anyone who was there knew the candidate who was not smart enough to quit talking after being signaled 3 times his time was up.
The colorful, without a doubt went to Bart Bonner. He is a man who shoots straight and if you did not know where Bart stood before you certainly did after listening to him last night. He had everyone's attention!
The surprise presentations were made by Paul Maroun and Josh Lynch. They both had a good handle on principles and issues and were crowd pleasers. Although, geographically Maroun is out of the picture for the race, but thanks for stopping Paul.
Lynch, from Waddington, is a contender, but as a 20 something perhaps a little to early for the young lad to be a serious contender for this seat. He has a future, so look out for him to be around and he has excellent ideas.
The A team of Doheny and Scozzafava showed up and did little to move the needle. The consensus is Dede was aggressive while Matt played to his business background but caught some off guard with his position on the hot button pro-life versus pro-choice issue.
The ball remains in the air on this one!
Everyone draws the same conclusion the GOP is better off holding this type of process versus the Democrat's method of a smoked filled backroom annointing of their candidate.
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30 comments:
As a Republican I wish there was a bit more transparency into the selection process. It's great that all the candidates are going to meetings across the district. That gives us some insight into the candidates, but not into the selection. Without a primary I feel it is the express duty of the committee to inform us as to the criteria and weighting of that criteria for selection.
so is doheny prolife or pro abortion?
What can one say?
It was a private meeting not open to the public, wasn't it?
Is the success that it was marginally more open than the Democrats and the Tedisco Fiasco?
Bologna 1:07, there's plenty of "transparency" in the process. What about the "transparency" involved with choosing Gillibrand? Weighting criteria? Hmmmm.
I like Bonner. Like Dan Francis, he would upset a lot of people. That's reason enough for supporting him.
On the national front, I'm so glad we're going to spend $600B more on health care. And that's why we need capntrade, another tax bill to try to pay for it. This is getting funnier all the time.
2:18 - Perhaps you'd like to show specifically how the process is transparent. Your Gillibrand comment is irrelevant to this discussion. And Bonner is a nutbag who shouldn't hold ANY elected office.
Do they have to kiss Wrights ring?
Matt Doheny came down on both sides of the abortion issue, almost apologizing for saying he was against late-term or partial-birth abortion. He said the issue is a moral decision for a woman to make.
As for Dede -- she sounded ANGRY. Angry at Jefferson County Legislators, angry at Lewis County Legislators... "Who was there for you when you wanted to raise sales taxes? It was me! I was!"
She also came off sounding entitled to the position, which is a definite turn off. "This is the next step in my public service career," she said.
And it also sounded like she was calling in all her chips. Any favor she'd earned over her career was being dragged out. "I have a network of 175 elected officials from every corner of this district, and I can call on each and every one of them - because they're all my friends."
The only thing about Dede's speeches that caught me off guard was when she said the Party should know when to throw an election away. She said the Party had turned good men and good candidates into losing candidates when they should have just ceded the seats.
I'm sorry, Dede. Which candidates were you referring to? Your friend Will Barclay? Your friend Bobby Cantwell? Your friend Dave Renzi? They were all in the room, and it probably wasn't lost on them.
The most articulate candidate, unfortunately, doesn't have a chance: Dr. Ronald Uva of Oswego County.
" She said the Party had turned good men and good candidates into losing candidates when they should have just ceded the seats."
Duh, that one is easy. She was thinking of the time Scott Gray was clobbered 2 to 1 by Darrel Aubertine. Oh wait. This is a Republican District and Scott was suppose to win that one. Never mind.
Dede made the comment about lossing races with good men but I never heard anything about throwing races. She talked about throwing money away. Not races.
I also felt she did the best out of them all. She didnt seem angry it was more of I have represented you and done everything asked of me.
Passing over on her again is a HUGE MISTAKE. She is the only one who can win. People are sick of carpetbaggers!!!!
Yup, let's call Bart names and stick with the pols we got now. That's sounds like a plan.
Fool.
My take on the night: I think Dede was pissed that she could potentially lose the nomination that she thought she had in the bag...again. She came across as very aggressive, a side that many had never really seen before. I am not sure it was a good strategy since she has always appeared to be the "likeable" candidate.
As for Doheny, I heard he did better last week. He didn't seem to want to make an issue of his pro-choice position. It sounded like more of a personal opinion than a platform position. I don't think he would aggressively fight hard for or against any legislation on the issue if he were in office. I think he is a libertarian at heart, and just doesn't want to over-legislate anything, that was my take, at least. I think he wants his campaign to be more about the fiscal issues that our country is facing right now, which makes sense given his business background. Honestly, that's a not bad idea since I don't think the country can afford to be distracted during these tough times (poor economy and global instablity). The pro-life/pro-choice controversy has been plaguing the country for decades, I think our primary focus at the moment should be on getting our nation back on track. It is an issue he will need to address more clearly though since some people do base their vote almost entirely on that issue.
As for the others, it is great that they were there, but at this point, I think I would have rather heard more from Dede and Doheny since they seem to be the only two who stand a chance.
Based on yesterday, my vote is with Doheny since I think he can beat Aubertine and I don't think Dede can. Dede has too much baggage. Her union ties, business connections, liberal perspective (so much so that some Dems have been publically trying to get her to switch teams), ties to Albany (just bad timing there), etc. And now that we have seen the more angry side of her, her 'ace-in the hole' likeability is even in question. Besides, if liberal Dede were to run against conservative Aubertine, they might as well each be running on the other side ticket. That would be a funny election though.
Maybe a non-politician is the way to go. I certainly don't like the path we have been on, so why not.
I don't think you can call Matt Doheny a carpetbagger. He grew up in the area and has lived in district, at least part-time, for many many years. It is the only place where he owns a home. He actually seems to really love the area. He isn't another Senator Clinton without any ties to NY.
Yes, I think Matt did pretty well last Thursday and locked up a vote or two making Dede nervous and frustrated for last night's event. It happens.
He hasn't lived here in 18 years. Moves back here in June and wants to change the north country? Come on.
I would like to know why if he is such a successful businessman in NYC why all of a suddend does he choose to move back to water?
It doesn't matter whose there, It's the same old story. How much money was funneled ito the Wize Buys??? (taxpayer money) It's what's in it for me, lok at the current crop of lawmakers from the area, it's a joke.
Dede officially flamed out. Afterwards she looked like she wanted to cry. She pissed off several elected officials and a couple of former candidates as well.
Matt's D'man!
Hi I am Matt Doheny and this is Senator Wright's Staff.. or sorry my staff. Didn't work for Will or Dave isn't going to work for you!!!!
Doesn't really matter which of these gets the GOP nod. We are a donkey state. A donkey will win the election in the end. All this is a waste of energy.
I think one of the most interesting moments was when all the candidates answered a couple of "yes no" questions by show of hands. Especially the one about supporting term limits for members of congress, which they ALL supported. I, for one, will remember that and call them on it if they win.
I *love* that it's just Anonymous comment after Anonymous comment.
I was so astounded by what Dede said that I wrote it down. She said the party needed to know when it should "throw a race."
As for Doheny - I don't know if I can support a pro-choice candidate. It's definitely a dividing issue in the party, but when was the last time a member of the House had anything at all to do with Abortion?
Sure, the president will appoint Supreme Court justices, and they legislate from the ben... I mean, they interpret the Constitution. But it really ought to be a States' Rights issue -- just like Gay Marriage -- not a Congressional issue.
I have known Matt for years. He has always planned on settling down in the north country, thus why he bought the house in Watertown in 2006. He has owned a vacation home in Alex Bay for much longer than that and has spent almost every weekend there for the last decade or so. His Mom and extended family also still live in the Bay. He refers to Alex Bay as "home", not New York. He is the farthest thing from a "New Yorker". While all of his colleagues are sporting Armani ties and Tiffany cufflinks, Matt is most commonly seen in flip flops and Old Navy jeans, even in the winter...north country blood, I guess. The first day I met him he told me his long term plan was to move "home" and, ideally, to enter politics in the North Country so he could help make a difference. He was willing to forego a multi-million dollar career to do so. That is how passionate he was about making a difference. I was impressed by his words then, but now that he is actually following through with his plan, I am amazed. He clearly loves the north country and I think his sense of commitment to it should be commended, not criticized.
Anon 1:17- Doheney is pro abortion. Another real conservative for us to be excited about.
Anon 8:16
Get your facts straight!
Doheney has been in the Bay for years now. He is up to his island in Goose Bay weekly all year long.
AND
He is by far the smartest of the bunch.
There is no solid candidate in this enire bunch! The real Republican response should be: forget the special election, just have a vote this November when everything else is up. What the hell can he/she do in DC between now and then anyway?
Dede will lose because true GOPers will not back her liberal, lovefest attitude over the past few years. Doheny is unknown. Dumb Darrel will get another cakewalk because the GOP is a mess and the average voter in the 23rd CD is a blithering idiot who cannot begin to understand what government is supposed to do.
Woodchucksage:
The next regular election is NEXT November, not this November, so unless you want to go without a Congressperson for over a year we need a special election.
IMO, the most electable GOP candidate is a moderate Republican. This district isn't the GOP stronghold of yore, as evidenced by its support of Hillary and Obama, as well as Darrel's rise. Part of Darrel's success is that he's a moderate Democrat. Putting an ultra-conservative up against him is very risky.
We've been without a Congressman for around 10 years, Look the farmers still don't get a decent price for their milk, Because of outdated milk pricing, And John's been there.
Woodchuck, you say we can't have Dede because she's a lib, and we can't have a conservative as it's "risky". So what's the point?
I say, stick with a Democrat. It avoids thinking about anything, it jells with the dumb down national trend, and it just feels good.
Is that your point too, Woodchuck?
What is sort of lurking around the corners of this conversation is party identity. Both major parties are shrinking in enrollment in all counties. People are choosing to opt out of the primary system by registering as non-affiliated. So primaries bring this lack of shared party identity into the glaring light of concentrated opposing ideologies. Dems seems to want anti-choice Aubertine to run and Repubs seem to want a pro-choice Doheny to run. Seems like a perfect opportunity for a third party candidate (WFP?)to take the prize.
Why is abortion used as a litmus test for so many on here? A congressperson has NO say in abortion. Supreme Court justices are ratified by the Senate.
How about concentrating on issues that are at least relevant?
Ok how about Social Security?? How about Medicare? these 2 issues will be the BIG ISSUES when the baby boomers are retiring.
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