Well, we learned at least one thing from yesterday’s primary election here in NY State: Rick Lazio is an even bigger loser than we thought. Not only did little Ricky lose to Teabagger Carl Paladino, he got freakin’ trounced by almost 2-1. Uncle Carl now faces Andy Cuomo in the general election, and, while I’d normally think that Paladino wouldn’t have a chance, who knows? We the People aren’t very happy with politicians, making a mope like Carl seem appealing (apparently). He doesn’t do much for me, but then neither does Cuomo.
This election will an exercise in moving to the right and demonizing the government and public service, and it looks like my choice for Guv will be to decide which candidate who will demonize public employees less (Cuomo decided that Labor Day – of all days – would be a good opportunity to pen an op-ed in the NY Daily News declaring that “public employees unions must make sacrifices for sake of the state” and comparing NY State’s budget problem to that of NY City back in 1975; sadly, it doesn’t surprise me that Andy sees NY State in terms of NY City). That’s how it works here.
They can pretty much ignore us, unless they want to ram power lines through or something. As Hizzoner the Mayor Ed Koch has stated, Upstate (where you have to drive half an hour to buy a gingham dress at Sears) should aspire to be the source of cheap labor and raw material that NY City needs (we’re kind of like Colonial Africa, and NYC is Belgium or something).
So maybe I might as well get some teabagging meathead from Buffalo. He might be interesting, and, as David Paterson has showed us, the Governor of NY really can’t do shit if the dysfunctional State Legislature doesn’t let him.
In other primary news, not everybody I voted for lost, amazingly enough. The guy I voted for for State Assembly in my district (to replace the woman who was a friend to labor, seemed like a nice person, always showed up at any union event I’ve ever gone to, and had been in that position for longer than I can remember – which isn’t necessarily all that long) actually won. Even better, he’s a black guy, which really shouldn’t matter, but in the ‘burbs where I live, that’s pretty impressive (and, I think, somewhat unprecedented).
And Eric Schneiderman actually defeated Kathleen Rice in a close race for the Democratic nomination for NY Attorney General. I thought this was pretty surprising, since I saw zero ads for Eric. My guess is his campaign just didn’t bother with Upstate and concentrated where all the people (and Democrats) are, Downstate.
The thing I like best about NY’s system is that the primary is one of the latest ones of the season, and we’re only subjected to the political ads for a relatively short time. In about seven weeks (still too long) it’ll all be over.
There were a few glitches with voting machines around here, but not to the extent they had them down in NYC. Of course, if you had, say, problems in 1% of precincts, that’s a small number up here, but a much more sizable number down there.
Where I voted, there was only one ballot scanner. So, if that sucker crapped out, you’d be SOL (presumably they’d just collect the ballots and scan them all later when the thing was fixed or replaced). Assuming they didn’t lose them. They also ran short of ballots in some places, and had to hand out “emergency” ballots, that of course won’t get counted unless there’s a close race. That doesn’t seem right to me.
What I didn’t like (and as Sue alluded to yesterday) was that the machine didn’t tell you who you voted for and give you an opportunity to confirm or reject the result. I’d wondered about that when reviewing how the machines worked, and my suspicions were confirmed when I voted. All it tells you is the number of things you voted for, and that it got accepted.
This would seem like a no-brainer to me. It should say, “You voted for X, Y, Z. Is this correct?” I think that blows, but then the lever machines never confirmed who you voted for either (and at least they can go back and count the paper ballots, though that doesn’t help if you marked it incorrectly).
Oh well, that’s progress for you.
Pedro Espada LOST!!!
His pal the abuser, Monserrate (sp?) also lost.
Rangel won with more than 50% in a 6 way race. Not surprising! His constituents have seen him do many good things for many years. Not paying some taxes and using a rent controlled apartment or 2 didn’t negate that.
Schneiderman had no advertising anywhere but he was the most liberal and that seemed to spread.
Aushuler won in Shelter Island and he did very little advertising. His opponent Cox ran adds saying that he was tea party endorsed and the other guy, Demos, said he was the real conservative. Both said Auschuler sent jobs abroad.
Now we will get to hear about Paladino’s racist and porno emails. Oh joy!
Its gonna be fun with Christine O’Donnell winning in Delaware.
O’Whopper will self-immolate at some point. Not Today, of course, as Matt Lauer would predictably not bring up her weirdness. She must walk around in a dream state, not realizing what comes out of her mouth.
I have to say that I was touched by Christine O’Donnell’s victory. Let me be the first to extend my hand. I may be a jerk, but at least I have a grip on things.
:jerk: :jerk: :jerk:
pj, just wondering if you might have a Nadir moment now that Paladino is the repug nom? Is Paladino New Yawk for a Mavericko?
Paladino reminds me of some loudmouth Archie Bunker type you’d see at a bowling alley drinking Budweiser and bitching about “them people.” My guess is that Cuomo will stomp him. If that looks to be the case, then I’ll vote for Howie Hawkins. If it looks close, then I’ll have to hold my nose and vote for Cuomo.
He’s no Richard Boone.
And he’s no John Dehner, either.
Here’s some useless trivia for you. The only time (that I know of, at least) that a teevee show was turned into a radio show (instead of the other way around) was Have Gun-Will Travel.