DAVE MEJIAS-- JUST THE MAN TO DETHRONE LONG ISLAND'S OUT-OF-TOUCH, RIGHT WING KING

When I spoke with Dave Mejias on the phone a couple days ago I mentioned that I grew up in his Nassau legislative district-- you know, good way to establish a bond. He got excited. "Where?" he asked. And when I said "Roosevelt," the next words out of his mouth were "Chuck D, Julius Irving and Howard Stern." Dave Mejias isn't your father's brand of stuffy politician.

Two days short of one year ago I started writing about Peter King, the odious Republican congressman from central Long Island's mega-suburban district (NY-03), which takes in both the North Shore and South Shore and parts of Nassau and Suffolk. My first outburst against King-- the first of many to come-- was brought on by his appearance on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, where showed up to call for the deaths of... "Tim Russet and the others." Actually, he was there to defend Rove exposing Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent. And his exact quote was "And I think people like Tim Russert and the other, who gave this guy [Joe Wilson] such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove."

He hasn't changed much. Two days ago he was flapping his jaws again, this time railing at Connecticut voters for wanting to get rid of their rubber stamp U.S. Senator, Holy Joe Lieberman. Making an ass of himself again, King bleated that "fortunately, the third district is not composed of the left-wing bigots who went after Joe Lieberman." The bad news for King is that the third district is not composed of the right-wing bigots who are likely to tolerate his extremist voting record and his supine, rubber stamp posture towards all of George Bush's worst and most catastrophic policy initiatives. And, even worse for King, for the first time since he was elected in 1992 he has a vigorous and aggressive opponent who understands how to make voters-- Democrats, independents and Republicans-- confront actual voting records. King's is uniformly abysmal.

"Peter King," Dave told me on the phone, "has forgotten where he comes from, He fights harder for the lobbyists on K Street than he does for the hard-working families on Main Street." Dave is right, of course, as witnessed by the nexus of King's legal bribes from one Big Business after another and the votes he freely gives for their special interests in return. But King forgot where he came from long before he became a congressman. Growing up the son of working class Democrats in Queens, King couldn't wait to abandon his family and re-invent himself-- as a pretentious right-wing phony. He worked for Nixon... and it's been all downhill ever since, supporting extremist Republicans' attempts to privatize abolish Social Security while always voting against raising the minimum wage for working people (while enthusiastically and selfishly voting to raise his own pay).


That raising his own pay chapter in King's disgraceful career contrasts markedly with Dave Mejias, who made quite a name for himself-- both inside and outside the County Legislature by being the only one of the nineteen legislators to oppose a salary increase for themselves. Nice-- but it gets better. Tough odds, right? But odds don't make a leader back away and Dave didn't-- and he won! 19-1 and he won. He didn't win a popularity contest in the legislature (or in his own party) but he shamed enough of them into changing their positions that the fat pay raise didn't pass.

The best place to find out how completely unsuited King is to represent a moderate district like NY-03 is at the Peter King Watch blog. They've got it all. But what got me really excited about Dave was a dairy he wrote himself last month at Daily Kos. I found his personal story compelling and inspirational. A first-generation American, his dad was a political refugee from Cuba, where he was imprisoned for opposing Castro. But unlike so many children of Cuban refugees, Dave turned out thoroughly committed to progressive values and ideals. A lot had to do with the visceral assistance his family got from Social Security, New York's sterling public higher education system-- like me, he's a SUNY grad-- and the help his family got from his mom's labor union after his dad passed away when he was still a kid. He told me he's running for Congress because he believes in "the power of the American Dream. I've lived it."

And Dave is a firm believer in Town Meetings. He's held more than 50 of them since he was elected to the County legislature. "Usually there's a theme-- property taxes, Medicare Part D, SuperFund sights... people want to know how to cope with real problems... There are a lot of issues the people here are concerned about but many are struggling to make ends meet and are looking at a government that doesn't care about them or their problems. People are working harder and having a tougher time."

The 3rd CD is ripe for new congressional leadership. A brand new Cooper & Secrest poll of the district shows that 65% think America is on the wrong track and 56% say that "this part of Long Island" is on the wrong track. The generic congressional preference in the district is 46% Democrat/33% Republican. 56% of those polled agreed with this statement: "We need to elect a Democrat to Congress to act as a balance to the Bush Administration's programs and policies. (31% agreed with the opposite: "We need to elect a Republican to Congress to support the programs and policies of President Bush.") King had famously said about Bush that he "thanks God every night that he is our president. The district gives Bush a job approval/disapproval rating of 30%/70%.

It appears to me that if Dave can get his message out, NY-03 is very likely to go blue. (Gore beat Bush by 5% in 2000 and Spitzer is building a solid 3-1 majority. This is going to be a good Democratic year. Please consider giving Dave a hand at our Blue America ACT BLUE Page. The first dozen donors get a copy of George Lakoff's brilliant new book WHOSE FREEDOM? THE BATTLE OVER AMERICA'S MOST IMPORTANT IDEA.


AFTERTHOUGHT: WATCH KING MAKE A FOOL OF HIMSELF ON TV AGAIN

Crooks and Liars has the Fox TV video clip up of King making typically unsubstantiated right-wing "Big Lie" attacks on the New York Times. This isn't the one of him screaming that someone he disagrees with should be shot. This is the one where he claims the Times should be prosecuted for treason for, among other things, giving Fidel Castro his job. Is it any wonder Long Islanders are embarrassed to be represented by this flaming turd?


UPDATE: AFL-CIO DUMPS KING AND ENDORSES DAVE MEJIAS

The AFL-CIO has always tried to keep some windows open to the GOP and has always worked very hard to find a few Republicans to endorse who don't publicly advocate violently anti-Labor positions. Since George Bush and the extremist wing of the Republican Party have taken over it is harder and harder to find any Republicans who have even the barest modicum of respect for working men and women. These days GOP Labor policy seems to fall barely short of re-instituting slavery. The New York AFL-CIO has tried mighty hard to nurture a cooperative relationship with Peter King and they have made a point of never endorsing any Democrat who runs against him.

That just changed. Peter King's record on issues relating to working people is absolutely indefensible. DMI examined his votes on legislation pertaining to the middle class and he wound up with a big fat zero and a rating of F. Not one person in the entire Congress did worse than King. His votes on specific Labor-related issues are so ghastly that it would be impossible for any Labor union to endorse him and then face their members. When it comes to outsourcing American jobs to cheap foreign markets, Peter King isn't just a dependable vote, he's a real leader. When it comes to protecting workers pensions from avaricious corporations... well, all those bribes contributions he's taken from Big Business... he has more than earned his keep by screwing workers over again and again and again.

Last night the state executive board decided to recommend "No Endorsement." But when the recommendation hit the AFL-CIO convention floor, the members voted to reject it and to endorse Dave Mejias. This is the first time ever that the New York AFL-CIO has decided to endorse a King opponent.