What Kind Of People Sell Personal Information From Donors?

If someone offered me a huge sum for the Blue America mailing list, I would tell them no. If they doubled the offer, I would tell them to go suck wind. Today I got an e-mail from a candidate in New York who I've never been in contact with, Aaron Woolf, a film producer from New York's North Country who is trying to hold a rough swing district for the Democrats. The current incumbent, right-wing leaning New Dem, Bill Owens, saw the handwriting on the wall and announced he would be retiring. Happy to see him go. His 32.87 Progressive Punch crucial vote score is exactly tied with Republican Chris Gibson's (R-NY) and more right-wing than Walter Jones' (R-NC). The only Democrats who vote more frequently against progressive proposals or with the GOP are Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ), John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA) and Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT). Sticking with Steve Israel's insistence on adhering to the moronic "mystery meat strategy," Woolf has no issues on his campaign website. So who knows if he'll even be better than Owens or just as horrible. Or worse.

There was nothing about his stands on issues in the e-mail he sent me and stories about him online are generally devoid of anything to do with issues. He owns an organic deli in Brooklyn, which is a 6 hour drive from Plattsburgh. This from the biggest newspaper in the district, the Watertown Daily Times:

A call to his store/deli yielded the information that he doesn’t spend all that much time there. Calls to leading north country Democrats have so far failed to yield a number at which Mr. Woolf can be reached. He has no campaign committee that anyone can find, even though a Republican frontrunner to be on the ballot in November, Elise Stefanik, has a well-oiled political campaign and has raised a quarter of a million dollars. With sufficient effort, I can reach Ms. Stefanik, or at least someone who can reach her. She’s already been in this newspaper office, met with our editorial board. She has an actual platform, a set of ideals that she can elucidate-- whether you like them or not.

Thus far, in terms of organization and quality of candidates based on what we know about them, it’s Republicans 1, Democrats 0. Ms. Stefanik has worked hard over the past year to make her name known from the Vermont border to Lake Ontario. She waltzed through the Republican selection process and although there is almost certainly going to be a GOP primary for the seat, she appears ready to take on all comers. This is known as a serious candidate.

Is Aaron Woolf a serious candidate? A full day has passed since his name was drawn out of the Democrats’ hat, and the closest anyone can come to answering that question is ... maybe. In an interview posted in an online magazine, Mr. Woolf comes across as a thoughtful man and a talented maker of documentaries. He has a passion for agriculture with a small a, and with his Brooklyn store, he has put his money where his heart is — he seeks locally produced, organically grown products to sell in the big city, and he sells Saranac Brewery products from the Adirondacks. Good for him!

But ... how does he feel about Fort Drum? How does he feel about gun control? How does he feel about economic development for Northern New York, especially given his connection to the Adirondack Park? Can he find Rossie and Rosiere, Lorraine and Lousville, Osceola and Ogdensburg, without a GPS or a paid driver? If he was forced to honestly answer the question “How much time do you spend in metropolitan New York and how much time in Elizabethtown?”, what would he say?

For the north country, these are big, big questions. Fort Drum, the largest single employer in the state of New York, needs a strong and devoted champion in the House of Representatives. The integrity and the ability to easily cross the Canadian border in both directions is a vital issue here. The farm bill, and especially its dairy provisions, has to be a major priority for anyone who wants to represent this region in Congress. We don’t know how Aaron Woolf feels about any of these issues. Until he deigns to come out in public, we won’t know.

Beyond that, however, is a greater concern for the west side of the 21st district, which is about the size of Tennessee: if the ballots the voters see on Nov. 4 bear the names Aaron Woolf on the Democratic line and Elise Stefanik on the Republican row, we will be selecting between a part-time Elizabethtown homeowner with his roots in New York City and a conservative Washington policy wonk who hasn’t wanted to be anything but a politician since she was in eighth grade chorus. And no matter what angle I come at that from, I don’t see how the more than 250,000 people of Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis and Jefferson counties can win.

Finally, last month, the mysterious Woolf did an interview with the public radio station. He's pro-Choice and pro-marriage equality. So at least we know that about him. He's as pro-gun as a Democrat needs to be in a hunting district. And it wants to fix-- not repeal-- to Affordable Care Act. All standard Democratic Party fare. Will he turn out to be as bad as Owens? Not likely… but who really knows?

No one in the district may know who he is but Israel put him right on the DCCC's Emerging Races list. This will be a very difficult district to hold. Woolf will not win by saying "I'm a Democrat so vote for me." The PVI is dead Even, though Obama won with 52% in 2008 and again in 2012. Owens squeaked through last time 126,631 (50%) to 121,646 (48%) after an internal Republican bloodbath, followed by two contests against far right extremist (and perverted playboy) Matt Doheney.

The massive 21st CD has a dozen counties. Owens won 4 and Doheney won 8, but Owens' big win in Clinton County, the main Democratic county, neutralized Doheney's narrow wins in Jefferson, Warren and Saratoga counties, the GOP heartland.

So back to that e-mail I got from Woolf today. It was typical DCCC consultant drivel:

He's at it again folks.



Congressman Paul Ryan has proposed another budget akin to his 2010 plan. He wants to cut Medicare, slash K-12 education programs, and eliminate transportation investment by $172 billion over 10 years.



I need your support.

This June, if the Republican establishment has its way, I'll be running against Congressman Ryan's former debate aide, Elise Stefanik. Please click here to contribute $5 or more to my campaign.



Ending the Medicare guarantee and forcing seniors to pay more is not the answer. We must work together to find responsible ways to reduce our debt that don't cripple job creation, burden our seniors and students, or penalize middle class families.



I'm running to ensure that our North Country senior citizens keep the healthcare and physician access for which they have worked so hard.

If the DCCC was serious about the danger of Paul Ryan, they would be helping Rob Zerban win in Wisconsin's first CD. But they're not helping him-- the same way they didn't help him in 2012. I sent the e-mail to Zerban as a laugh. He wrote back asking me if I knew how Woolf got his mother's e-mail address. She got the letter too. Like we warned last December, the DCCC-- or at least the corrupt, revolving-door consultants they're in business with-- steal the lists and sell them to candidates they "work" for. Moral of the story? Um… don't vote for mystery meat candidates and don't contribute or sign a petition that comes from an entities connected to the DCCC. What kind of people sell personal information from donors? The same kind of people who rob their synagogue. That should cover it.

Oh, yeah, so… forget about the DCCC mystery meat candidates but, by all means, contribute to actually stop Paul Ryan-- you can do it by supporting Rob Zerban here.