Bernie Stumps With Zephyr Teachout In Upstate New York

Zephyr: "We’ve gotta take on the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics and that’s what we’re doing in this campaign."

I'm not a big fan of Rasmussen as a polling organization and I don't think any of the polling aggregators even use them in their averages. Nor am I a big fan of the whole silly theme about what happens if Hillary drops out (or even about what happens if Trump drops out). Hillary's not dropping out and neither is Trump. That said, Rasmussen did conduct a national survey asking who should replace Hillary if she did drop out. I guess they didn't ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz or other establishment bosses. The question was asked of likely Democratic voters.

• Bernie- 48%
• Biden- 22%
• Tim Kaine- 14%
• someone esle- 9%

Yesterday, the day after the first of three scheduled debates Zephyr Teachout has with lobbyist John Faso, the Republican puppet candidate of hedge fund billionaires Robert Mercer and Paul Singer, Bernie was in New Paltz, New York speaking at a rally for Zephyr. The night before Faso, in a fit of nastiness he's well-known for, accused Zephyr of being more in synch with Bernie's values than with the values of the 19th district-- a district that Bernie won overwhelmingly against Hillary-- and against Trump. There are 11 counties-- in full or in part-- that make up the 19th district. Bernie won every one of them in the primary. And Bernie's vote total in the 11 counties was 53,458-- compared to Trump's 43,182.

• Broome- Bernie- 9,176, Hillary- 7,035 (Trump- 8,409)
• Columbia- Bernie- 3,302, Hillary- 2,481 (Trump- 2,522)
• Delaware- Bernie- 1,663, Hillary- 1,067 (Trump- 2,683)
• Dutchess- Bernie- 11,680, Hillary- 11,005 (Trump- 12,447)
• Greene- Bernie- 1,458, Hillary- 1,062 (Trump- 2,538)
• Montgomery- Bernie- 1,630, Hillary- 1,185 (Trump- 1,957)
• Otsego- Bernie- 2,623, Hillary- 1,817 (Trump- 2,573)
• Rensselaer- Bernie- 6,649, Hillary- 4,738 (Trump- 4,559)
• Schorharie- Bernie- 1,088, Hillary- 622 (Trump- 1,419)
• Sullivan- Bernie- 2,671, Hillary- 2,088 (Trump- 2,563)
• Ulster- Bernie- 11,562, Hillary- 6,927 (Trump- 6,042)

Zephyr also won this district overwhelmingly, not just in her congressional primary but when she ran against Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The biggest county in the district is Ulster, where she beat Cuomo 69.95% to 27.41%. (Yes, that's a landslide-- and in the county where NY-19 is won or lost.) Dutchess is the second biggest county and she beat him there 57.51%- 40.36%. Then comes Rensselaer where it was Zephyr 63.42%, Cuomo 33.02%. In Columbia County it was Zephyr 77.91% to 20.43 for Cuomo. And so on. So Faso may be on shaky grounds when he says her values are not the values of NY-19. One example that came up during the debate was his support for the disastrous "free" trade agreements that people in NY-19 (including Zephyr) hate-- and Faso's opposition to women's choice-- another example where his values might as well be from outer space compared to most voters in NY-19. He tried throwing everything in the book at her-- hypocrisy, carpetbaggery, anti-Semitism, too pro-Black... Nothing stuck. She landed some good punches though just sticking to the issues and Faso's lockstep posture aligning him with Paul Ryan's unpopular Austerity agenda.



Hours later, Zephyr was in New Paltz, campaigning with Bernie, emphasizing exactly what we've been pointing out here at DWT, namely that Zephyr isn't going to Washington to be another go-along-to-get-along careerist robot, but to lead Congress in a different direction. "If Zephyr Teachout is elected to the U.S. Congress-- I am very confident that you are going to elect-- you will have a leader in Congress at a time when we are in desperate need of bold leadership," he told the large, upbeat crowd. "You will have a leader who has the guts to stand up to the billionaire class and tell these greedy people that they cannot have it all. You will have a congresswoman who understands that grassroots democracy and bringing our people together and mobilizing people is the only way that real change ever, ever takes place." Please consider contributing to Zephyr's campaign at the thermometer on the right that will take you to a page filled with the Berniecrats who won their primaries and are in in through November.