Primary Day In New York-- And Six Other States

Howie drags another unsuspecting congressional candidate, Jon Powers, to a raw food restaurant

There are a seven states with primaries today, although New York's is the only one worth reporting on. A gaggle of greasy Republicans are fighting amongst each other to take on Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes in New Hampshire but Carol and Paul are expected to beat back whichever clown is nominated by the reactionaries. The gubernatorial primary in Delaware takes on some meaning because whoever wins the Democratic nod is likely to be appointing a U.S. Senator after November.

In New York, however, there really are some hot races. In the Staten Island/Brooklyn district (NY-13), the Democratic Establishment has gotten behind pro-war, pro-corporate, conservative shill Michael McMahon from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party while grassroots Democrats back Steve Harrison. According to this morning's CQPolitics "Harrison held Fossella to the lowest take of his congressional career, 57 percent, in 2006 but with the scandal surrounding Fossella and the subsequent chance to pick up the seat, Democrats turned to McMahon for the general election. McMahon reported raising $717,000 and had $413,000 on hand through Aug. 20, according to his pre-primary report, while Harrison raised $201,000 and had $45,000 on hand by the same date. The Republican primary, meanwhile, has turned nasty. Two candidates are competing for the party nomination: former state Rep. Robert Straniere and Staten Island GOP Finance Chair Jamshad Wyne. The district encompasses all of Staten Island and the southern tip of Brooklyn and both county Republican parties have endorsed Straniere. But Wyne has boosted his candidacy with $325,000 in self-loans, which puts him far ahead of Straniere in fundraising. Wyne raised $334,000 and had $203,000 on hand through Aug. 20 while Straniere raised $15,000 and had $12,000 on hand by the same date. The local Conservative Party favors McMahon but the state party overruled their attempt to endorse him. Instead the Conservatives are running their own far right lunatic fringe candidate, depriving the GOP of their line-- and likely to help the Democrat in November.

Up in the suburban/exurban area between Buffalo and Rochester (NY-26) the DCCC insiders and the grassroots are on the same side-- both backing Jon Powers against an extremely nasty and deranged Republican billionaire running as a Democrat, Jack Davis. Davis has spent $3.6 million on his campaign and, according to CQPolitics has no support whatsoever from the Democratic Party and is simply running a "sabotage campaign against Powers... bleeding him dry,” something which may well help Davis' old friends in the GOP come November.

In the Albany district, where Mike McNulty is one of the few Democrats retiring from Congress this year, the field is crowded and the campaign hasn't yielded much heat or light. Soundpolitic over at TheAlbanyProject has the best analysis I've seen and has come to the conclusion that Phil Steck is the best candidate.

There is also an outside chance that Kevin Powell will beat corrupt reactionary Democratic hack Edolphus Towns in Brooklyn. CQPolitics: "It will be Towns’ second tough challenge in a row after winning the 2006 Democratic primary with less than 50 percent of the vote over two little-known Democratic challengers. Towns was criticized by party leadership for failing to vote with the party, including a vote in support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which passed 217-215 but was unpopular with many top Democrats. Towns is favored to survive the primary; he has raised more than 10 times more money than Powell ($1.2 million to $100,000) and had seven times more cash on hand ($417,000 to $57,000) by Aug. 20."

And speaking of New York, Ed Koch, a posterboy for Democrats who have gone over to the Dark Side, has taken leave of his Republican allies and endorsed Obama. He says Palin is too scary for mainstream Americans to support the McCain-Palin ticket.

I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

Inflation, Unemployment, A Crashing Real Estate Market And Bad Political Leadership

Why the Democrats haven't ended the war

If you're 25 or under, the economic policies pushed by Bush and the Republicans, with the support of reactionary Blue Dogs, you are in the midst of the worst inflationary spiral of your life. If you are over 25, the out-of-control energy prices, increasing food prices, increasing unemployment, crashing real estate market and rotten stock market you may remember marginally worse economic times. But unless you're even older than John McCain the pain at the bottom three-quarters of the economic divide in growing to unprecedented levels.

Stopping the disastrous standard of living slide will be the job that will take up all of Obama's presidency-- both terms. The economic downturn, a serious recession that could turn into a full down depression, isn't just the will of the gods. It is very much the result of bad leadership, not just bad leadership, but the absolute worst leadership in the history of our nation. And, you know what? It isn't even just Bush I'm talking about, although her certainly qualifies as the very worst president ever. And it isn't even just Republicans I'm talking about, although their narrowly driven ideological agenda, based on greed, selfishness, class warfare and corruption is certainly the single biggest reason for the inflation and unemployment disaster we're experiencing. But they couldn't have done it alone-- especially not in the past 18 months.

Eighteen months ago "the Democrats" were given the mantle of leadership in the House and the Senate. They've accomplished things of significance they would never have been accomplished by Republicans-- a long overdue, if niggardly, increase in the minimum wage, for example-- but "the Democrats" is dysfunctional as a concept. The party is riddled through and through with... frightened careerists and, in many cases, a Republican mentality that encompasses disdain for working families, worship of Big Business interests and personal corruption.

Regardless that Tom DeLay is an extreme right Republican and Rahm Emanuel is a corporate-oriented Democrat, the essence of the two as political leaders is identical-- and it is the worst our system has to offer. I almost threw up my breakfast shake today when I read a story about how Emanuel is on the road to the Speakership. If congressional progressives don't get it together and assert themselves and their values within the Democratic caucus, they-- and, more important, we-- will be the victims of the boundless selfish ambitions of the Rahm Emanuels and Steny Hoyers and Debbie Wasserman Schultzoids.

Matt Stoller talks with Brooklyn congressional candidate Kevin Powell about spineless Democrats who betray American values. Listen to what a real Democrat sounds like:

McCAIN'S ECONOMIC POLICIES ARE BANKRUPT

A buddy of mine called because he's thinking of jumping in to the Kevin Powell race to unseat machine Democrat, Edolphus Towns in Brooklyn. He wanted to know what were the worst (i.e.- most Republican) things Towns had done lately as a congressman from one of the most heavily Democratic districts in America. I had written about the Towns-Powell primary last week and I recall be especially outraged that he had voted in favor of to bills that are obviously special interests legislation that are harmful for the overwhelming majority of his constituents: the heinous credit-card-written bankruptcy bill and the estate bill to abolish the estate tax. Corrupt Democrats like Towns (and Al Wynn) were paid handsomely to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans on these two travesties against economic justice.

It looks like some of McCain's personal servants must have spoken with him last night about the economy because this morning he said he imagines we're in a recession. I wonder if he will ever be able to stretch that imagination of his and figure out that the policies he's been pushing for the past 7 years are what caused it. "I would imagine that technically there’s some question amongst economists about that," croaked. "The fact is Americans are hurting, they’re hurting badly.” Yes, they are-- and one of the policies he backed, taking bribes from the same crooked credit card companies that paid off Edolphus Towns in Brooklyn, was the bankruptcy bill they both voted for. "When it comes to strengthening the safety net for hardworking families, [McCain's] been part of the problem, not part of the solution," Obama told a crowd of admirers in Georgia today.

Although most reporters covering the campaign preferred to yammer about the he said/she said infotainment aspects of the political "news," today's Wall Street Journal covered the substance of his proposal to reform the detrimental Republican/Blue Dog bankruptcy bill. Basically, Obama wants to "make it easier for homeowners devastated by illness or other such hardships to keep their houses during periods of insolvency."

In 2005 Obama-- unlike Towns and McCain-- voted against the credit card companies bankruptcy bill that has devastated so many American families. Obama pointed out it was just a sop to "special interests," a polite way of saying that Towns and McCain are crooked political hacks who took money from the banking interests and gave them the bill they wanted in return, regardless of what harm it caused to so many families, especially considering that most bankruptcies are the results of massive medical catastrophes. The bankruptcy bill McCain and Towns were so happy to vote for has also had a devastating effect on military families, who have lost their homes while their breadwinners were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"While I was opposing the credit card industry's bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, [Sen. McCain] was supporting it-- and he even opposed helping families who were only in bankruptcy because of medical bills they couldn't pay,'' Sen. Obama told a crowd at a townhall event outside of Atlanta. "He sided with the big banks again when it came to protecting the most valuable possession that older Americans have-- their home.''

Sen. Obama's proposal would establish a minimum national "homestead" level for homeowners, pegged to the region's median home value, which would prevent creditors from attaching assets for non-payment.

The policy would also impose a 120-day moratorium on bad-credit reporting and waive requirements, such as mandatory credit counseling for people who filed for a bankruptcy as a result of a catastrophic illness, and means testing for many others. The Obama campaign claims that roughly half of the 500,000 personal bankruptcies filed last year were the result of an uninsured, catastrophic illness.

Obama's proposal would fast-track the process for military families, help seniors keep their homes, and protect people recovering from natural disasters. McCain's lobbyist-driven campaign is filled with crooks who made millions of dollars getting the bill passed originally. And McCain just doesn't understand economics and doesn't care to-- he doesn't even know how Social Security works.

TWO INTERESTING PRIMARIES IN NYC-- STATEN ISLAND AND BEDFORD STUYVESANT

Ever since the inebriated only NYC GOP congressman, Vito Fossella, from Staten Island, was pulled over in Virginia and started painfully unraveling his very sordid life in public-- yes, he's the pro-family values Republican with two families, one back home (the official one) and one in Virginia (closer to the office)-- it has looked likely that New York Democrats might turn a 4th red seat blue in November. With Eric Massa, Jon Powers and Dan Maffei all ready to join next year's freshman class, suddenly Steve Harrison was looking like a contender. Just this morning, in fact, Congressional Quarterly changed it's rating from No Clear Favorite to Democrat Favored.

John Boehner, who forced Fossella to declare he wouldn't run again, tried inserting his own candidate but he was turned down-- 4 times. The GOP got stuck with a political nonentity, Frank Powers, a self-funder with an influential wife... and a son, also named Frank Powers, who said he would run against him-- and then the senior Powers died on June 22. With the primary coming up Sept. 9, GOP leaders have all but given up trying to find a consensus candidate. The Brooklyn Republican Boss, Ed Eaton, is backing another rich, retired investment banker Paul Atanasio, but Staten Island Republicans, who have more say-so in the selection, aren't getting on board, partially because Atanasio lives in Brooklyn and not State Island but also because he isn't even a registered Republican, but a member of the Conservative Party.

Brooklyn political consultant Gerry O’Brien, who works with clients from both major parties, said Republicans’ recruiting problems all but assured Democrats would win the 13th District in November.

“It’s flabbergasting. That’s the only word I can think of. It is as if they seem intent on serving this seat up to Democrats on a silver platter with chocolate mints around the edge,” O’Brien said.

Not so fast, though. The Democrats have their own battle for the nomination going on. It isn't between Brooklyn and Staten Island parties though. Both have endorsed conservative Democratic insider City Councilman Michael McMahon. In fact, he's so conservative that he went to the Conservative Party and asked for their endorsement-- and nearly got it! But even though Harrison had been endorsed by Chuck Schumer early on and even though Harrison had come closer to beating Fossella in 2006 than any other challenger had previously, the insidious DCCC declared McMahon their preferred candidate.

Democrats had put the 13th District on their prospective target list after the 2006 election, when underfunded candidate Stephen Harrison held Fossella to 57 percent, the lowest vote share of his congressional career. They wasted no time in ramping up their takeover effort after Fossella, then still a heavy favorite to win re-election, saw his House career disintegrated by scandal.

The national party quickly coalesced behind McMahon, even though Harrison, a lawyer, has entered the September Democratic primary and argues he earned the shot by taking on the reputedly unbeatable Fossella last time. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it has reserved $2.1 million in New York City television time for the race and has added McMahon to its “Red to Blue” programs for candidates running competitive bids for Republican-held seats.

McMahon has the backing from the Democratic Establishment. Harrison, on the other hand, is on the right side of all the important issues. It should be an interesting primary battle. The Republicans' dilemma is worse. Hot dog vendor Robert Straniere, who is detested by the Republican power-structure, has tossed his hat into the ring. Staten Island longtime GOP political boss, Guy Molinari, "described Mr. Straniere’s chances of being supported by the Republican leadership as 'impossible.' He said that Mr. Straniere 'would not be at all acceptable to the Republican Party. I would speculate that 98 percent of the Republican County Committee would say, "No dice." They would rather vote for a Democrat than for Straniere.'” Especially a right-of-center Democrat like McMahon.

But picking between a Democrat who is likely to vote with the Republicans on key issues next year and one who is underfunded and would have more trouble picking up disgruntled Republican voters, isn't the only problem NYC Democrats are facing. There is a serious challenge in another part of Brooklyn, a very different part of Brooklyn. Yesterday's NY Times focused on the insurgent primary against shady Bedford Stuyvesant/Ft Greene incumbent Edolphus Towns, a corporate shill for Big Pharma and telecoms and one of the notorious CAFTA-15. He's another Al Wynn in terms of voting for The Man both on the bankruptcy bill that has devastated his own constituents and on the estate tax, which is basically fine for people who have hundreds of millions of dollars but not too good for inner city working and middle class families. The Times story doesn't mention any of Towns' many flaws-- a corporate-oriented Democrat in one of the-- if not the-- most Democratic districts in the U.S. (PVI is an astounding D+41.) Instead the Times focuses on Towns' ill-advised support for Hillary Clinton over Obama, something he shared with virtually every other Democratic elected official in New York City.

Brooklyn’s 10th Congressional District, home to more African-Americans than any other in New York, gave Senator Barack Obama his highest margin of victory in the state. But the district’s longtime congressman, Edolphus Towns, did not share his constituency’s preference for Mr. Obama. Now some of those voters are pushing to oust him.

“His decision not to back Obama shows he is out of touch with his constituents,” said N. Chandler, a former city corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant and who had supported Mr. Towns in the past. “And I think the people of this district are ready for a change.”

...An emerging young black political class is seeking to assert the neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York. The younger Democratic activists link... Mr. Towns, the son of a North Carolina sharecropper and a 25-year veteran in Congress, to that structure.

Mr. Towns cannot afford to take the challenge lightly. Two years ago, he won with less than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race. The man who is running against him now, Kevin Powell, is a community organizer who has the backing of celebrities like the comedian Dave Chappelle, who is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser for Mr. Powell. [He was on the first season of MTV's The Real World back in 1992, "the brooding, angst-ridden young black man with the hi-top fade" and then went on to be a star journalist for Vibe Magazine.]

Jordan Thomas, who led the organization Brooklyn for Barack, and Arthur Leopold, a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign, are backing Mr. Powell, as are several Democratic clubs, including the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, in part because of members’ disappointment after Mr. Towns backed Mrs. Clinton.

The Times does its readers a disservice to imply that the whole reason for the battle is because of Towns' support for Hillary in the primary. As City Limits explains, there are plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction with Towns in Brooklyn. And plenty of reasons for enthusiasm for Powell.

If elected, he would become the first and the most identifiable member of the hip-hop generation ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. On national issues, both Powell and Towns oppose the war in Iraq and support a single-payer healthcare system. But while campaigning on Memorial Day, Powell told practically every resident he encountered about the catalyst for his candidacy: The incumbent’s "absent and ineffective advocacy" on a host of local needs. "What we need in Congress from this district, as we enter a new presidential administration and a new decade, is active leadership that deals with the concerns of regular working-class people," he says.

...[C]ritics charge that Towns has become increasingly disconnected in recent years from the constituents he has represented since 1983, citing everything from his apparent failure to follow through on a once-promised effort to help enact a federal empowerment zone for the borough, to his endorsement of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primary in a district that heavily favors Obama. "Two years ago, there was already a great deal of dissatisfaction" with Towns, says former Assemblyman Green, who now teaches education policy at Medgar Evers College and plans to withhold his endorsement until the petition signing process concludes July 10. "I don’t think that he’s made up any ground toward improving his relations with the overall community."