Craig Johnson (D-WFP) has the momentum in the Feb 6 special election for an open New York State Senate seat in the Seventh Senate District in northwestern Nassau County. Adding to his momentum, the New York Times has just endorsed Craig for State Senate:
The New York Times
Sunday, January 28, 2007
A State Senate Endorsement
The sudden vacancy in the 7th State Senate District has caused both parties to leap in with guns blazing. When the Republican incumbent, Michael Balboni, quit to join the Spitzer administration as chief of homeland security, the race to succeed him became instantly negative and hugely expensive.
That's because so much is at stake beyond just control of a single seat in northwest Nassau County - control of the Senate, for instance, where the Republican majority has been nearing the vanishing point, as well as the reform agenda of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who broke with a tradition of gubernatorial nonaggression in such races to appear in an ad hailing the Democratic candidate, Craig Johnson, as an ally in the crusade to fix Albany.
Mr. Johnson, who was elected to the Nassau Legislature in 2000 after the death of the incumbent - his mother, Barbara - is challenging Maureen O'Connell, who became the Nassau County clerk a little over a year ago and now wants to return to Albany, where she served as an assemblywoman since 1998. With very little time to campaign - the special election in Feb 6 - both sides are running at a frantic pace.
Their ads are studies in negativity, with Mr. Johnson's campaign accusing Ms. O'Connell of being as anti-choice extremist on reproductive issues, and Ms. O'Connell running a preposterous spot showing a woman tied to railroad tracks about to mowed down by a train. The train represents taxes, taxes, taxes, specifically the 19-percent increase that County Executive Thomas Suozzi pushed through the Legislature in his first term as part of his utterly sensible - and successful - effort to rescue Nassau's finances from decades of Republican misrule.
Of the charges being burled back and forth over the airwaves, we find Mr. Johnson's the more persuasive. Ms. O'Connell does have a troubling record on choice, having taken stands in Albany - like voting against as emergency contraception bill when it was in committee - that infringed on women's reproductive rights.
Ms. O'Connell's claims that Mr. Johnson's taxing madman are, by contrast, unfounded. The Suozzi tax plan he voted for was a prudent and responsible response to a fiscal mess. He has also assembled a credible record on other issues, including open space preservation.
The race is, though, about something larger - which is the reason the eyes of the whole state are on it. Governor Spitzer will need the cooperation of the Republican-dominated State Senate if he is going to make progress on the ambitious reform agenda that he has laid out. Mr. Johnson has vowed to be his ally in the coming battles, while Ms. O'Connell is likely to give reinforcement to the Albany status quo.
For voters who have hopes that Mr. Spitzer will succeed in fixing Albany, as we do, Mr. Johnson is the obvious choice. We enthusiastically endorse him.
The Craig Johnson for State Senate campaign has gotten a slew of new endorsements in the last few days. Adding to the efforts of groups like CWA are the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, which has over 2,000 members and is the largest law enforcement union on Long Island, and SEIU Local 32BJ, which has 60,000 members in New York and is the largest private sector union in New York and the largest property service workers union in the United States.
"By helping to pass a minimum wage bill in Nassau County, Craig Johnson has shown himself to be a strong supporter of Long Island's working families" said Mike Fishman, Local 32BJ President. "We look forward to working with him in Albany to raise standards for all New York's working families."
Last year, the Nassau County Legislature passed a living wage law that will raise minimum wages for workers contracted by the county to $9.50 an hour beginning in 2007. The minimum hourly pay rate will increase to $10.50 an hour in 2008, and again in 2010 to $12.50 an hour.
The Working Families Party field operation is hitting the doors every day to elect Craig Johnson to the State Senate. In 12 days we've already knocked on 23,427 doors for Craig Johnson, including a one-night high of 2,501 doors this weekend.
Joe Mondello, Chair of the New York state GOP and of the Nassau County GOP, has a lot riding on the Feb 6 special election for an open New York State Senate seat in the Seventh Senate District. It's the first election under his watch as chair of the state GOP, it's happening in his backyard, and it's a test of how the state GOP will respond to their drubbing in the 2006 Governor's race.
So maybe that's why Joe chose to be a little, shall we say, extravagant with the truth. From a New York Times article on the race:
The campaign is off to a quick start. "We had 500 people going door to door last weekend, and we hope to have 700 this weekend," Mr. Mondello said. Democrats say they have an equally ambitious field operation. Their county chairman, Jay S. Jacobs, said that with an expected 10 to 15 percent voter turnout, "the ground game is the decider."
Craig Johnson (D-WFP) is running for an open State Senate seat in New York's Seventh Senate District on February 6th. The Working Families Party has launched a major field operation to elect Craig Johnson, follow the action at WFP Blog.
I wanted to share an anecdote from the campaign trail with everyone. In New York's Seventh District, Craig Johnson (D-WFP) is running for an open State Senate seat in a special election set for February 6th.
Last night, while Craig Johnson was rallying supporters and the Working Families Party canvass was knocking on doors and talking to people, Craig's Republican opponent Maureen O'Connell was sitting at home.
"One of Nassau Legis. Craig Johnson's canvassers in the state Senate race ran into Johnson's opponent, Republican County Clerk Maureen O'Connell, after the campaign worker got a little lost Monday evening.
O'Connell had just pulled into a driveway in the East Williston neighborhood when the canvasser, needing directions, approached her. As they talked, the canvasser recognized O'Connell and she realized she was talking to one of her opponent's foot soldiers. They exchanged pleasantries and wished each other luck."
Now, since the WFP is running the canvass, I can give you the inside story straight from the canvasser who talked to her:
"A little after 5:30, I was trying to find an address on my turf and was looking from the sidewalk at a number on one of the houses from the street to determine if it was on my walk list. A woman saw me looking at her house and came out to ask if she could help me.
I recognized her as Maureen O'Connell as soon as she came out because she had an O'Connell lawn sign and I'm friends with one of her former Assembly opponents. I decided to exchange pleasantries, and we each did some campaigning and talked about the situation in Albany. Then she realized I was part of the WFP canvass campaigning for Craig Johnson, and we wished each other good luck and parted ways. I kept canvassing for the rest of the night and she went back inside."
Gonna have to work harder than that to win this race.
