NY-29 Netroots Challenge

[trillian]

Cross posted from Eric Massa's post at dkos.

NY-29 Netroots Challenge: Outraise Cheney Fundraiser for Randy Kuhl

Today, I want to talk about V.P. Dick Cheney. Last week, while Senator Max Cleland, a true American hero, was touring the district with me and working tirelessly to help bring a new majority to Congress, I learned that V.P. Dick Cheney would be coming to Rochester for a fundraiser and a $1,000-a-head photo-opportunity on behalf of my opponent, Randy Kuhl. The media learned about this news not from Kuhl or from Cheney, but from me. I announced this event to the media myself, with Senator Cleland, at our press conference on Homeland Security. (Details of that press conference here)

It’s no surprise that Kuhl would be reluctant to publicize the event, since Cheney has managed to earn a reputation as the least-popular politician in America. After our announcement, the only public acknowledgement of the event that I am aware of, in addition to the invitation itself, came from Cheney’s office.

To me, there are several things worth noting about this visit, and one is that is was hidden from the voters in our district. It’s certainly consistent with Cheney’s well-known penchant for secrecy – for example, the secret white-house meetings with oil industry executives and lobbyists to re-write our nation’s energy policy.

In response to the secrecy of the Cheney fundraiser, I will be hosting an open-to-the-public fundraiser in a public park in Rochester. Pictures with me will be free and the money we raise at the park will go to a local Veterans Charity.

Admission to the Cheney event is actually $150/person (link) with a “4:30 pm Private Photo Opportunity: $2,000 per couple – $1,000 per person.” Think about it. Given the time it takes to snap a picture, this says that they’re selling the spot next to Cheney for $5,000 a minute

This means they will raise a lot of money fast, but the combined fundraising power of the netroots is greater than the few individuals in the 29th district who can afford to pay $1000 for a picture with the Vice-President. We’re asking for your help to raise more money than Kuhl’s event with Cheney.



Third, as veterans in my district all know, in addition to politics, ideology, and money, Kuhl and Cheney have one thing in common. Both have escaped service in the military. Randy Kuhl got through Vietnam on the basis of 9 years worth of deferments, while he spent his time in college and law school. Vice-President Cheney had five different deferments and also escaped service in the military. (link) And yet both are ready, at the first sign of resistance, to paint anyone who questions them as unpatriotic or worse. In today’s NY Times Magazine, Kuhl described my serious thinking and proposals about the Iraq fiasco that his friend got us into as “tantamount to surrender. ‘That’s the old cut and run,’ Mr. Kuhl said. ‘I will not send up the white flag as my opponent says he will.’
(link)

That’s their strategy. Challenge them, and they call you a coward. A chicken.
And that’s from people who never served a day in uniform in their lives, who have never seen the tragedy of war, or lost their closest friends and stood up to fight on.

We’ve all heard this before. It’s the old tactics and the language of a schoolyard bully. “Chicken!” “I dare you!” “Prove it!”

And they call this leadership.

But what it amounts to, really, is one more reason for sending a new majority to Washington, one with a healthy balance of veterans and military experience.

We’re not going to stop challenging them. We’re going to carry this fight into Election day and beyond. And when they slime and swift-boat and attack one veteran, and defame our patriotism and character, they attack us all. We will not allow it. We will stand against it together, and we will vote together, and we will take back this country and this government.

Help us take the fight to the lying bullies Dick Cheney and Randy Kuhl by donating today. (link) Or if you are in the district you can volunteer for the campaign. (link)

[PATRICK]

1. The means to win

As a volunteer in this campaign I can assure you of two things. That the district is vastly winnable due to the fact that as people become aware of each candidate in sufficient depth, the great majority break for Massa, especially independent voters. Those aware of Kuhl largely despise him and those aware of Massa are enthusiastically for him.

The second thing this means is that a lot of groundwork and advertising is needed to simply garner those uneducated voters. The obstacles that in the past have unfairly discouraged support for a campaign in this district is the difference in party registrations with 68,000 GOP voters more than Democrats. The habit of moderate, traditional Republican voting was carried on by a legacy of Amo Houghton, a dying breed who unfortunately had the side effect of cementing locally the delusions about NY Republicanism. But Kuhl is no Houghton and has sold out his district and state immediately as an enthusiastic team player in DC. Strong negatives are not enough. In order to win our candidate must be strong and mount a strong campaign.

We need more volunteers as well as raw cash for ads. You will get more value here simply because effort very tangibly translates into votes and an incumbent seat in a statistically safe district will fall, one reason why there is a lot on the line for the Cheney octopus and the local GOP. Last time people here fell for the statistical discouragement theme and lauded Jack Davis(rightly)in another district for having a better chance. Both Barend and Davis lost, but in my book Barend would have won had it simply not been for a novice gaffe in a seemingly Rove style trap over release of Kuhl's messy divorce papers.

This time some will argue that it is about money and incumbency. Of course it is if the campaign is simply underfunded and lacking in volunteers. But at this time the polls have drawn dead even and trending, as I explained, toward Massa. Once more Kuhl has even heavier negatives, nothing to really brag about locally in his voting record and our guy is a real knight on a white horse, who, no offense to Samara Barend, would have won last time.

Support easily earns votes in a close race and the sooner the better. This is one where dough and time definitely make the difference.

I have not been enough in the phone banks to make justified speculations but independents so far are easily breaking toward Massa and certainly not toward Kuhl. The Dem vote is solid. The GOP vote is likely not.