I noticed in the photos of Kellie Greene's presser an old friend in the audience who is a leading player in the local right to life movement. I suspect her core of support will be from the RTL folks, scattered Tea Party activists and remnants of the Doug Hoffman effort from 2010. That's a good start for someone who just registered to vote back in NNY six weeks ago and is now running for Congress.
That network of people will have to be the ones to go out and gather nominating petitions as all the GOP committee people are supporting frontrunner Matt Doheny, who has a big head start in building grass roots support within the party.
The other significant factor is the Conservative Party, run by Mike Long. Mr. Long is being coy for now but I don't see him going off the reservation and risk a stranded candidate on Line C who is also not on the Republican line. That scenario is widely credited with Rep. Bill Owens reelection in 2010 when marginal Democratic seats elsewhere were falling.
The old saying "the best election is no election" suggests Mr. Doheny's prospects are not aided by a primary. That's true in a sense, but a hard right opponent accusing Mr. Doheny of being a "moderate" is not all bad for Doheny's prospects in the general election against Rep. Owens. This is at best a mildly red district and has a history of electing moderate Republicans like John McHugh, Doug Barclay, Jim Wright and the late Bob Nortz. These are people who don't like talking about abortion or same sex marriage, but in the end the social conservative voters have no other options in November anyway.
The early primary in June offers plenty of time to bind up whatever wounds are created.
Some wags I was chatting with at last night's Chamber dinner were shaking their heads at how much publicity Ms. Greene got including a banner headline front page above the fold in the WDT. Usually the media up here doesn't like the unconventional, but even the most stuffy in journalism like a fresh face and a race to cover. This is the only thing going on in 2012.
If nature abhors a vacuum, so does any political reporter worth his or her salt.
Watertown Daily Times Notebook dump
5 comments:
These right to lifer wacko need to stop. I remember when the Coffeen street project was all designed and ready to go and one right to lifer came up with the stupid idea of adding a bike lane. So the local engineers were giddy to get paid to do the design all over again and the project was delayed. And now fifteen years later only one bike has ever been seen on that bike lane.
advocating for that bike lane was not being Conservative that was being wacko!
Now this lady wants to build a bigger port in Oswego. That ranks up there with a rooftop highway for stupid.
I am confident Matt is going to do everything reasonable to make sure tax dollars don't pay for abortions and he will also help limit late term abortions. That is all you wackos can hope for so just stop already before you ruin this and get Owens reelected. Because if Owens gets reelected your tax dollars will definitely go to abortions late term or otherwise.
No Smoke filled rooms just Republican Chair’s choosing Doheny?
The Party Chairs decided on Matt Doheny a month after his loss of the 2010 Congressional election to Rep. Bill Owens. The Chairs pick and choose candidates up here, not the voters of NY 23 in a real and contested Republican Primary. That was the unfair reality on the table at Shellie Greene's announcement, where it was asked by me during a question session, "How does Matt Doheny go down to Washington DC to talk with the RNC and Congressional leaders, and act like he has the Republican nomination already in hand, without any primary vote having taken place.”
It's all about appearances and the Republican Party is acting like the Republican Primary is over and that the voters of NY 23 have nominated Matt Doheny. At the time I said the Republican Chairs were wrong to act like Matt had the Republican nomination for Congress in 2012 all sewed up. No wonder why Tea Party Conservative can't stand the Doheny crowd and their pushy ways in letting people in the district know their vote doesn't count. It Counts!
Mike Flynn "Middle Class Mike'
Mike you are a lbrul so your opinion don't count. If she wanted a shot she should have showed up before last week to stake her claim. Simple as that.
greene is in the same boat as hoffman in 2009.
neither got/will get the GOP nod from the chairs.
neither had/have time to pull off a good campaign.
neither had/have street cred.
both were/are up against known entities.
and guess what? hoffman wasthisclose to being our congressman.
so never write her off.
one slip-up by doheny or owens; one faux pas like newt endorsing the wrong candidate; one fight with the media like dede in lowville; one palin endorsement as hoffman received; one interview on fox.....
any or all of these could change the tide of an election.
yes the chairs dictate, but in 2009 and 2010 what results did they produce?
8:23 you are forgetting that one had a primary and the other did not.
And Hoffman was not a right to life nut he was just quirky and too socially retarded to speak in public.
So Green and Hoffman have as much in common as Owens and Hoffman.
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