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Why Does the NY DSCC Exist?

I spent two days this weekend at different post election debriefs. While they were mostly focused on a national viewpoint, I did have the chance to meet three different folks who all had experience working the election side of the State Senate. I threw my "the DSCC doesn't want to win" rap on all three and each time the reaction was something like "You're just now figuring this out?"

Marc Humbert of the AP doesn't quite go that far, but he comes pretty close.

Democratic sweep did little for state Senate

ALBANY, N.Y. -- While Democrats easily swept every statewide office at stake in New York on Election Day and took three congressional seats away from Republicans, things were not nearly as rosy for Democrats in state Senate races.

Things might have been a whole lot better for Senate Democrats and much worse for the Senate GOP if a bit more money and attention had been focused on the races. Instead, the GOP lost just one seat and is expected to hold a comfortable 34-28 seat majority in the new Senate.

"It was clearly not the No. 1 priority for Democrats," said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who headed up the Senate's Democratic Campaign Committee.

....

Krueger said the Senate GOP was helped by polls showing Spitzer, Clinton and other statewide Democrats far ahead. That meant Republican donors pumped money into state Senate races, hoping to keep at least a toehold in New York where Democrats also control the state Assembly.

It is not that there weren't other opportunities for the state Senate Democrats.

In Queens, veteran Republican state Sen. Serphin Maltese barely won re-election with 51 percent of the vote against Albert Baldeo, a Democrat who not only didn't get help from the Senate Democrats' central campaign committee, but was largely ignored by the Queens Democratic organization.

"In 20-20 hindsight, I'm sorry I had no data showing that was a race," said Krueger. "That was not on our radar screen."

Writing about the Queens race in the weekly Village Voice newspaper, Wayne Barrett suggested Baldeo's lack of help might have more than a little to do with the close relations that had developed over the years between Maltese, the Queens County GOP chairman and a former state Conservative Party state chairman, and the county's Democratic leadership. Maltese has held the Senate seat since 1988.

Early this year it appeared that Maltese might be in real trouble when Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg let it be known that he might support a possible challenge for the Senate seat being contemplated by Democratic city Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. Bloomberg and the Queens GOP had been at odds during his successful re-election bid in 2001 and the mayor was also complaining the state Senate GOP wasn't being generous enough to the city. The possible Addabbo challenge quickly disappeared after Bloomberg and state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno made peace.

Meanwhile, on Long Island, Republican Caesar Trunzo, in the Senate since 1972, won re-election with just 53 percent of the vote against a Democrat given little help by the Senate minority. State Senate Democrats also did little to help candidates running for open seats on Staten Island and in the Utica area. On Staten Island, Democrats even had an advantage in enrollment for the seat being vacated by Republican John Marchi.

Part of the problem for Senate Democrats was that Minority Leader David Paterson had let it be known more than a year ago that he did not believe Democrats could take the Senate in 2006 and that the real target was 2008. Such statements did little to encourage fundraising.

"We were dramatically outgunned with money," Krueger told The Associated Press on Thursday. She estimated the GOP spent more than $7 million while she was able to muster less than $2.5 million.

Then, Paterson got tapped to become Spitzer's running mate, leaving Senate Democrats with a lame-duck leader through the election cycle. While Spitzer and Paterson did lend a hand in some Senate races, their attention was obviously elsewhere.

Senate Democrats were helped in 2004 by the larger turnout that accompanies presidential elections, especially in a state as blue as New York. More than 7.4 million voters trooped to the polls in 2004 while just over 4.2 million turned out in 2006 in a state where there are more than 5 million Democrats and just 3 million Republicans.

The problem now faced by Democrats is that they have now given the GOP a roadmap of the potential targets for 2008. In politics, as in much of life, forewarned is forearmed.


"I had no data showing that was a race...That was not on our radar screen." This is from the the head of the DSCC. oh, and you raised close to $2.5 million bucks. Hey, Liz, how much did you spend? Why does the DSCC exist?

Incompetence or malfeasance?

I report, you decide.

Oh, and am brings up a couple of excellent points in an email...

What isn't dealt with here is the effect on:
1. candidate recruitment
2. not only squandering the opportunity for a stealth takeover by now
allowing lots of time for the R's to get their act together, but I
predict every seat will have to face serious primary challenges the
next time, so its going to cost even more money.
3. apparently, one of the dem "strategies" as articulated by (name omitted -ed) to
me was one of, well the Senate will flip because all the R's are
getting old and will die, and the D numbers are increasing. I pointed
out that that political strategy would have us waiting for Sue Kelly's
natural demise instead of doing the right thing and running to win
elections.


Yup.

Who did you donate to this year?

Where did you volunteer and go to-to-door? Did whatever Democratic state senate candidate you did this for, win?

glad you asked.

i spent a month on the ground for a candidate up in the hudson valley. i gave that guy my heart and soul for a month and even produced his TV spots. i gave so much that i'm probably going to be homeless at the end of the month.

put that in your pipe and smoke it, kid.

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