Why? A bunch of reasons:
- Because I don't know you. I think you think you've done enough "tour the state and meet the people" stuff, but I don't.
- Because I don't know what your positions are-- they are very different from the ones you espoused as a member of Congress and I can't help but wonder which set you really believe in.
- Because while your positions are more progressive in the Senate than in the House, I don't know that they are progressive enough.
Let's leave aside the elephant in the room-- gun control-- and focus on other issues of importance to me: health care, marriage equality, the wars, correctly regulating the financial system, fixing the financial system. I think your positions are mostly OK in these areas-- but, since I don't know you, I'm not sure.
Also, since I don't know whether you really believe in them, I don't know if you'll fight for them. Finally, you come across as a follower, not a leader and that makes me wonder whether you'll abandon them if the wind blows the other way.
So-- maybe the ultimate question-- what to do?
- You need to do a better reintroduction of yourself. Tour the state, set up town hall meetings, do press conferences, march in every parade and festival you can find. Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Eric Massa are experts in doing these things right. Also, you need mailings and you need them now-- at least to prime dems-- clearly stating your positions.
- Interestingly enough, while every politician wants to avoid primaries-- who likes risk?-- in some ways, it works to your advantage by providing excited news coverage about the horse race. It's something to at least consider.
- You have a nice website; so nice, in fact, that there is nothing you have to change about it. But if you wanted to tweak it, I would put issues on the home page because right now, it's people like me coming to it and that's what I want to see. When you switch to a general election mode, rotating photos of supporters might carry more weight.
I'd also add a "where's Kirsten" page: with upcoming events where you'll participate and photos from recently past ones.
Speaking of photos, you, with Manhattan on one side and green fields on the other sends the message to those of us in Upstate that New York is two things: the City and the Adirondacks. There is more here than just that.
- One of your press releases refers to you as "Gilly". You need more of that-- it helps humanize you. Plus, let's face it, your name is difficult and not well known. Hell, when I sit down to write it, I'm always confused: "Kris" or "Kirs"; one Ls or two?
- Speaking of Upstate, while all of your issues affect it, none of them are specific to us. I'm not the only one who laughed when someone from Albany was introduced as "an Upstate candidate".
If you really buy that line and think that it isn't important to campaign in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse; Niagara Falls, Oswego, Watertown, and Potsdam; Olean, Fredonia, Jamestown, and Bingahmtom-- then you deserve to loose both the primary and the election. We're hurting up here-- we never really recovered from the '70s-- and we need to know that you're working not just for the City, Westchester county, Long Island, and Albany but for us, too.
"Creating jobs is Kirsten's No. 1 priority" is a good place to start. But not a lot of details there, and none for upstate, specifically, where we're hurting the most.
- Why is "[t]o make health care affordable to families at every income level, Kirsten supports a public not-for-profit option like Medicare" buried in the third paragraph of your health care page? Make it the title. Live or die by it. You won't please the die-hard single payer people with it. But most of us who would prefer single payer are willing to settle for a robust, true public option.
But... "like Medicare" might not be enough. Medicare, period, is that. Change your position to "everyone in America will have the ability to buy into Medicare at an affordable cost", and I think you'll have an even better goal.
- Marriage equality: you write "In Washington, Kirsten is working on an aggressive agenda to provide equal rights for all, including repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, protecting people of all sexual preferences from hate crimes and employment discrimination, and eliminating the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in our armed forces".
Show, don't tell. Those of us who believe that marriage equality is maybe the most important moral issue today are tired of being told that someone supports it. How are you leading on this subject? If you're not, then you don't deserve our support.
I've picked a couple of your positions-- but the rest are "more of the same". By that, I mean, a lot of talk that sounds like it was written by a campaign consultant so that it offends as few people as possible, provides as few details that might trip you up later, and "hits all the right notes. If you will, "baby kissing". You want the support of people who are true progressives? You need to sharpen your positions, be willing to take some risks and heat for them, and lead on them.
Do that, and your primary opponents won't have any traction with us in the primary. What are they going to campaign on? Gilly is for accessible medicare instead of single payer? That helps you in the general.
The only area of strong attack is on gun control. That's your position; you'll need to defend it. But, again, while it may hurt you in the primary, it might earn you votes in the general.
Good luck. Tell us who you are, show your passion, demostrate that you are aligned with us, and you will have nothing to fear next year.
If you aren't aligned with us, if you aren't willing to work for it, if you aren't willing to fight for our issues-- then you don't deserve to be renominated as our Senator.
I understand it's tough; you've only been there a few months. It's a lot to expect in such a short period of time. But you don't have the luxury of time and noone said this was going to be an easy job. You asked for it; you wanted it; you got it. |
