| Things have been quiet on the Democratic primary front for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. But as her recess winds down, one challenger is on the campaign trail and other possible opponent challenges her on the public option.
Jonathan Tasini was in Ithaca over the weekend campaigning and raising money. Ithaca (and Tompkins County) was where Tasini performed best in upstate New York. In 2006, Sen. Hillary Clinton defeated Tasini in Tompkins by 828 votes. The final tally was Clinton 2,849 to Tasini's 2,021.
Despite massive disadvantages in name recognition and fundraising, Tasini thinks the economic crisis and state government meltdown have left people more open to his brand of change than they've ever been. Tasini was in Ithaca Sunday campaigning and fundraising.
"The political machine in this state does not work for the people. The political machine in this state works for the politicians and the careers of politicians, and people are fed up with that," he said.
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Prior to accepting her Senate seat, Gillibrand worked for the tobacco and gun industries, and she is "awash" in money from special interests, Tasini said.
Tasini's contributions are all from individuals, while almost $700,000 of Gillibrand's are from political action committees, including hospitals, insurance companies, financial services and the natural gas industry, according to the FEC database.
If elected, Tasini said his top priorities would be strengthening the labor movement through widespread unionization; rewriting free trade policies to protect workers as well as corporations; and raising taxes on corporations and couples making more than $351,000 rather than "borrow(ing) from the Chinese."
On health care, he supports single-payer government insurance by opening Medicare to everyone.
A possible challenger, Suffolk County Legislator Jon Cooper, tried to push Gillibrand on health care reform. Specifically, he challenged her on her support of a public option.
Jon Cooper, a local Long Island official who may be the only elected official remaining to challenge Kristen Gillibrand, sends out an email today that shows how the approaching midterms polarize the debate.
The punch line of the email:
As you know, I strongly believe that any meaningful health care reform must include a government-run public option. That's why I was greatly concerned by phone calls I placed last week to all six of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's district offices. Staffers at each office advised me that Senator Gillibrand is willing to consider supporting alternatives to the public option, such as health insurance co-ops.
On both sides, the public option is becoming a potent primary wedge, which isn't exactly a spur to rational debate.
Thanks to Ben, I have included the full e-mail below the fold.
Cooper's approach is an interesting one, given Gillibrand's stated support of a public option. She can consider alternatives all she wants, but her stance is in strong support of a public option. She hasn't wavered from that.
On Tasini, it is hard to take him seriously when he goes to virtually the only place in upstate where he stood a chance in 2006. He needs to go elsewhere if he wants to be considered a serious candidate. Right now, Dr. Scott Noren seems to be a more serious option than Tasini, who ran against Clinton in 2006 on a platform of holding her accountable for her Iraq War vote (which is a nice idea, but hardly something to run a U.S. Senate campaign on).
Cooper has the right idea. Cooper has said that he is going to travel to upstate and visit Democrats in places like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse. Tasini should be doing the same, but that has yet to happen. |
