| We got there around 3:30, registered, and looked over the tables in the registration area. Not surprisingly, most of them were for Attorney General candidates: Dinallo, Rice, Schneiderman, Brodsky, and Coffey were all represented. Over on one end Senator Gillibrand had a nice layout, manned by Sean Gavin, her Assistant to the Chief of Staff. Two Lieutenant Governor candidates were also represented: Christopher St Laurence, and Bill Samuels. Conspicuous by absence was any display for Andrew Cuomo--no doubt because to have much campaign literature out, he would have to admit to what office he was running for. And despite the lack of any announced Democratic candidates for Governor, Cuomo is still being shy.
The swag being given out by the various campaigns to attract notice ranged from nonexistent to pretty good, and they seemed to follow to some extent the candidate's popularity in the rural counties--or possibly just how much the candidate actually cared about rural New York. Poor Richard Brodsky's sparse table attracted almost no one, with a single staffer sitting there looking unhappy as he worked his Blackberry. Sean Coffey's campaign gave out insulated thermal coffee cups branded with the slogan "It's Time for Coffey." This put him a bit ahead in terms of cleverness versus the Kathleen Rice camp, whose gimmick was providing Rice Krispies treats. Almost everyone had bumper stickers, but Dinallo and Gillibrand took top honors, as Dinallo also had buttons, and Gillibrand's table held a great array of stickers, literature, and even T-shirts. I didn't get one, unfortunately, since apparently they were already running short by the time we got there, and wanted to save the last ones for their volunteers. Pity.
I ran into Coffey himself for a couple minutes, as well as his mother who had apparently come out to campaign with him. He seems nice enough as a person, but the conversation was superficial, which I didn't think really suited the venue. When you're surrounded by 400 hard-core Democratic activists, bloggers, state committee members, and members of the media, all of whom you are hoping to get to support you, you need to engage and talk issues. This isn't glad-handing a crowd at a picnic or working a rope line. The DRC is the hard-core political geeks of the NY State Democratic Party.
After reconning the available goodies, we decided to mill about for a bit in the hotel bar until the receptions started at 5 PM. We ended up getting into the one for Kathleen Rice around 4:30--while it was technically slated to open at 5, they made the mistake of laying out the food and the booze early in a public lobby area, so people started showing up, and the bartenders served us. The food was decent, but nothing special. There was a large set of chicken wings, plus the usual fare like vegetables, cheese, and some so-so crackers.
Ms. Rice showed up and made sure to talk to almost everyone, paying special attention to the county chairs and state committee members--the people capable of voting in the DRC straw poll, which we'll get to later. She seems quite personable and friendly, but didn't really do much to stand out of the pack as far as I could see. That could be the fault of the venue as much as anything, since working a crowd (even the couple dozen people present at her reception) makes it hard to conduct a substantive dialog with much detail. But mostly it served to reinforce the impression that I had derived from her policy announcements, specifically that she's running for AG because it's the next step up from being a county DA, and that her plans for the use of the office are probably the same sort of political and PR based moves that she made as the Nassau DA. I would love to be wrong, but I've seen and heard nothing to say that she has a major policy plan for the office.
At roughly 5, my group departed Ms. Rice's company (having snagged myself a few more Rice Krispies treats) and meandered over to the reception being held by Eric Dinallo. Instead of being in the lobby area, this one was off in one of the hotel's ground floor conference rooms, making it somewhat more private, but also a bit crowded since the spillover space was limited. The food was also more upscale, with roasted beef and chicken skewers, crab cakes, miniature quiches, and what turned out to be calimari rings. All to the good, but I will say that they might have wanted to have some kind of sign or plaque or something that told people that those were, in fact, not onion rings before we bit into them.
Mr. Dinallo arrived shortly after the reception opened up, and worked the room as normal. There seemed to my untrained eye to be more media people there than at the Rice event, as well as TAP's own Brian Keeler in his capacity as one of Dinallo's communications guys, observing and taking photos for later use on the web. Dinallo got a bit more of a rock-star like treatment than the others did, no doubt due to the contents of his "rural agenda," which if enacted would probably represent the most attention the rural counties have ever gotten from an Attorney General. For obvious reasons, having the power of the AG's office working for rural communities--and rural Democratic groups--plays well at the DRC.
Schneiderman also had a reception at 5, but it was located across the street in the Seneca Niagara Casino, making it inconvenient to get to, which is one of the main reasons (along with time) that I can't report on it. I know that Schneiderman is one of the good guys in the State Senate, so I feel badly about ignoring him as an AG candidate. But he should stay in the State Senate, because a few good people there can make all the difference. We have lots of other people willing to be the AG.
A bit before 6 PM, I managed to slither out of the packed Dinallo room and ran straight into Judy Baker, the Ontario County Dems chair, who was the co-host of the next reception I was intending to hit: the 4th floor lobby, where NY-29 candidate Matthew Zeller was meeting people. I definitely get the feeling I missed the bulk of this reception, since it had started at 5 with the others, and by the time I got there there weren't many people around. I got a few minutes to talk to Zeller, who seems very nice: friendly, likeable, and a bit nervous about the scope of what he's getting himself into. That seems strange for a guy who has literally been under fire before--when talking about heading back to Washington DC for Army-related duties in the morning, he explained that he was driving since he no longer flies due to a bad experience with a helicopter and some Taliban. But I suppose nervousness is understandable, since politics is far outside his usual area of expertise.
Zeller also mentioned getting some advice on his new-found efforts from none other than our good friend Jon Powers, who he's apparently run into in DC a few times. I asked him to say hello to Jon from myself and all the other crew in the 26th CD the next time they happen to run into each other.
One of the other late attendees at the Zeller reception was none other than Samara Barend, the 2004 Democratic nominee for the 29th, who ran an underdog campaign the last time that was an open seat. It's my own fault for not knowing more about this race, but I was a bit gobsmacked by the fact that Ms. Barend was a lot younger than I had expected (As well as taking the lifetime credit for most beautiful congressional candidate). It was only upon Googling after the fact that I became aware that she was just 26 when she ran for Congress, which would have made her the youngest woman ever elected if she'd won. This only served to amp up my respect for her courage and bravery in jumping head-first into the meatgrinder that is the 29th, which I took a minute out to thank her for doing, and for the example she set. Congress is weaker and worse off for never having counted this lady as a member.
As the Zeller reception wound down, I headed back downstairs and began to make my way over to the "Governor's reception." At first I wasn't sure exactly where to go, since there were no signs posted, but then I noticed a familiar face in the crowd. When in search of the Governor's reception, do the easiest thing and follow the Governor. This event was less of a personal audience like the previous receptions, and more like an open bar as people were herded into a swelteringly hot lobby to wait for the ballroom doors to open and find seats. The governor made his way through pretty quickly, saying hello to a few people, and then giving mercifully brief remarks about the importance of the DRC before everyone was sent in to dinner. The ballroom where the tables were set up was mercifully cooler, but it didn't stay that way long. The air conditioning simply couldn't keep up with the heat of all the people. Perhaps remembering last year--when the speeches ran so long in the early heat that Andrew Cuomo was forced to make jokes about the cannolis at the dessert reception melting--the speechifying was mercifully brief. Aside from a few remarks by local Niagara Falls politicos, the main speakers were Cuomo, Schumer, and Gillibrand.
Cuomo provided a firey, rousing speech including telling us that he considered this year the most important election of his lifetime, but stopped short of announcing his run for Governor. Schumer told a series of anecdotes about how he went from a Brooklyn kid, to Harvard Law student, to New York Assembly member, a story that really deserves it's own retelling at some point. And of course Gillibrand, being the policy wonk that she is, regaled us with her take on a few important issues that she thought Schumer had bypassed.
The dinner itself was mediocre, particularly compared to the delicious food served at the last DRC: the chicken breast was good this time, but the steak was far overcooked and too smothered with peppers.
Dinner was interrupted a couple times by business, mostly relating to the sudden retirement of Dale Volker less than 24 hours beforehand. Since much of that involves internal party business, I can't go into much detail publicly, except to say that some of the other regions of the party are very excited about the prospect of an open seat match-up in the 59th, and they're interested in sharing the excitement.
Afterwards, I couldn't stick around the dessert reception as long as I'd have liked (believe me, the quality of the offerings there more than made up for the poor dinner), since I needed to carpool back to Wyoming County. Of course one of my main reasons for being there became moot as well, since Senator Gillibrand was no longer wandering around, meaning no photos with her. Might be for the best anyway--the two people I've previously been photographed with at the DRC are Governor Paterson and Eric Massa. I wouldn't want to curse my favorite Senator.
I wasn't there for day two of the conference, but the only real highlight was the DRC straw poll, and with no other seriously contested races, only the Attorney General's race drew interest. There, the results were almost a foregone conclusion. Out of 352 votes cast among the 5 represented candidates, Eric Dinallo took 166, or 47%. Kathleen Rice was next up, with 79 votes, or 22%--less than half of what Dinallo got. Coffey got 52 votes, taking 15%; Schneiderman came in 4th, with 33 votes representing 9%; and Richard Brodsky fell last, with just 22 votes, or 6% of the DRC electorate.
I say that the results were a foregone conclusion for one simple reason: Dinallo is the only candidate with a serious plan for making the Attorney General's office work for rural New York. Rice attempted to get in on the action with her own rural plan, but it lacked the teeth of Dinallo's plan in the form of deputy AG's for each county. Rice's plan simply offered "regional offices" and "advisory councils." A free bit of advice for people running for statewide office--the rural counties are used to getting blown off and fed shiny words that mean nothing, because the person saying them has no intention of committing. We can recognize when you're telling us something that sounds good but will end up being irrelevant to the day to day operations of the office. A dozen upstate people on an "advisory council" means nothing. Having the power of the NY Attorney General in each county has real weight. Policy is what matters, not how you wrap it, or how many high profile causes you trumpet like online child safety or drunk driving. You need to show us the meat. Just not the chicken skewers from the Dinallo reception, because those were a little spicy for my taste. |
