SD-11: What Would You Ask Tony Avella?

Calling all random primary challengers (4.00 / 3)

Speak now or forever hold your peace!  Since apparently it's the cool thing to do these days, come out of the woodwork, raise almost no money, and then claim to be a reform primary challenger of an established insurgenct Democratic challenger.  

Sigh.

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by: BingChester @ Thu Jul 29, 2010 at 18:56:10 PM UTC

It's called Democracy (0.00 / 0)

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by: reformer @ Thu Jul 29, 2010 at 19:09:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

So for fairness in a Democracy, (0.00 / 0)

should I interview the republican opponents as well?

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by: Roatti @ Thu Jul 29, 2010 at 19:19:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Questions (4.00 / 1)

I know next to nothing about the district.  So as far as questions relevant to the district, I have no idea.  But I'd pack in as many questions relevant to the district in your interview as possible.  Stuff that really affects the locals.

Mainly, you want to find out if this guy cares about these things or if he simply an opportunist.  Not saying he is, I have no idea what he's about.

Aside from that, biographical questions are fun.  So are questions about his political past...these can be very revealing and fodder for delicious debate :-)

Above all, and you probably won't get a sincere answer, you want to figure out why the guy is running and what he intends to do.  These are questions that every candidate will have a stock answer for which is designed to get them votes; the goal of the interview is to discern the real answer to these questions by reading between the lines of the answers to the rest of your local issues, biographical, and political questions.

But even above that, whenever I've interviewed candidates, the most important thing I look for is the vibe.  That's probably unconventional advice and unique to my personal style, but really, the best thing about the experience of interviewing a good number of candidates is I can determine who's the true progressive and who's the phony.

Good luck with the interview!

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by: Soundpolitic @ Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 03:22:08 AM UTC

Good advice, thanks! (0.00 / 0)

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by: Roatti @ Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 03:46:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

No problem & have fun! (0.00 / 0)

One other bit I forgot that was actually very helpful when I wss interviewing all four major NY-21 2008 candidates: ask each candidate the same questions.  If it's a mult-candidate race, it's an excellent opportunity to establish key differences and similarities.  And if there's anything us political junkies love, it's watching two candidates answer the same question...and subsequently arguing about the different answers they gave!

Oh...and check the batteries on your tape recorder :-)

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by: Soundpolitic @ Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 20:13:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

So Gennaro had little resources? (0.00 / 0)

According to the campaign finance disclosure reports J. Gennaro spent the following in 2008:

$ 77,557
$101,881
$307,576
$241,395
--------
$728,409
========

Frank Padavan spent the following:

$ 49,333
$ 62,377
$ 31,640
$149,819
--------
$293,169
========

Padavan will not be caught sleeping this time around. I believe that his easy victory in 2006 when most Republicans stayed home while Serf Maltese (SD15) woke up to a 500 vote win over a REAL nobody gave the Republicans false confidence of the safety of this seat. Unlike Maltese, SD11 is around 64% homeowners, do the district, while not demographically white and Republican like it was in the 70's. 80's and most of the 90's, Padavan has a reliable base of support.

But....we did see a popular City Council member, Joe Addabbo crush Maltese by 20 points, but this is not a Presidential election year.

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by: GOP_RIP @ Sat Jul 31, 2010 at 00:32:29 AM UTC

what would you do to balance (0.00 / 0)

the state budget? Which programs, if any, would you cut and by how much; and/or what taxes/fees would you increase? Please be specific.

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by: paco @ Sat Jul 31, 2010 at 14:28:31 PM UTC