| The Zieglers have planned a "sign wave" for Thursday and a "Where's Murphy?" rally for Friday, both in Saratoga Springs, a battleground part of the district.
Here's what she forwarded from another tea partier all in for Gibson about the "sign wave":
Just a reminder that there will be a Gibson Campaign Sign Wave held tomorrow, Wednesday, August 4th 4 pm to 6 pm in Saratoga Springs at the corners of Route 50, Gick Road, and Veterans Way.
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Campaign lawn signs will be provided or you can make one of your own that promotes our candidate! Be sure that lettering is bold with sharp contrast between text and background so that the signs can be easily read by travellers.
This is a very heavily travelled corner. Although all are invited to participate, please watch your young children and exercise caution in the area. Bring your camera and a lawn chair if you wish!
Let's make this event notable by our participation and enthusiasm!
Thank you. I hope that you can make it to show your support for Chris.
The local tea partiers love sign waves, been doing them for almost three years now, starting in the Ron Paul presidential primary campaign (and we know how that turned out).
They are of limited political utility, somewhat raising name recognition and showing that a few people are excited about Gibson to a few thousand people at a busy street corner.
But "sign waves" by John Birch Society Republicans do little to convince undecided/independent voters to vote for John Birch Society Republicans like Gibson.
Friday's event was announced today with the typical tea-partier "they're not listening to the far-right minority that represents the majority" lament:
Well its been almost a year since we had regular rallies outside Scott Murphy's office in Saratoga, but it looks like he is forcing us to step up to the plate again.
In true Washington fashion he is avoiding his constituents and has not planned any town halls for the month of August. Additionally, he publicly agreed to scheduling open forum debates with Chris Gibson (a number of papers and news stations have reported on this). However, the Gibson campaign has called and sent at least 2 letters to Scott and there has been no reply.
His constituents deserve to hear from their Congressman and Scott should be willing to discuss his numerous votes in Congress (including support for Cap and Trade, Healthcare and the Wall Street Reform Bill). After calling two of his offices it is apparent his people have no idea about any upcoming town halls or debates. This is especially shocking considering the high unemployment rate, economic instability, and great turmoil many Americans are experiencing right now.
We will begin a series of rallies and phone campaigns until Scott Murphy realizes it is important to address his constituents and hear their concerns in addition to standing by his commitment to the Gibson campaign. Our first rally will be at the corner of Scott Murphy's Saratoga office this Friday, August 6 from 11am-1pm. His staff will be in the office and there is also considerable foot traffic at lunch time so be sure to bring your "Where's Murphy?" signs or whatever else you want to express. Please also call his offices to ask about upcoming Town Halls and the August debates he agreed to. He simply should not get away with avoiding his constituents or obligations.
Hope to see you Friday, but if not please call the numbers below and hold him accountable!
And Mary added this in a thread on another message board:
We can start by confronting our dear representatives at home.
First we need to get Murphy and Tonko to hold town halls (Murphy has none planned for recess as of yet). We're starting our first "where's Murphy" rally this Friday outside his Saratoga office- to hold his feet to the fire.
If he's brave enough to face his constituents we have to make sure somebody brings a pledge for him to sign stating he will not participate in a lame duck session that seeks to subvert the will of the American people. This will put him on the spot and he may actually sign considering his re-election is pretty shaky right now.....
Murphy held several town halls last year, and handled the tea partiers' loud, angry grievances well.
Now that it's an election year, one could understand why he does not want to provide lots of venues for potentially provocative video that the Gibson campaign would certainly use.
And, to answer Mary's basic question, Murphy has been in Washington doing the job he was elected to do, and doing lots of in-district work like this and this.
And, as noted before, the idea that the tea partiers represent "the will of the American people" is absurd and risible.
This is becoming a close race, at least according to Charlie Cook, who changed his longtime "Likely Dem" rating to "Lean Dem" on July 22.
Cook was no doubt impressed that Gibson out raised Murphy in the second quarter ($487K to $350K), though Murphy still leads in cash-on-hand by $1.3M to about $500K.
And by the fact that Gibson has an impeccable military record, which includes four combat tours in Iraq, a chestful of medals, earning a Ph.D. from Cornell, and teaching at West Point.
And by the fact that Gibson was the establishment Republican choice who has crossover appeal to the tea party/ultra-conservative base.
But Gibson's alliance of necessity with the tea partiers will be his Achilles heel.
In NY-20, most independent voters, and a substantial plurality of Republican voters, are moderate, and not likely to support the extremist tea partier/John Birch Society Republican candidate that Gibson has become.
Murphy will have a couple million or so to make that point on TV in September and October.
And that will have a lot more effect on voters than tea partier street theater this week, and whenever.
P.S. I use "tea partiers" instead of "teabaggers" out of respect for a couple of local tea party leaders who are good, though seriously deluded, people. |
