| Let me preface this post with a brief announcement that I will expand upon later today. I do some consulting on web strategy for a firm that works with the DSCC. More later, but do keep those two words in mind, "web strategy." OK?
That said, I have also advised Jimmy Dahroug off and on for quite some time, never for pay.
Today, Jimmy Dahroug released a statement denouncing the challenge to his nominating petitions and calling the challenge an "act of desperation" from the campaign of Brian Foley.
Democratic State Senate Candidate Jimmy Dahroug responded to objections to his petetions by backers of Brian Foley (as reported in Newsday). "This is clearly an act of desperation by Foley's campaign. He failed to secure our party's nomination at the convention. Now Brian and his backers are nervous about facing me in a primary. So his backers are using underhanded and shady tactics to run away from a fair fight."
"Dahroug issued a direct challenge to Brian Foley: "I'm publicly calling on Brian Foley to stop the undemocratic and underhanded actions of his campaign backers. Brian called for a positive, high-minded race. If he truly is committed to the standard he set, he'll back up his words with action."
Dahroug's campaign filed 1,408 signatures with the Suffolk County Board of Elections, a cushion of over 40% more than the required number. This is about the same number of signatures the Dahroug campaign filed for in its successful 2006 primary race. All signatures were gathered at the homes of registered Democrats by trained Democratic committee members and volunteers. Not a single signature gatherer was paid.
Where to start? Is the challenge to Jimmy's petitions "undemocratic" and "underhanded?" That's a bit of stretch. Is democracy served by such challenges? Doubtful, but it is how the game is played here in New York, for better or worse. Anyone who didn't see this coming after Jimmy submitted a rather anemic 1,408 signatures needs to wake up. Everyone knows the rules and everyone knows that when you need 1,000 signatures, 1,400 just doesn't cut it. Not in this state, anyway.
Compare this performance with that of Don Barber. Playing by the same rules, Barber submitted over 2,600 signatures. Dan Squadron, who is running in a primary against probably the finest election lawyer in the whole state, collected over 8,000 signatures. That's how it's done. That's how one plays this game. There's just no way to challenge numbers like that. Someone like Jimmy, who is on his third run and has essentially been running for five years non stop, knows the rules, yet he still only managed 1,400 sigs. That's pretty sad to say the least.
Foley, who has been in the race only since the night of the Suffolk County Dem convention submitted 3,200 sigs. Yeah, he did pay petition carriers. This isn't an uncommon occurrence. It's great if you can gather a respectable number with an all volunteer effort. It shows some organizational competence as well as real support for your campaign. But, given that those volunteers collected only 1,400 signatures, perhaps Jimmy should have paid petition carriers as well. Just sayin'.
More on the flip...
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All that said, I think it's time to knock down some truly absurd statements made recently by folks I know and like and who should know better, stuff like this:
...every one of Dahroug's signatures was gathered by a trained petitioner from a registered Democrat in the district, going door-to-door, while many (most? all?) of Foley's signatures were gathered by semi-trained hired help at shopping centers and street corners, often on the outskirts of the district.
That means that Dahroug's petitions are solid, while Foley's are questionable.
This statement is both completely wrong and factually untrue. One, it's highly likely that Jimmy will not even make the ballot. This doesn't make his signatures solid, it makes them insufficient. Second, it's pretty obvious that a good number of those carrying Jimmy's petitions weren't from the district. I know this because many of them are friends of mine. They live here in NYC. I mean, there's a freaking video, for cryin' out loud.
Just please stop telling me that the fact that Jimmy's primary opponent submitted nearly two and a half times as many signatures makes Jimmy's petitions superior and Foley's suspect. I've also talked to a number of folks recently who are trying to tell me that Jimmy's campaign didn't think that petitioning was the best use of their resources and this is why the number was so low. Um, what? I really hate to use this term, but that's just retarded. The campaign had better things to do than talk to voters and, ya know, actually secure a place on the ballot? I'm growing awfully weary of folks making excuses time and time again for progressive candidates that under perform. Please stop.
What it all boils down to for me is basically this. There are true grass/netroots candidates out there. They often are underfunded and often have folks working against them by placing obstacle after obstacle in their way. The successful ones overcome this and they do it the old fashioned way - they work their ass off. Want a good example? Look at Don Barber. The guy has come out of nowhere to a point where he now gets taken seriously by folks on all sides. Don didn't whine about the challenges he has overcome. He's busting his ass up in the 51st and his actually building a hell of a campaign, a genuine people powered movement.
Jimmy is often identified by traditional media types as a darling of the grass/netroots and he certainly has his fans here. But, such candidates do a lot of things that Jimmy simply isn't. Such candidates raise money through entities like ActBlue. Don Barber has raised over $38,000 on ActBlue and even outraised Barack Obama himself last week on ActBlue. Dahroug has raised $190 on ActBlue and recently filed an anemic $22,000 quarter for all his fundraising. Jimmy's single largest contributor was one "Jimmy Dahroug." That's sad.
Successful grass/netroots candidates have to work harder than everyone else. I don't see any tangible evidence that Jimmy is doing that, at least not the way that other candidates have.
Now, don't get me wrong here either. Jimmy is easily one of, if not the, most progressive candidate for any office anywhere in the state. I also know Jimmy personally and I like him a great deal, but, all that progressivism doesn't amount to much if he can't even secure a place on the ballot. A challenge to Jimmy's petitions isn't a "clear act of desperation." It's the way this particular game is played and all the players know the rules. Period.
That's kind of sad, too, but that's just the way things are. |
