The Personal blog of Marc Cenedella (via New York Times)
The GOP sure can pick 'em in NY state.
Last go around they offered up "crazy Carl" Paladino, who after an epic campaign of facepalm-inducing blunders snared a whopping 33.3% of the vote to Andrew Cuomo's 62.6%. In the special 2010 election for the Senate, A-list hopefuls (if anyone GOPer in NY still qualifies for that title) stepped back and let the hapless GOP nominee Joseph DioGuardi lose 35/63 to incumbent appointee Kirsten Gillibrand.
The GOP hasn't fielded a serious contender for any statewide office in New York in quite some time.
But 2012 was going to be different! The GOP thought they'd found the ideal candidate in the person of Marc Cenedella to take on Senator Gillibrand as she runs for her first full term. The multi-millionaire CEO of the The Ladders met with GOP party leaders and they were glad to hear he was prepared to self-finance half of the $30-40 million tab for the race. (Whew! The party can then focus on holding the Senate.)
Never mind that the job search company Cenedella founded The Ladders screams "One-percenter!", built on the idea of being an exclusive club of $100K jobs for $100K people. Never mind it has a reputation for over-promising, and under-delivering (kinda like the GOP's trickle-down economic theories) and complaints abounded it lists jobs that don't exist.
Nicholas A. Langworthy, chairman of the Erie County Republican Committee, says,
"There are a lot of people within our party encouraged by his candidacy. His overall life experience makes him an excellent candidate for the Senate."
Until recently, a Web site, blog.theladders.com/rock, bore Mr. Cenedella's photograph and the title "The personal blog of Marc Cenedella." It provided tips on polishing résumés, preparing for job interviews and the like. But it also had a number of entries containing random observations about sex, women and drugs.
The entries had headlines like "Sexy vs. Skanky," "Dating Advice for Girly Girls," "He Stole My Weed" and "High Quality Dope."
In an entry titled "A New Holiday for Men," there was a link to a separate site that designates March 14 as a special occasion on which women are encouraged to offer steak and oral sex "to show your man how much you care for him."
Another entry linked to a site that purports to provide biblical justification for a man's having more than one wife. "I wasn't so sure about all this Bible stuff," the entry accompanying the link said, "but I'm starting to cotton to it."
Before Mr. Cenedella proceeds any further in his interview process with the voters of New York, it seems like the self-styled job search guru might want to refresh himself with Forbes magazine's Corporate Guide For Social Media. Some relevant notes for CEO Cenedella:
Lead by example. Rules aren't enough. Leaders should model the behavior they would like to see their employees take.
Show your personality. You weren't hired to be an automaton. Be conversational while remaining professional. If your personal life is one that you (or your employer) don't want to mix up with your work, then consider establishing both private and public profiles, with appropriate sharing settings.
Stay on the record. Everything you say can (and likely will) be used in the court of public opinion--forever. So assume you're "on the record." Never say anything you wouldn't say to someone's face and in the presence of others. Never use profanity or demeaning language.
One would have hoped that a human resources and internet guru like Cenedella might have already been familiar with these concepts.
When the The New York Times confronted Cenedella about these entries his blog site immediately went dark.
The usual back-paddling and excuse-making ensued. They denied the "personal blog of Marc Cenedella" and was in fact the personal blog of Marc Cenedella, of course.
His campaign says it wasn't really him that posted all that sexist stuff and references to weed and blow jobs. The site, in the words of his campaign, "contained testing content from a wide variety of sources, including spam from automatic spiders."
...apparently it's never occurred to Mr. Cenedella that our kind of sort of misogynistic culture doesn't already mandate every other day of the year to be such an occasion?
Hey, at least Mr. Cenedella didn't forward any links to horse porn, so the NY GOP is showing incremental improvement over last cycle.
Via Capital New York, Senator Gillibrand was asked asked about this at an event this morning at New York University. She said:
"I think it fundamentally shows a lack of judgment," Gillibrand told reporters at the event at NYU's Kimmel Center. "And I have concerns because I feel like the nature of the rhetoric is very anti-women and very disrespectful and disregards women. And I think it's a matter of judgment that, and a level of inappropriateness, that's not appropriate for anyone seeking any office."
Cenedella arranged for this story today on CapitalNewYork.com, which has some interesting details, like Cenedella's contributions to Ron Paul and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and his current position on the leadership council (i.e., major donors) of the Club for Growth, which is dedicated to reducing taxes on the wealthy and repealing New Deal and Great Society social programs.
OK, Cenedella is a rich wingnut, lots of those running for office these days.
But the business that made him a 1-percenter, a job-search website that until very recently promised access to $100K-plus jobs for a price, is not squeaky clean.
I typed theladders into the Google today, and one of the suggested drop-down links is theladders scam.
Chuck Schumer, aka Senator WallStreet, was an unsurprising yes. Our Junior Senator, however, voted against it.
Her office just sent along this statement on her decision:
"I strongly believe America must reduce its debt and rein in federal spending. Earlier this week, I supported over $2 trillion in spending cuts without additional revenues, and last December I voted to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that are blowing a hole in the deficit. However, I do not believe this proposal is a fair, well thought out, or balanced deal for our fragile economy or the millions of middle class families struggling to make ends meet.
"The fact is, there is nothing in this deal that will address the significant jobs crisis we are facing. This deal, cut behind closed doors with zero transparency, is an unbalanced approach that cuts deeply into discretionary spending while being overwhelmingly stacked in favor of large corporations who exploit loopholes and the wealthiest among us. It is simply not in the best interests of the middle class and the larger economic recovery.
"I have not been in Washington long, but long enough to know it is broken. As I travel across New York, the people I meet are focused entirely on jobs and economic security for their families. Congress should take this charge as its own. I will continue to look for bipartisan ways to reduce the debt in a responsible way and create jobs in this struggling economy. The truth is, today we could have gone further in reducing America's debt with a sensible compromise that both cut discretionary spending and raised revenues. It is unfortunate Congress missed that opportunity."
You may recall that not too long ago, the state of Florida--or more particularly the stripped screw that they elected Governor, Rick Scott--rejected some $2.4 billion dollars in cash which had been set aside for the construction of high speed rail lines in Florida. Because, apparently, Florida has no tourism industry, and therefore no need to transport people who don't have cars available.
New York State on the other hand has huge potential use for high speed rail, and so Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was set upon probably before he even got into his office the next day.
The two main ambushers, I have no doubt, were the twin queens of HSR: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. As a result of their efforts, more than $800 million of that $2.4 billion is going to be spent on rail projects either in, or affecting, New York.
Specifically:
$450 million will be spent on improving the Northeast Corridor, which is along the route from Washington DC to New York City.
$295 million will go to reducing congestion at the HAROLD Interlocking in New York City, which is part of the Amtrak/LIRR system. While not city to city high speed rail in the way most of us envision, this is a major commuter hub, and at peak traffic times sees some 48 trains per minute moving through.
$58 million will go to "capacity improvements" in the Empire Corridor, the 460 mile stretch from Niagara Falls to New York City.
$1.4 million will fund the design of the new Rochester Intermodal Station, which will replace the current "temporary" Rochester Amtrak station which has been in service for 37 years. (Not a typo.)
I'm sure many of us would have liked to see rather more cash devoted to the upstate area. After all, the long-haul distances along the Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse-Albany-NYC route are where high speed rail could best shine. However, between the continued infrastructure investment, and the jobs that that will provoke, I think we'd all like to extend a round of thanks to Senator Gillibrand and Congresswoman Slaughter.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced today at an awards luncheon that she will travel to New York's 26th Congressional District to help drum up support for Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul.
Gillibrand was the recipient of reproductive rights group NARAL's annual 2011 Champion of Choice award this afternoon, and she urged women to take a more active role in politics. She invited today's attendees to join her upstate to raise support for Hochul, who will run on May 24th for the seat vacated by Chris Lee (he of Craigslist fame).
"If you get involved, if you send money, if you literally go up there, the week before the election," she told the crowd, explaining ways to take action. "I'm going to be there. Will you join me there? Please join me there. Those are things that we can do, together. The Senate is at risk."
The senator announced her endorsement of Hochul's candidacy earlier this month. Her Empire PAC donated $1,000 Hochul early in the race, and also sent out a fundraising pitch to the senator's supporters.
Senator Gillibrand is putting her money where her mouth is, so to speak, and so can you. Here are some ways you can help bring home a stunning a victory in a GOP district:
In Western New York, we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of voters on behalf of Kathy Hochul, Erie County Clerk and a great public servant. She has pulled within 5% of the Republican candidate in a very red Congressional district. We can win this race with help from you.
We need people willing to make phone calls;
We need people to canvas;
We need donors as well;
If you are from out of town and need lodging, we can help with that as well. The 26th Congressional district covers part of Monroe County, Erie County, Niagara County, and Orleans County as well as all of Genesee, Livingston and Wyoming Counties. We have a chance to send a message across the Country that says no to the Ryan Budget Plan and yes to truly shared sacrifice by electing Kathy Hochul to Congress. If you can help in ANY way, please contact any of the following people:
Williamsville Headquarters (Erie, Niagara, Genesee & Orleans Counties) 4927 Transit Road
Clarence, NY 14221
(Just north of the Honda dealership on Sheridan Drive, behind the Yankee Candle)
Contact: Jesse Simmons
Jesse@KathyHochul.com
(716) 218-3627
Virtual Phone Bank: Make Calls from Home
Contact: Blake@KathyHochul.com
Note that since this was written, we now have a poll showing a slight Hochul lead. This is a winnable race, folks. Join Senator Gillibrand out in the 26th and help make some history.
No, we're not having reruns of "classic The Albany Project." This is new.
The newest Quinnipiac poll out today shows Senator Kirsten Gillibrand with another record high: approval at 54%, disapproval at 20%. This is a six point rise in approval and a one point drop in disapproval since last month, drawing Qpac more or less even with the numbers coming out of Siena a couple weeks ago. In comparison, Chuck Schumer gets 60% approval and 26% disapproval in the same poll, an identical point spread.
Meanwhile, there's still the question of who the Republicans will put up against Gillibrand in next year's election, when she runs for her first full six-year term as Senator. And after Gillibrand won 56 of New York's 62 counties before her recent rise, and without the boon of running in a presidential election year...
Does anyone else here remember Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? The scene near the end, in the temple, when the bad guys are standing around deciding which of their nameless expendable underlings they're going to order to walk into the giant whirling blade of decapitation?
This month, McCaughey has been stumping at the state Conservative Party's conference and at CPAC, retelling her health care reform lies to credulous Obama-haters and basking in their applause.
Since she was appointed in January 2009, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's approval ratings in the Marist College poll have never exceeded her disapproval ratings.
The poll conducted last week found 49 percent of respondents rating the job Gillibrand is doing as excellent/good, with 39 percent going with fair/poor.
The last poll Marist did about Gillibrand, the week before her easy election last November, found excellent/good at 36, and fair/poor at 48. That was the highest approval number in the Marist poll ever, before now.
Gillibrand has told her heartfelt and moving story of what happened when Gabby first opened her eyes on her own on several cable and network news shows, including this morning on Morning Joe.
(Giffords) embodies everything that President Obama was trying to say that we have to be better than we are, that we all have to conduct ourselves better than we do.
Pretty uncontroversial and nonpolitical, especially in a culture that prizes and pursues self-improvement.
Unless you're that paragon of perfection Rush Limbaugh, who slammed Gillibrand on his show today.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made a triumphant appearance on The Daily Show [video], in what Times Union accurately describes as a "love fest." Expect this diary to be similar. A fever is sweeping New York and if loving Kirsten is wrong, we don't wanna be right.
For a freshman Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand has had a pretty good week, as two bills that she took a leadership role on -- DADT repeal and the health care for 9/11 responders bill -- passed through the Senate.
Those of us who know Gillibrand from her NY-20 days are not surprised that her intelligence and hard work had decisive impacts on these bills.
For many in the netroots, and for the media, her high-profile work on these bills has led to a reappraisal of Gillibrand.
Yesterday and today, three reporters, David Halbfinger of the New York Times, Reid Pillifant of the New York Observer and Steve Kornacki of Salon (writing in Capital New York), have done mini-profiles of Gillibrand's growth as a Senator.
I am proud to be Internet Director for Gillibrand For Senate - Todd
It was a homecoming for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, back in NY-20 stumping for Scott Murphy, just as she did last year prior to the special election to fill her seat in the House.
Yesterday they appeared together at the Country View Diner in Troy and today was a rally at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs with Bill Clinton. 1500 people gathered at 7:30 in the morning, greeted by a small but vocal crowd of Gibson supporters chanting "One More Day" and "Fire Scott Murphy!" But they only energized the crowd inside more, which cheered speaker after speaker rallying the voters in the room, making the case for Murphy as a strong advocate for Democratic reform policies and for moving the country forward.
Just getting set up here at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY for the US Senate debate between US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and republican challenger Joe DioGuardi.
Debate should start shortly. They are doing sound checks, etc...
Two minute warning just issued...
Thanks to Todd Beeton of the Gillibrand campaign for arranging access for us. Mets102 will be live blogging at DailyKos from a secure remote location.
Update 1
And it's on.
Kirsten Gillibrand opens and goes to the heart of her own agenda and DioGuardi's failures.
Really, how does she do it? Here's Kirsten Gillibrand, fresh off stomping Harold Ford, currently eating fake CPA Joe DioGuardi for breakfast in the New York Senate race, and she still has time to do her job, raise boatloads of cash, campaign across the state, and impress the jaded hedonists at Vogue.
As the crowd files out of the barn, I express admiration to one of the senator's aides for his boss's ability to charm a roomful of Republicans, and he says, "She can do the same thing on derivatives, comfortably rapping about financial markets. She walks into these huge churches in Brooklyn and Queens and starts talking about the asthma rates and the environmental-justice movement. It's just her comfort level with so many subjects." This reminds me of something Tina Brown, the editor in chief of The Daily Beast, told me: "People underestimate how smart Senator Gillibrand is. I hosted a dinner for her to meet a number of CEOs and media figures, and in conversation she was brilliant in her analysis of the economic meltdown. And she is an amazing fund-raiser . . . an unstoppable machine when she works the room."
I'm not a big fan of David Paterson, walking embodiment that he is of why New Yorkers hold our state government in contempt. But if he's treated more kindly by history than he perhaps deserves, it will be because his choice to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat was nothing short of inspired.
[Update]: Devtob suggests, and I agree, that folks really should read the whole Vogue piece. So here you go.
A federal judge issued a worldwide injunction Tuesday stopping enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, ending the military's 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips' landmark ruling was widely cheered by gay rights organizations that credited her with getting accomplished what President Obama and Washington politics could not.
"This order from Judge Phillips is another historic and courageous step in the right direction, a step that Congress has been noticeably slow in taking," said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans.
DOJ is likely to appeal the ruling, but today, for the first time in the history of the Republic, gay and lesbian Americans can serve the flag like all other Americans, with honesty and without fear.
After former Rep. Joe DioGuardi of Westchester County won the Republican primary to challenge Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, polls by SUSA and Quinnipiac found that DioGuardi would be formidable -- SUSA had Gillibrand ahead by the slimmest margin possible, 44-43, and Quinnipiac had her up by not much more, 48-42.
Other contemporary polls (by Siena and Marist) disagreed, showing Gillibrand with double-digit leads.
SUSA and Quinnipiac came out with new polls this week, joining the consensus that Gillibrand is 20-or-so ahead of DioGuardi, who remains largely unknown, and has been, for good reason, out of office for more than 20 years.
Details about the new polls, and DioGuardi, below.
The new Q Poll out this morning shows Dems in statewide races surging, especially Senator Gillibrand and AG candidate Schneiderman.
October 8, 2010 - Despite Anger At D.C., Dems Lead In All New York Races, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Women Propel Gillibrand To Double-Digit Lead
Democrats are surging in all New York statewide races as little-known Republican candidates struggle for name recognition, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tops the magic 50 percent mark, leading Republican challenger Joseph DioGuardi 55 - 34 percent, compared to a 48 - 42 percent Gillibrand lead in a September 23 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.
Gillibrand leads 59 - 28 percent among women and 51 - 39 percent among men.
....
New York State likely voters approve 52 - 34 percent of the job Gillibrand is doing and give her a 49 - 24 percent favorability rating.
Gillibrand held just a 6 point lead in the Q Poll released on September 23rd.
Eric Schneiderman was in a dead heat (36%-37%) with Staten Island DA Dan Donovan in that September Poll. Now he's opening up a significant lead.
In the closest statewide race in New York, the race for State Attorney General, New York State likely voters back Democratic State Sen. Eric Schneiderman 43 - 32 percent over Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan. But 24 percent of voters are undecided and 39 percent of those who select a candidate say they might change their mind by Election Day.
Neither candidate is well known: 75 percent of voters don't know enough about Schneiderman to form an opinion and 85 percent don't know enough about Donovan.
Neither of the candidates has decent name recognition, but things are definitely moving Schneiderman's way.
In other news from the poll, Chuck Schumer is crushing GOoPer Jay Townsend and Tom DiNapoli has opened up an 18 pt lead on whoever that guy is he's running against.
The New York Senate race was a lot more fun when we still had Harold Ford to kick around. Today, unfortunately, we have to make do with reactionary dick Joe DioGuardi, going up against Netroots All-Star Kirsten Gillibrand.
But as it turns out, republic/tea party candidate Joe has a lot of potential for would-be mockers. Like all of his ilk, Joe is a big tax-cutter. What we're learning now is that he made his own tax cut by simply not paying them.
Regrettably, the Internal Revenue Service doesn't really like that.
