Second Breslin Challenger Finishes Listening Tour, Prepares to Launch Campaign
Most of the news of this developing primary challenge to Senate Assistant Majority Leader Neil Breslin has been out of the Luke Martland camp. Martland has mostly been hammering Senator Breslin left and right for the past couple months...
...but all along, as-yet-unsuccessful Albany politician Tim Carney has been running as well. In a news release yesterday, Carney announces that he's wrapped up a district-wide listening tour and is prepared to make a formal announcement that he's in the race on Monday. The full presser reads:
Tim Carney has completed his listening tour of all 19 municipalities in Albany County and the Albany County Legislature meeting's to listen to the people and the local elected officials to understand what the county is facing it these difficult economic times.
What he heard was not good at all, there are a lot of angry people in the county! One of the concerns that resonated throughout the county was, the trickle down of money from New York State to the County and then down to these municipalities is decreasing and the homeowners are going to pay the bill. Everyone is tightening the financial belts.
In his discussions with the people of Albany County, Mr. Carney heard, quite often, that we need a massive change in our New York State Government. That includes all of the current legislators.
The three major issues that were talked about were property tax reform, an Albany County owned nursing home and reform of state government.
This is why Tim will be making a formal announcement to his intentions for this year's race for New York State Senate on Monday May 10th. Tim has chosen to make this announcement at the Albany County Legislative Meeting because the 46th district covers all of Albany County from Cohoes to Rensselaerville.
Albany County Building - 112 State Street at 6:15 on Monday May 10th, 2010
Below the fold, Carney's introductory web-based videos that shouldn't be missed and a bit of analysis...
Take your eye off this race for more than a couple days and you end up missing some fireworks. On Monday, State Senate primary candidate Luke Martland went straight to the steps of incumbent Sen. Neil D. Breslin's second job to demand a full disclosure of the Senator's finacial dealings:
Martland Challenges Breslin to Release Taxes, Reveal Law Firm Clients and Salary
For immediate release: May 3, 2010
(Albany) - State Senate candidate and former prosecutor Luke Martland today released copies of his 2009 state and federal income tax forms and challenged incumbent Senator Neil Breslin torelease his income tax forms, disclose how much his second job at a large law firm pays him and reveal his clients so that the voters will know if there are any hidden conflicts of interest.
"Voters have the right to know if their elected officials are receiving income from sources that may compromise their integrity," said Martland, who pledges not to have any second job and no outside sources of income if he is elected to the State Senate.
"Neil Breslin is assistant majority leader in the New York State Senate, one of the most powerful and influential positions in state government," said Martland, "At the same time, he is also "of counsel" at Hiscock & Barclay, a large law firm. I challenge Assistant Majority Leader Breslin to do what I have done: release his tax returns. I challenge him to reveal how much this law firm pays him, who his clients are, and specifically what he does to earn their money."
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"The voters have a right to know how many hours a week Assistant Majority Leader Breslin is working at his second job instead of trying to get a budget passed," said Martland. "The voters have a right to know who is paying Breslin thousands of dollars a year. The voters have a right to know what specific legal work Breslin did for these clients. Are these individuals and companies who appear before the Senate or have an interest in pending legislation? Are these individuals or companies who appear before the Senate Insurance Committee which Senator Breslin leads?"
Martland points out that releasing this information would not violate the attorney-client privilege. As recently pointed out by the New York City Bar Association, the identify of an attorney's client and his or her income are almost always subject to disclosure.
Martland pledges that if elected to the Senate he will release his state and federal income tax forms every year, work full-time (not part-time) for the people of Albany County, and not have any outside employment whatsoever so that he is completely free of any conflicts of interest.
Emphasis mine - SP
In the days that followed, the story found life both in the media and on the blogs. Presses stop, Breslin responds, and bloggers sound off below the fold...
I felt the need to write a post in support of State Senator Breslin (Albany) in lieu of the anti-Breslin backlash he has faced on TAP.
Breslin has done a fine job for the Albany area in representing his district. Breslin has attended college dems and young democrat events where I have had the chance to speak with him on several occasions.
Criticism of him holding the gavel during the coup: If you think about it, this was actually the smartest thing he could possibly do under the circumstances. The Republicans had just taken control of the Senate due Espada and Monserrate, and as chair, Breslin had every right to adjourn the session until the leadership fight was settled. Had Breslin allowed the Republicans to have that 32 member majority, the Republican caucus could have passed legislation that was opposed by the Democratic caucus, and in clear violation of the intent of NY Voters who elected a Democratic State Senate for the first time in 40 yrs. I admire Breslin for standing up to the coup and fighting for his party and his constituents.
Furthermore, almost every Democrat supported Espada as Majority leader b/c they had no other choice- Espada threatened to caucus w/ the Republicans and then the Democratic caucus would no longer be in the majority, thus quashing any chance of Democratic legislation being passed for the first time in 40 years. It is now, when the Democratic caucus has leverage against Espada b/c of the civil and criminal charges being filed against him, that a new majority leader can step up and fill that void. In fact Breslin was one of the first State Senators to call for Espada to step down as chair.
Breslin is a fine State Senator who deserves to be re-elected. He is a champion of progressive values, like voting for gay marriage. Instead of criticizing him, the TAP community should be focusing on kicking out Espada, Democrats who dont represent their constituents, and beating Republicans in November
Albany Native to Challenge Assistant Majority Leader Breslin in Dem Primary
Yesterday, Luke Martland, a native of Albany, former Manhattan assistant DA and counsel to the Governor, made his official announcement that he will challenge State Sen. Neil D. Breslin in the 46th State Senate district, Albany County.
Martland has been hammering Breslin, whose two brothers hold the County Executive and Judgeship, in several press releases on as many issues for the past month. His announcement yesterday summarized these points and introduced even more. It also marks the first time a challenger to the entrenched incumbent has been given a full court press.
The full speech, announcement release, and links to extensive press coverage after years of giving Breslin a free pass are below the fold.
Earlier this week, I reported here on TAP that the Albany County Democratic Committee's candidate reviewing process lead to a surprising non-endorsement of Senator Neil Breslin. I maintained that this was a big story in the follow-up report on the political fallout for Breslin and the responses of his primary opponents, Luke Martland and Tim Carney. This stance of mine was initially disputed, though, and after all I'm just a blogger...
...but now even the most main of the mainstream press agrees:
The Senate race was this week's dominant local political story, with the Albany County Democratic Committee's candidate review panel turning heads by voting not to endorse Breslin or the two other Democrats running for the seat and instead pushing the decision to the party's executive committee.
With Breslin's camp said to be furious, county Democratic brass moved quickly to patch things up with the Breslins -- culminating with party Chairman Dan McCoy personally endorsing the senator Wednesday even before the executive committee met.
Emphasis mine - SP
Looks like I was right on the money. It also looks like there's even more to the story, below the fold...
Two press releases in as many days see State Senate candidate Luke Martland slamming the seven-term incumbent Neil D. Breslin. Martland calls him out both as a flip-flopper on his support for turncoat Senator Pedro Espada as well as his waning political support in the district, Albany County.
Breslin, who announced his bid for re-election yesterday, is cited as having supported Espada before going on record against him. Martland will be formally announcing his challenge to the entrenched Assistant Majority Leader on Sunday, April 25th. He will also be facing a second challenger, Tim Carney, who made his thoughts known via the above-linked blog.
All this and we had a fantastic article on this fast-developing race in the Legislative Gazette I missed earlier this month. I will try not to miss a thing below the fold...
With seven terms under his belt, yet facing two primary challengers in as many years, Senator Neil D. Breslin has been denied the automatic endorsement of the Albany County Democratic Committee, according to TU Local Politics:
Albany Dems' review panel withholds backing in Senate race
April 20, 2010 at 1:32 pm by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist
The executive committee of the Albany County Democratic Committee has been called to meet Thursday night, just five days after the party's candidate review panel declined to endorse seven-term-incumbent state Sen. Neil Breslin.
The review panel, in fact, declined to endorse any of the three Democrats - Breslin, Luke Martland and Tim Carney - who interviewed with it, passing the decision instead onto the executive committee, according to two people with knowledge of the committee's action.
There's about 500 words in Carleo-Evangelist's story, with plenty of quotes from Albany County Committeemen telling us not to read too much into it. I'll provide some more choice quotations below the fold, but I rather like the way the Times Union journalist closes his post:
The latest press release from Albany County's State Senate candidate Luke Martland has the primary challenger blasting his entrenched opponent and the entire chamber for skipping out on work without having passed a budget yet.
Quoted in full below, the release sees Martland using his strongest words to date in taking incumbent Sen. Breslin to task specifically and summing up his reasons for running generally.
Martland Calls on Breslin, Senate to Get Back to Work and Pass Budget
With budget 2 weeks late, no agreement in sight, do-nothing Senate takes 2 days off.
(Albany) - State Senate candidate Luke Martland today called on Assistant Majority Leader Neil Breslin (D-46th) and State Senate leaders to stop the politics as usual, return from their mini-vacation, and get a budget passed.
The Legislature is required by law to pass a budget on April 1. Two weeks later, with the budget hole above $9 billion and steadily growing, no budget has been passed. The Democrats and Republicans apparently can't even agree on when conference committees (that were supposed to have been convened months ago) should meet. And, to top it all off, the Senate decided to take Thursday and Friday off!
"This is exactly why I am running for the New York State Senate," said Martland. "The leadership we have is dysfunctional and not capable of putting a budget together. They are not capable of governing this state. Even worse, the same Senators who can't pass a budget on-time have taken Thursday and Friday off. Why? Are they tired?"
"It is time to put partisan political posturing aside and do what is right for the people of New York," said Martland. "Neil Breslin is Assistant Majority Leader and has been in office for 13 long years. Where's his leadership? Where's his ability to get things done?
How can the Senate not do its job - and then give itself two days off?"
Martland noted that Senator Breslin, despite receiving a tax-payer funded salary of over $100,000 a year, has a second job at a large Albany law firm and asked, "While the Senate is taking Thursday and Friday off, will he be working at his second job?" Martland, on the other hand, has promised to not have any outside employment and will work year round, 24/7, for the voters.
"Until we clean out the professional politicians who refuse to work hard, cannot pass a budget on time, and then have the arrogance to take a long weekend, nothing will change. The fact is that nothing will change and none of New York's problems will be fixed until we change who we elect to serve us!"
I happen to agree. Senators make a decent amount of money for their work, and all workers should get some time off now and then regardless of occupation. But these guys just got back from vacation for the Easter holiday! I don't see any holidays in the next couple days...
Unless you count today! Did you do your taxes? While the State Senate can apparently miss deadlines all it wants without repercussions, what happens to one of us if we "forget" to file today?
This is reasoning that any New Yorker should be able to agree with, and Luke Martland's words above remind me of very similar statement I've heard from regular New Yorkers over the years. Perhaps it's time for do-nothing Senators like Breslin who sneak off by themselves to retire; perhaps it's time to send candidates like Martland who speak for us all to take his place.
There's been quite a lot of talk here on The Albany Project this week about the Democratic "pay to play" fundraising scandal. I believe we are upset for good reasons, all of which are expressed in the linked-to diaries.
But we're just bloggers. We aren't the ones running for office. What we should be looking for is condemnation from these Senators primary challengers. Something like what SD-46 primary candidate Luke Martland has just released to the press today:
Martland Blasts Breslin, Senate Leaders on Pay to Play Scheme
(Albany) - State Senate candidate Luke Martland today blasted State Senator Neil Breslin (D-46th) and State Senate leaders for soliciting $50,000 payments from labor leaders and $25,000 payments from business leaders to join an "advisory council" and participate in "policy discussions."
"Neil Breslin is assistant majority leader in the State Senate. He is a part of the Senate Leadership team. Why isn't he standing up and saying no to this type of pay to play corruption," said Martland.
"I think people have a right to know if Neil Breslin knew about these solicitations, did he approve these solicitations or did he just stand by and let these solicitations go out?" questions Martland.
"Ordinary people don't have $50,000 to give to the State Senate so their voices can be heard," added Martland. "This is politics as usual in Albany and that's why we need new leadership in the State Senate."
"Until we clean up Albany and clean out the professional politicians who think it's fair to sell access, the State Senate will never do what's right for average New Yorkers. Only then will the Senate stop being for sale and start making the tough decisions to get New York back on track, lowering taxes and fixing the problems that years of corruption, borrowing and wasteful spending have created," added Martland.
Luke Martland's stands on issues can be found at www.lukemartlandsenate.com.
Emphasis mine - SP
Sound political analysis below the fold that any Democrat and any blogger should understand...
A week ago, I reported that State Senator Neil D. Breslin (D-Albany County) would face his second primary challenge in as many years from the same number of opponents.
Today, one of his opponents, Luke Martland, has sent out the first press release recieved by this blogger since signing up to recieve notifactions from Senator Breslin himself, candidate Martland, and the other guy running, Tim Carney.
The release, quoted in it's entirety below, calls out Senator Breslin for both flip-flopping on his promise to not cut education and for making the actual cuts to education spending. The only changes I make are hard returns for ease of reading and adding some italics for emphasis where appropriate:
Martland Blasts Breslin for Flip Flopping on Education Budget Cuts
(Albany) - State Senate candidate Luke Martland today blasted State Senator Neil Breslin (D-46th) for "Flip Flopping" on a commitment Breslin made to stop cuts to school aid.
On March 8th Breslin signed a letter to Governor Paterson stating that he would not vote for any cuts to education. Only two weeks later, on March 22nd, he voted for a budget that cut school aid by $1.4 billion.
When asked by CBS 6 News "what changed" he responded "...ahhh, I'm on a team, and the team is the Democratic Conference and uh ... there needs to be cuts in education and I think that was the starting point of me saying no cuts." He also said his letter was merely an "overstatement" designed to establish a "bargaining position."
New York Post State Editor and CBS6 commentator Fred Dicker said that Breslin's Flip Flop is an outright lie. Dicker said Breslin apparently thinks "...that he can just lie outright, and that's just a political strategy .... In fact that is what is going on we are being lied to all the time.."
"Neil Breslin voted for devastating cuts in school aid because his bosses in New York City told him to," said Martland, who graduated from Albany High School and is challenging Breslin in the Democratic primary. "The party bosses say "flip" and Breslin flips, they say "flop" and he flops. This shows why Neil Breslin is one of the reasons that New York State government is dysfunctional and ethically corrupt. It is time for a change in Albany."
"If I had signed a letter saying I could not support massive cuts to school aid, I would not have broken my promise and then voted for the cuts," said Martland, whose mother taught at the Academy of the Holy Names and whose father was a professor at UAlbany. "I'm not a flip flopper, I'm a fighter," said Martland, who has spent his career in criminal justice as an assistant district attorney, assistant attorney general and working for the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
Luke Martland's stand on issues can be found at www.lukemartlandsenate.com.
The presser actually links to Martland's main page; here's the link to the issues page itself. Martland has broken things down to four issues (Ethics, State Debt, Jobs, and Taxes) as well as Nine Promises all relating to reforming the way the Senate operates (none of which mention having to change any rules in order to do so).
To be fair, you can check out Breslin's campaign site as well. But at the time of this writing, it's just a patriotic banner with the simplistic slogan "Our community, our values, our voice, our Senator" that says "Thank you" below.
This Democratic primary voter says "Thanks, but no thanks" here, and is glad to see at least one primary opponent getting things started this heavy, this early.
In 2008, when I first came to The Albany Project (and ever since then) my own personal project has been to make sure that State Senator Neil Breslin's term in office as Albany's representative ends with all due haste. I volunteered incessantly that year for a fantastic man named David Weiss, who was the first person ever to primary Breslin, the only person who ever had the guts to do so.
The video below shows the major role my state Senator, Neil D. Breslin, D-Albany County, played in the June 2009 State Senate coup that he's never, ever been held accountable for.
The video shows Sen. Breslin serving as Temporary President. He first appears in the top left corner of the video at 0:17. He's bobbing back and forth and doesn't seem to know what's going on. Around 0:24, he can be heard stuttering "I...I..." At 0:32, he appears in the center of the frame, addressing Sen. Libous. At 0:44, he reaches for the gavel and stammers, "Senna...senna libba...wouldju be quiet!" At 0:51, Sen. Breslin raps the gavel. A second later he growls "We adjourn!" At 0:59, he can be seen walking away from the podium.
Let me ask you: does that look and sound like an experienced, effective State Senator to you?
Me neither. There's more (oh, so much more) below the fold...
Despite the overwhelming numbers from 12-year incumbent State Senator Neil Breslin's first primary victory, runner-up challenger David Weiss has sent the following statement to supporters after taking a few days of rest after Tuesday's primary signaling that the Weiss campaign is not over yet:
Hi.
As most of you know, I came in second on Tuesday's primary, 14% of the vote.
Everyone's been asking how I feel.
I feel great because I know that I did the best possible job I could. I was out every single day all summer, knocking on about 200 doors a day (getting, by the way, an incredibly encouraging response along the way), working 20 hours a day and organizing some great volunteers.
And everyone also wants to know what I've learned.
Although I went into this thing knowing I was going against a huge machine, but I didn't realize the extent to which the local media would black out this story. The Spotlight wrote a nice article, but Times Union & WAMC studiously avoided mentioning the race.
As to what I'm going to do next?
Check below the fold for the answer to that big question...
Unnofficial reports from 100% of 345 Albany County precincts show that Neil Breslin will hold his line and his seat as two challengers split a contested anti-incumbent vote in the September 9 primary.
STATE SENATOR 46 DEM
Neil D Breslin 15,796(76%)
David N Weiss 2,750(13%)
Charlie Voelker 2,310(11%)
Senator Neil Breslin will be up for re-election to on the Democratic, Working Families, and Independence Party lines in November. There, he will face off against Charlie Voelker again, who has the Conservative Party line, too. David Weiss will not be on the ballot.
Senator Breslin is the brother of both County Executive Mike Breslin and Albany County Judge Tom Breslin. The 46th Senate District is entirely and exclusively Albany County. Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 80,000 in Albany County and are are expected to win all races in the 2008 General down the ticket.
Senator Breslin will likely recieve his seventh term in office after his first Democratic primary challenge, and return to the Senate in 2009. The big question facing Senator Breslin, and all Senate Democrats, is whether he will begin to serve in the majority next year.
In an obvious display of desperation, State Senator Neil Breslin called a press conference yesterday to urge the passage of a new energy plan. This resulted in the only Capital Region section front page report on the race in today's Times Union, one of only two headline articles published on the first primary challenge faced by the Senator in his 12 years in office.
From the first paragraph, and based on the questionable policy details of the plan, it's clear that Sen. Breslin made the announcement only because his primary opponent, David Weiss, is a nationally recognized expert on renewable expert and has made it the key part of his platform in his incredibly strong grassroots challenge. David Weiss responds to the ploy in the article as well after the fold:
ALBANY -- Facing his first ever primary challenge this week, Democratic state Sen. Neil Breslin on Sunday urged Senate Republicans to return to Albany to pass an energy plan that would give money to families earning up to $85,000 a year.
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But Weiss, 51, a wind power advocate, suggested there is money to pay for the program -- contrary to Republican beliefs. "The senators should not take their 200 million dollars of line items ... there is money."
More below this fold on why Senator Breslin's plan is political pandering and David Weiss's platform is necessary to change our State's energy policy for real...
On Thursday, August 28, I had published in the Altamont Enterprise, and independent newspaper that covers rural western Albany County, a letter to the editor regarding the primary challenge against State Senator Neil Breslin by David Weiss. The Enterprise is by far the best newspaper in Albany County, published continuously for 124 years and the recipient of numerous awards for journalism, for good reason.
The best part about this paper are the several pages devoted to letters to the editor right after the front page each week. Yet these letters are not posted online, most likely as a privacy concern for the writers or as a space-saving measure for the publication's webstite. The Enterprise has a long-standing policy of not publishing such letters in the week before an election so that unconfirmed information is not allowed to sway any race.
Yet the crux of the letter has to do with the lack of coverage of the Democratic Primary in New York's 46th Senate District in larger, corporate media outlets has been designed to sway the race in favor of an incumbent by ignoring a strong primary challenger, and the information has been confirmed and I believe it deserves to be given more light of day in the online record of the race.
Below the fold is the full text of my letter as it appeared in print last week...
Yesterday, the Times Union finally put the name David Weiss into print in a headline news story letting Albany County voters know that he is primarying State Senator Neil Breslin for the first time since declaring his candidacy in November of last year.
The article makes no mention of the websites of any of the three Democrats who will face off this Tuesday, including that of Conservative Party-backed Charlie Voelker. Nor does the article appear in an online version, so much is still to be desired. But after nine months of campaigning, the paper of record for the 46th Senate District, which consists entirely of Albany County, finally recognized that Breslin will face two challengers, not just one.
It's interesting because a lot was left out of the article, which does in fact make a decent attempt at summarizing David Weiss's candidacy, as well as the reason he is running against Senator Breslin. But even more interesting is the fact that this blogger knows just how much was left out because (surprise) the interview was conducted while I was out canvassing with David!
Prospective Voting: Voting based on the imagined future performance of a candidate.
American Government, 9th ed., Lowi, Ginsberg, and Shepsle. 2006
When an incumbent legislator comes up for re-election for another term, many voters may look back in retrospect and vote on the past performance of the candidate in choosing whether or not to send that person back into government. In the 46th State Senate District, coterminus with Albany County itself, Senator Neil Breslin is up for re-election, as are all member of the State Legislature. A few weeks ago, we took one look back at what a retrospective voter might take into account in considering voting for anybody but Breslin based on past performance.
By contrast, when a new challenger arrives, there is no legislative record to run on, and as such, retrospective voting is impossible for that candidate. In Albany County, Senator Breslin faces two challengers in a Democratic Primary as Charlie Voelker and David Weiss pose the first primary challenge to Senator Breslin in his 12 years as State Senator. Both are making their first run for office, and as such their campaigns are rooted in their possible future performance if they are able to oust the incumbent.
As this blog is dedicated to promoting progressive Democratic candidates, the prospects of Charlie Voelker's victory will not be considered. This is due to the two facts that he has the endorsement of the Conservative party and that nearly everyone once affiliated with his campaign has left after a poor ground game and struggling financially. His website is linked to for all interested parties.
It is David Weiss, a grass-roots activist of 35 years with a national reputation for success in that area, who provides Democratic primary voters in Albany County with the prospect of getting something better. That statement is made under the assumption that the incumbent has performed his absolute best, but has served a good long time. It is now time for change all over the country, and that includes the New York State Senate. And David Weiss is a candidate who presents a future that we can safely imagine will be much better for the people of Albany County and of the State of New York.
Below the fold is everything one would need to know in order to vote for David Weiss based on his issue positions and the links provided on his website...
One of the cool things about being politically active is there's the small chance of making the papers. Besides publishing several diaries here on TAP and on DailyKos, I'm no stranger to this as a citizen who is unafraid to submit my political views in letters to the editors. When one of those are pending, I'm sure to be first in line to pick up my copy of the newspaper.
But every now and then, I've been surprised to find myself magically appearing on television in support of Barack Obama and even highlighted anonymously at one of the recent forums for the primary in the 21st Congressional District. And I was the last to find out that I'd crept into the public eye. This was the case when I picked up my copy of the Times Union yesterday to find my correspondence with that paper's recently assigned independent political coverage monitor, a Professor Charlotte Grimes of Syracuse University, taking up my calls for more equity in coverage in the Democratic Primary going on in the 46th State Senate District:
"Where is the equal coverage?" asks reader Aaron Cirelli.
In the presidential race, he hasn't seen much coverage of consumer activist and independent candidate Ralph Nader and of Ron Paul, a Texas congressman who had run as a Libertarian and a Republican.
Colin Abele, a blogger supporting Democrat David Weiss in the 46th Senate District primary, is upset that his candidate hasn't been covered much. "All I'm asking for is an acknowledgment of who's on the ballot," he e-mailed.
Both see the lack of coverage as "bias."
For the record, that's who I am, that's what I think, and below the fold I will continue this conversation on equal coverage, or rather the lack of it, in this very important, very real and very newsworthy primary in Albany County. And not just because I don't mind other folks knowing what I think - chiefly, it's because I think folks should know the whole story so they can be fully informed to make their own choice on Primary Day. Read on...
Retrospective Voting: Voting based on the past performance of a candidate
-Lowi, Ginsberg, Shepsle, American Government, 9th ed.,2006
When it comes to general elections, all of us here want to see a Democrat win the vast majority of the time. This comes from the prospect of seeing a future Democratic majority in a particular arm of government, or to see a present Democratic majority made stronger.
But in our case, we are considering a primary election, one that pits Democrat against Democrat in a race to see which member of the party would best serve in the current or emerging majority. In SD-46, coterminus with Albany County, incumbent Democratic State Senator Neil Breslin is facing a challenge from political new comers Charlie Voelker and David Weiss.
Many see Democrats in primaries battling each other as opposed to our common opposition as no pretty sight. But the reality of these elections is that they alone have the power to bring us the "better" part in our "more and better Democrats" mission. And while the focus in the New York State Senate is to get more (just a couple and we've got the majority), in Albany County, there is the chance to get something better. This will come about by either electing a new, more progressive representative or by pushing the incumbent toward more progressive positions. Voters in these elections usually vote in one of two ways: they either practice prospective voting in favor of what their chosen candidate, incumbent or challenger, is pledging to legislate in the future.
The other method involves voting specifically against the incumbent because of past percieved mishaps. And when a retrospective voter becomes convinced they can do the incumbent's job better than the serving legislator, this voting method becomes the very cornerstone of the challengers' campaigns. Below the fold, we will take one - count 'em, one - good hard look at everything the retrospective voter needs or may want to know in order to vote against State Senator Neil Breslin in the Democratic Primary on September 9th...
(Lots of good info here. - promoted by phillip anderson)
Newcomers Charlie Voelker, David Weiss Challenge Incumbent Senator Neil Breslin
You can almost imagine the headlines. A State Senator of 12 years, the brother of a county executive and a county judge, challenged by two upstarts in 2008, the year of political change.
One challenger speaks of intimidation of voters in the petitioning process; another racks up over 1,000 signatures on his own two feet. The latter is also a prominent figure nationwide as an energetic environmental activist. You can almost imagine the headlines...
And you still have to, because they haven't appeared in the mainstream media since Charlie Voelker and David Weiss made the ballot to challenge Neil Breslin. It has been over three weeks since nominating petitions and fundraising receipts have been filed for office.
This story has been all but absent in the mainstream media. The fact that it is an important choice regarding their self-representation warrants that it should have been covered by now. But read on to discover just how baffling it is that the press wouldn't want to pick up on such a story.
