So, why WASN'T it Maloney?

[Ken Burch]

New York is a state where you don't have to buy off the NRA to win as a Dem. Anybody know what the hell Patterson was thinking?

Do you NY DUers have any info about this that the rest of us don't?

[Nite Owl]

1. I sure was hoping for Maloney

Gillibrand is my rep. We worked hard to get her in in '06 and then she told no one that she was joining the Blue Dogs and has since veered to the right and more or less ignored the base except for feet on the ground and money. She probably will need to go more left now to try and win downstate. She is an excellent fundraiser so whoever runs against her in the primaries will need to match her. She was wanted by both Clinton and Schumer. She is friends with Paterson from when she worked downstate and her family has been around Albany politics for like forever.
I think we would need a special election for her seat so we just lost the seat. We here in NY20 are totally screwed.

[mdmc]

2. Is there anyone else that can win that seat?

Has anyone else expressed an interest?

[Nite Owl]

3. Well she just ran against

Sandy Treadwell who spent some 8 million out of his own pocket . She won 62% of the vote. She had money too and spent the last two years going all over the district. She is a hard worker. I'm sure there are people out there who might run but not with name recognition or funds.

[Raine1967]

4. My former district....So please allow me to wonder...

Moved down to Atlanta in '06. Plan to move back in a few years. I miss NY Politics! 62% in that district is REALLY huge. I lived in Columbia County... the county where she resides... The locals are pretty conservative (except me... seriously -- Ask around... ;) )

I do have a question tho, Does Paterson pick her replacement as well? Assuming he does, I am left wondering WHO could defeat a repub challenger. Knowing the district, as you do as well, I am not surprised she went center -- that district has LONG been a Repub stonghold... I think she will move left as a senate candidate in 2010...The city still has a hellova lot to say in who becomes senator.

I think she will be a formidable candidate. I still do not understand why not Maloney tho. Seems like Chuck and Hillary both liked This pick.

[Nite Owl]

6. If it is her, and it seems very likely

at this point then there would be a special election in 60days. We already got notice of a county meeting next week to plan.

She might move left but she does have a record already and a primary could get real nasty. NY GOP is in total disarray and this must be like a dream come true for them.

[Ken Burch]

7. I don't think Paterson would be able to dictate who the Dem nominee was in the special election

There'd need to be a primary, unless there was sort of Congressional district committee that was allowed to designate a nominee due to time constraints. But I don't think the second case is likely.

[Raine1967]

8. Thnx for that information.

oofda what a mess.

[nuxvomica]

12. Larry Bulman appears to be interested

He's the Saratoga County Democratic chairman and a union guy. He's pretty well known in my area and I think he'd be strong candidate.

[Raine1967]

5. Oh... about the NRA

They have a lot of gun owners North of Bear Mountain. :D

[Sepasco]

13. Gillibrand's District

I live in the 20th and can testify that it's not as conservative as it's being painted. Obama won the district! And Gillibrand favors gay marriage.

[Raineyb]

9. My guess?

A blatant suck up to upstate NY. As if they don't screw us over enough as it is. From what I've heard of the new senator she's a DINO. Just what we don't need in the senate. I'll be supporting whoever runs against her in the primary.

Regards

[TheWraith]

14. DINO she is not. Pro-gay-marriage, pro-Medicare-for-all, anti-war.

It's amazing how people bypass all the rest to obsess on guns.

[clear eye]

21. That "Medicare for all" support is just window dressing

since she wants every available cent spent on business tax cuts. If she gets her way, there'll never be any money to even consider such an ambitious program.

[DinahMoeHum]

10. Methinks Paterson felt that Maloney has more seniority in Congress

and she's the chair of the Joint Ecomonic Committee, and a member of the Financial Servioes Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, critical places to be for the next few years.

Like Nita Lowey, Louise Slaughter and Nydia Velazquez, Paterson may have felt Maloney was too valuable to replace in the position she now holds in Congress - she would merely be the junior Senator and have to work her way up the ladder again.

Just my 2 cents.

[djg21]

11. Gillibrand is top notch.

The 20th CD is going to be eliminated after the next census anyway. My sense is that this was factored into the decision.

[Raine1967]

16. Can you point me to information regarding that?

I would love to look into that a little more. Link?
Thnx

[djg21]

17. an oblique reference.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/10824/gillibrand-redistricting-con-may-not-be-an-issue.

This reference is oblique. CD-20 is wildly gerrymandered (depending on who you talk to, either to protect a repub seat in the 20th (that Sweeney lost to Gillibrand); or a Dem seat in the 21st (now Tonko), and very large and politically diverse.



The scuttlebutt in Albany is that it is to be absorbed into what are now the 21st, 22d, 23rd, 24th, as it probably should be.

[Raine1967]

18. Thanks so much for that!

[floridablue]

15. I have a theory

In order to keep his upstate republican backers, the accidental governor chose the republican became democrat in order to oust a political opponent of her power broker republican father.

[whistler162]

20. Then he would have chosen McCarthy the

up until 2002 registered Republican but serving as Democratic party Congressperson!

[clear eye]

23. Sorry to call you back to an old thread, but I'd love to hear more about your "theory".

When you refer to Gov. Paterson's upstate Republican backers, do you mean crossover voters, or have some upstate Republican pols been quietly supporting Paterson? Are you referring to someone in particular when you speak of Gillibrand's father's "political opponent"?

[dusmcj]

19. Duhhhh. I dunno - Gillibrand was a better choice ? get off your lameassed NRA fixation /nt

[Jim Lane]

22. The upstate/downstate thing pretty much explains it

New York State government is run on the "three men in a room" system. Right now the three men are Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Smith -- all men from New York City. Men from New York City also hold the offices of Attorney General (Cuomo) and the other U.S. Senate seat (Schumer). The position of Lieutenant Governor is vacant. The remaining statewide elected office, Comptroller, was filled by a white man from New York City (Hevesi), but he resigned amid scandal and was replaced by DiNapoli, from Long Island.

Thus, all the statewide offices are held by Democrats, but none are women and none are from north of the Bronx. That gave Paterson a strong incentive to pick an upstate woman. He probably feared that picking Maloney (from Manhattan) would reinforce the impression some upstaters have that the Democrats are exclusively a New York City party and that Democratic success means that upstate will get shafted. In New York politics, such factors often count for much more than ideology.

Among the current officeholders, Paterson and Smith are black and the others are white. There was some speculation that Paterson might pick Nydia Velazquez, even though she's from the city, because there are no Hispanics on the list. If there had been an upstate Hispanic woman with plausible credentials for the Senate, she probably would've been a slam-dunk choice. As it was, Paterson couldn't meet all three of his ticket-balancing goals, and settled for meeting two with Gillibrand. Maloney would've met only one.