The race to replace Gibson

Both the Republican and Democratic committees are making back room deals to get their chosen favorite the nomination of their respective party. They are doing this at the expense of the rank and file members, who have had little to no imput in the process and they are doing this at the expense of the process itself. This congressional seat will be one of the most competitive and expensive races in the country, no exaggeration both sides will spend millions to try and win this seat. It's a swing district that leans Republican but has had Democrats such as Kirstin Gillibrand and Scott Murphy represent this district. In a presidential year in a Blue state like NY with liberal counties in the district like Ulster, we are talking 12-18 thousand more Democrats than normal that will vote for President and down the line Democrat, that coupled with it being an open seat Dems have a great shot winning this year.

First though let's talk about the Republican side, John Faso is the establishment candidate and seen by the party as the best choice to win, Faso got crushed in 2006 by record margins against Eliot Spitzer in his bid for Governor and narowly lost to Hevisi a few years before that in a bid for State Comptroller. He has served in the Assembly for many years and helped a lot of Republicans and will be able to raise decent money but he's an old wine in a new bottle, he does not have what it takes to win in the general, in my humble opinion. The guy that has the best shot for the Republican's to keep that seat is Andrew Heaney, a successful businessman in the district that will be well funded (he's already launching tv ads) and has a great story to tell. Heaney should be who the GOP is looking at but unfortunately a lot of the committee chairmen, including Under Boss Roger Rascoe is blocking Heaney from a fair shake, in favor of Faso. It's a dumb move, we encourage the boss of the family Jim Quigley to intervene on this one. Speaking of Quigley eight years ago Quigley and Auerbach ran against each other for the newly established office of County Comptroller, Auerbach won one of the closest  county wide races in our history, I can't help but think it would be entertaining to see a rematch between the two of them for Gibson's congressional seat.

Lastly on the GOP front for Congress, county chairs should take notice that Heaney probably will have the endorsement of both the Independence and Conservative party's, if Faso is the Republican nominee you might as well hand the election to whoever the Democrat is that runs.

The Democrat party is not doing much better, they originally put out a press release at the end of December with all 11 chairs supporting Hein who ended up fucking them over and declining to run after an elbarete dog and pony show. Now they issued a similar decree in favor of carpet bagger Zapher Teachout, who I love, she's a great woman, she's smart, sexy and very capable but she's not from the state, she is a NYC elitist that is running in a district she is very new to and this district does not like that, look at Republican Jim Tedisco who lived a few miles outside the district was extremely well known and favored to win the seat that was opened when Gov. Patterson appointed Gilibrand to Clinton's senate seat in 2008 and he lost to a political neophyte in Scott Murphy. We just witnessed two years ago how the district reacted to the candidacy of Democrat Sean Eldridge who despite spending a shit ton of money and being married to the co founder of freakin' Facebook, got his ass handed to
him.

Furthermore, we are disappointed to say the least that Frank Cardinale has chosen to sign on to the candidacy of Teachout when our own County Comptroller is considering a run, it's at the very minimum disrespectful to Auerbach who has been pretty loyal to Frank, loyalty quite frankly that Cardinale doesn't deserve. I saw the poll numbers during last years Executive race, Auerbach's favorbility numbers are higher than any Democrat in this county, Hein has more name recognition but his favorbility is no where near as high as Elliott's numbers are, he is a serious contender and we can't help but think Cardinale is being pressured by a jealous Mike Hein to nip Auerbach's candidacy in the bud. Hein's philosophy is simple, if he isn't gunna be Congressman than no one from Ulster County will be either, it's that simple, that's the kind of boss he is. Lets also not forget that's the kind of boss Andrew Cuomo is too, he can't be happy that the party is entertaining Teachout's candidacy with such enthusiasm after the way she busted Cuomo's balls relentlessly during her primary election against him and Cuomo spares no prisoners as we all know, his raft makes Micheal look like a cub scout. Besides Elliott and Teachout, Julian Schreibman and Dan Ahouse have also mulled a run. Ahouse was Hinchey's right arm and was seen for sometime as the Congresman in waiting, he's knowledgeable and a force to be reckoned with, Schreibman of course ran against Gibson crushing him in Ulster County and doing better than anyone expected against a popular incumbent, an open seat on a presidential year, the Ivy league Yale graduate who was party boss for several years is more deserving than this Teachout broad and could win. After getting burned by Hein we think it's so stupid the party would again endorse publicly a candidate that has yet to announce, especially when there are other better candidates that have announced that are being ignored.


Both parties are preparing for war on two fronts, the last men/women standing of the upcoming civil war for the respective party nominations will battle it out in a bitter nasty war that will continue until November. The Dems want that seat and the GOP doesn't want to lose it. It'll be fun to watch for so long we were spoiled with HInchey that we never got to witness a good hard fought race for a house seat. This race is worth paying attention to. Overall we think Auerbach is the best person to represent us in Washington, whether or not he runs and puts himself out there with the disrespect he is being shown by Cardinale remains to be seen.