![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Winners and Underdogs
Oct. 9th, 2011 07:37 pmOur formerly sucky football team beat another higher-rated opponent today: one self-proclaimed to be a "dream team" with a multimillionaire canine murderer for a quarterback, who threw almost as many passes to our players today as he did to his own receivers. The schadenfreude, it sings.
Yet that's not the only tale of the tape today with the good guys coming out ahead, or at least further ahead.
Despite all the advantages of incumbency, a humongous war chest of campaign funds, and the co-opting of some naive city-based Democrats, our Republican county executive was reported today to be in a dead heat in his re-election campaign. His opponent is the incumbent county comptroller, a lawyer and confessed policy wonk who probably wasn't the best or most charismatic choice for the race but who is making an impressive showing so far. The article reporting the poll results included these pictures of the two contenders, which supporters of King Collins (he's the one on the left) immediately condemned as being biased toward the Democrat on the right:
I don't see what all the fuss is about. Most of the time, bloodsucking vampires don't photograph at all.
And let's be clear- that's just what the beer-sign eye guy on the left actually is. Since coming into office on a "run this county like a business" platform, he's made clear that the business in question is Sunbeam and his inspiration is Chainsaw Al Dunlop. He's laid off hundreds of county workers, many of them eligible for full-salary reimbursement by state or federal funds, simply because the voters served by them aren't the rich and powerful of his secluded suburban subdivision. He hoarded federal stimulus funds instead of using them to, you know, stimulate the economy through actual hiring of workers to fix and build things. He's vetoed any projects that don't meet his vision and, even when overriden, has refused to authorize disbursement of project funds other than projects and positions backed by his political cronies. He's decimated cultural and library funding in a time when they are the most needed and the most vulnerable to the cuts, while still supporting full county-subsidized police protection for suburbs like his (and unlike mine, or the city) which refuse to pony up for such services themselves.
In short, the man's a bully. And earlier today, I heard a story, at a personal level, about the extent and insensitivity of his personality which confirmed every bad opinion of him I've ever had. I would like nothing more than to see him sent to the unemployment line, along with his proteges Chris Lee and Jane Corwin, who also had big war chests but did nothing to gain the public trust and got chased from their aspirations to high office as a result.
Mark, on the other hand, showed up at my house in the middle of last week in an actual effort to campaign. I missed his visit, but he left his literature and a signed note that he'd been here. My only advice to him, as this campaign now gets serious, is this:
.jpg)
The dude has an unfortunate tendency (finally diagnosed by the Centers for Disease Control as "Chuck Schumer Syndrome") to call a press conference and whine to the media every time his regal opponent does something stupid. This is not a winning strategy when your opponent has the power of incumbency and the even greater power of the purse. Stick to the issues, and to the King's wrong-headed stances on them. Make fun of him (and his tendency to act as a complete jerk in the vicinity of veterans and handicapped parking spaces), but do it in an upbeat and I-can-do-better fashion. Otherwise, the money will talk, and we'll have four more years of bullshit walking.
Yet that's not the only tale of the tape today with the good guys coming out ahead, or at least further ahead.
Despite all the advantages of incumbency, a humongous war chest of campaign funds, and the co-opting of some naive city-based Democrats, our Republican county executive was reported today to be in a dead heat in his re-election campaign. His opponent is the incumbent county comptroller, a lawyer and confessed policy wonk who probably wasn't the best or most charismatic choice for the race but who is making an impressive showing so far. The article reporting the poll results included these pictures of the two contenders, which supporters of King Collins (he's the one on the left) immediately condemned as being biased toward the Democrat on the right:
I don't see what all the fuss is about. Most of the time, bloodsucking vampires don't photograph at all.
And let's be clear- that's just what the beer-sign eye guy on the left actually is. Since coming into office on a "run this county like a business" platform, he's made clear that the business in question is Sunbeam and his inspiration is Chainsaw Al Dunlop. He's laid off hundreds of county workers, many of them eligible for full-salary reimbursement by state or federal funds, simply because the voters served by them aren't the rich and powerful of his secluded suburban subdivision. He hoarded federal stimulus funds instead of using them to, you know, stimulate the economy through actual hiring of workers to fix and build things. He's vetoed any projects that don't meet his vision and, even when overriden, has refused to authorize disbursement of project funds other than projects and positions backed by his political cronies. He's decimated cultural and library funding in a time when they are the most needed and the most vulnerable to the cuts, while still supporting full county-subsidized police protection for suburbs like his (and unlike mine, or the city) which refuse to pony up for such services themselves.
In short, the man's a bully. And earlier today, I heard a story, at a personal level, about the extent and insensitivity of his personality which confirmed every bad opinion of him I've ever had. I would like nothing more than to see him sent to the unemployment line, along with his proteges Chris Lee and Jane Corwin, who also had big war chests but did nothing to gain the public trust and got chased from their aspirations to high office as a result.
Mark, on the other hand, showed up at my house in the middle of last week in an actual effort to campaign. I missed his visit, but he left his literature and a signed note that he'd been here. My only advice to him, as this campaign now gets serious, is this:
The dude has an unfortunate tendency (finally diagnosed by the Centers for Disease Control as "Chuck Schumer Syndrome") to call a press conference and whine to the media every time his regal opponent does something stupid. This is not a winning strategy when your opponent has the power of incumbency and the even greater power of the purse. Stick to the issues, and to the King's wrong-headed stances on them. Make fun of him (and his tendency to act as a complete jerk in the vicinity of veterans and handicapped parking spaces), but do it in an upbeat and I-can-do-better fashion. Otherwise, the money will talk, and we'll have four more years of bullshit walking.