Tuesday, June 03, 2008

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeremy, I think I see the wisdom of your endorsements and the strength of this ticket, although Auerbach is rather unpopular among many Ulster Dems and progressives. Last night, it was announced that Donaldson was the candidate endorsed by Working Families Party-at this late date I am not sure there is anything Auerbach can do to get endorsed by WFP. Perhaps Donaldson will primary for the Dem nomination. Wichever of these guys ends up the Democratic candidate, they will need the WFP line to be competitive in November. (Unless Auerbach is planning to get the Conservative or Indy endorsement.)

Brittany Turner said...

WFP is done; Auerbach will not be able to get the line.

Anonymous said...

Independence Party endorsement is done. It went to Quigley.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Conservatives will go for Quigley too. If Auerbach wins the primary, then say hello to a 3-man race

Anonymous said...

The mere fact that a candidate receives the endorsement from a so-called "third party" does not compel them to run against the Democrat.

As far as the Working Families Party is concerned, I do not believe they advocate for their candidates to run as a spoiler to the Democrats. I guess the same cannot be said for the Conservatives (vis a vis the Republicans).

Sometimes I wonder why we ALL haven't joined the WFP; it is the only one with any integrity.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Anonymous said...

The working families party endrosement is meaningless. It is a few hundred votes at best. Even if Auerbach did not get it...so what...Quigly didn't either and I doubt those people are going to vote for Quigly given the choice between he and Auerbach.

Anonymous said...

Hey, 2:51 Lets look at Ulster County political demographics for a second, and perhaps we can correct your ignorance here on Blaber's blog.

Political enrollment in Ulster County is basicly a pie cut in thirds: 1/3 Democrat, 1/3 Republican and 1/3 all others. Most people think the majority party is Democrat, which is technically true- but last time I looked the majority slice of pie was held by "independent" voters who were not enrolled in a major party. That means for any major party candidate, there are by far more voters (2/3) who are not a member of their party, and who enrolled to vote without a D or an R after their names.

On election day, it all comes down to voting behavior. The fact is that many Republicans just cant bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, and vice-versa, but they may vote for that other major party candidate if they happen to run on a third party line. Thats why an endorsement from the Conservative, Indys and Working Families Party is so important to every candidate.

For years. Republicans won in contested local races because they solicited and won the Conservative party line. The votes on this line added to their cumulative vote totals, and made all the difference. For a time, for Democrats the Liberal party was a token counter-balance for the Conservatives, and when the Indy party weighed in it helped further tip the balance one way or the other in local races. In some recent races, the votes cast on the Working Families line (a "few hundred votes") has been the difference between a winning and losing candidate.

Dont take my word for it: Just ask any losing candidate if a few hundred votes is meaningless.

Conclusion: A GOP candidate running with Conservative AND Indy Party endorsement is going to be tough to beat. Any Democratic candidate running without a secondary ballot line against a GOP candidate running with two cross-endorsements is quite probably headed for a fall.

I expect Mr. Auerbach has come to recognize that, even before the campaign kickoff, he is in a bit of trouble. He will want to have more ballot opportunity. Maybe this will cause him to re-examine his election strategy.

Anonymous said...

Indy, Con and WF lines mean nothing this year. Voters will pull the best candidate.

If Republicans think the Indy line will result in victories this November then they are in the wrong business. Voters are not that stupid to vote just a line.

Very rarely will 3rd party line help candidate. 5:19 you need to get a life.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who thinks that the Working Families, Independence, and Conservative, Party lines are not important has never lost an election by 100 votes or less. A lot of elections were lost last November by less than 100 votes. The devil was in the detail of those 3rd party lines. Check out the people who got those lines, and some who got them, but don't list them by their name. Do you really think they all agree with those party platforms?