Steve Harrison Remains in the Race
Contrary to false rumors (read that as outright lies) spread by the Vito Lopez machine (in the long tradition of the Brooklyn machine at least from Clarence Norman on), Steve Harrison has announced he is in the primary for the NY-13 race to the end. He also tells me he has had over 450 contributions online alone in the past 2 days.
Let me take this opportunity to reiterate that in every Brooklyn primary I have been a part of I have heard lies about people dropping out. In most cases it hasn't been true. These lies are spread by people on blogs, on the street while petitioning, through email, etc. It is a tactic, Occasionally I have seen anti-machine people use it, but generally it is the machine using it. This is just one more case of the operation of a political machine that has no interest in truth, governance or even, in most cases, beating Republicans. It is a political machine whose one and only goal is the maintenance of their own power.
And to the individual who has in another thread been spreading such rumors and accusing me of ignorance, I have this to say: Bite me.
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Brooklyn Machine | election 2008. NY-13
I assume...
Submitted by mole333 on 25 June 2008 - 9:05am.
I assume you have read the update in the diary actually discussing the shakeup?
why the staffers quit
Submitted by Gothanonymous Reader (not verified) on 25 June 2008 - 11:15am.
It should be perfectly obvious why the staffers quit. They quit in all likelihood because a terrific candidate, a Staten Island candidate, Mike McMahon has entered the race. Not only do these three certainly know McMahon will win, but they also know that he is the best candidate. What would you do if you were working on a campaign and then a better candidate gets in the race? Clearly all three of these people do not want to waste their entire summer working on a lost cause. Campaign aides do not want to work on losing campaigns. Not if they want to get future work in the field.
Now as to the issue of rumors. Mole333 is not God and should not claim some divine ability to declare as fact that any rumor is not true. Which is what he was doing, declaring a rumor to be untrue based on his divine knowledge. I was told that McMahon did consider dropping out when most of his staff turned on him quit. Wouldn't you? But maybe he changed his mind the next day. This does not make the original rumor false. When Mole makes his divine pronouncements he does not allow for the distinction that some rumors can be true one moment and then no longer true the next.
Divine Proclamations
Submitted by mole333 on 25 June 2008 - 11:50am.
Who is proclaiming divine knowledge now? You are telling us why three people made a difficult decision. How do you know their motivation? You are putting words into their mouths, a very unsanitary habit. In all I have written about this, I never said the staff didn't want to leave or why they left. I specifically said that it was possible they chose to leave and possible they were asked to leave (which has since been clarified in their press release) and that either way it is perfectly reasonable in the context of a shifting situation in the district. If you stretch your mind just a tad you will see the scenario you hypothesize is perfectly consistent with what I have said. What I did NOT do, and you do, is spread false rumors based on nothing.
As to how I knew the rumor was false...perhaps I actually talked to people involved in the situation. Ever think of that? Ever consider that I actually know more about what is going on than you?
As to McMahon being a great candidate, I am currently unconvinced. He enters a Congressional race in 2008 without a clearly articulated stand on Iraq. Either he told Daily Gotham something different than he told the Conservative Party (hence he must be misleading one or the other) or he flip flopped or he doesn't HAVE a clearly articulated stand. To me that is not a good sign. Hopefully he will eventually articulate a clear stand...but so far he has failed to do that. His stands on freedom of expression and marriage equality also are regressive. In my experience nationally (though each district is unique to some degree) Democrats don't win if they don't have a clearly articulated platform that is clearly distinguishable from the Republican platform. The current situation in NY-13 could be an exception given Fossella's immorality and the death of Powers, but generally Democrats who waffle on key issues and adopt Republican stands don't win.
Now, please don't come around here spreading false rumors. I am very likely to delete any such comments in the future. Want to advocate for McMahon? Be my guest. But so far you have contributed nothing to the dialogue and have behaved in a way that is clearly from the Vito Lopez School of Dirty Tricks. Seen it before, so you don't fool me. Nor do you fool too many people around here. And, if this represents McMahon's tactics, you can be sure you will alienate far more people than you convince.
A terrific candidate
Submitted by Dan Jacoby on 25 June 2008 - 12:45pm.
Well, if you note the fact that "terrific" comes from the root "terror" and means (according to my dictionary) "causing terror," then perhaps McMahon is a terrific candidate after all.
Since I'm guessing you didn't know that, and didn't mean that McMahon causes terror (and don't know the real difference between "terrific," "fantastic," "awesome," and "great"), I'm going to challenge you to demonstrate in what way(s) McMahon is such a wondrous (not "wonderful") candidate that his opponent's staffers should desire to quit their jobs.
Fine, but why did staffers quit?
That is all well and good, but why did the staffers quit? If someone told you that he was staying in, why didn't they also tell you what was going on with these three staffers that decided to leave?