I love primaries, especially in safe seats. Comfortable office-holders are not, generally, a good thing, and the sovereign people deserve choices.

Primaries in swing districts - or, as in the Presidential race, national primaries - can be a mixed blessing, especially if they go negative. Consider, for example, Mitt Romney's scathing attacks on John McCain, which have party strategists salivating with the possibilities of a vast realm of footage culled from Romney's attack ads should he get the Veep nod.

In the key race in the Third Senatorial District, withdrawn contender Jimmy Dahroug is now doing his part to calm the waves. Full statement, via email, after the jump.

Peace at last: Jimmy Dahroug endorsed Democratic candidate for SD-3, Brian Foley, today.

Jimmy Dahroug Endorses Brian X. Foley for State Senate

Democrats Unite to Fight for the Working Families of Islip and Brookhaven

HOLBROOK, NY - Jimmy Dahroug today endorsed Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley for State Senate. Suffolk County Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer and Islip Democratic Chair Ivan Young joined Dahroug at the Holbrook event to show their commitment to Party unity and their support for Foley.

"I am proud to endorse Brian Foley for State Senate," said Jimmy Dahroug. "It is time for change and I encourage all my supporters to join me in supporting and actively helping elect Brian Foley to the State Senate."

Foley, a lifelong resident of Brookhaven, has spent the past 15 years working on behalf of those in his community both as a member of the Suffolk County Legislature and in his current position as Brookhaven Supervisor. He has a proven record of fighting for fundamental reforms and fiscal responsibility. As Brookhaven Supervisor, he cleaned up a notoriously corrupt town government, ended no-bid insurance contracts that cost taxpayers millions, protected open space and put the Town in its strongest fiscal position in decades.

"The Democratic Party is united and ready to fight for the change our working families so desperately need," said Suffolk County Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer. "Brian Foley will be an independent voice for change in the Senate, not someone beholden to the special interests in Albany."

Islip Town Democratic Chair Ivan Young added, "We are united in our support of Brian Foley and look forward to actively helping elect him to the State Senate."

Foley formally announced that he would run for State Senate in the Third District at the end of May. He has been running an aggressive campaign over the past months and continues to gain momentum and support throughout the Brookhaven-Islip area.

"I thank Jimmy and our Democratic leadership for their support. Only together, united, can we end the stranglehold of special interests in Albany. It is time for change and I look forward to continuing my campaign for the working families of Islip and Brookhaven," stated Foley.

Awesome. That seat just moved appreciably closer to a switch.

On the web: Brian Foley for Senate

Breaking via Albany Project: Jimmy Dahroug just filed a stipulation in a courthouse in Suffolk to have his name removed from the September primary ballot in the Third Senatorial District.

I've been quite open about my disenchantment with Jimmy's campaign, but I'd also like to note that he's a smart guy with a compelling story who could very well play a role going forward. It's in everyone's interest to groom young talents, and that's exactly what Jimmy is; so I'm looking forward to seeing what his next steps are.

The Google, it is a miraculous thing, letting you find many things you night otherwise have not found.

For example, if you Google Caesar Trunzo, New York, you get this result:

That's his campaign headquarters or district office, if I'm not mistaken. The presence of the web link next to the address bar indicates the latter.

But if you Google Caesar Trunzo, Florida, you get something else entirely.

So apparently, there are two Caesar Trunzos who maintain residences in Florida, or one Caesar Trunzo who maintains two, while the New York Caesar Trunzo only has a campaign or government office.

That's rather odd, considering that the New York Caesar Trunzo represents a Senate district here.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently conducted a poll that should make candidates and campaign people sit up and take notice: a staggering 46% of Americans got information about the 2008 campaign via the internet. This is worth quoting at length, so bear with me.

Furthermore, three online activities have become especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns have progressed: First, 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos--a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

Second, 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. This is particularly popular with younger voters: Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.

Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

A significant number of voters are also using the internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

In May 2008, 135 million Americans used the search engine Google to search for information on the internet. And here's where Daily Gotham rules the roost in New York: if you're a candidate for office, odds are, our pages are one of the first results for your race.

For example, Ed Towns: the first result after his Congressional page and his Wikipedia entry is, you guessed, a piece on Daily Gotham.

Jon Powers (NY-26): Campaign site, Wikipedia entry, ActBlue, Daily Kos, Daily Gotham, in that order.

Eric Massa (NY-29): Campaign site, Wikipedia, ActBlue, Daily Gotham.

Brian Foley (SD-3): government site, unrelated site, Daily Gotham.

So is it worth engaging blogs, specifically, this blog? If you care about what your voters will see if they type your name into the world's biggest search engine, I'd suggest the answer is yes.

Let me preface this post with a brief announcement: I am a consultant to Red Horse Strategies, the firm advising the DSCC on its efforts to take back the State Senate. This consulting involves web strategy and branding. It does not involve stuff like, say, them sending me dirt and ordering me to post it. However, if you're thusly inclined, you should treat anything I post on the State Senate as influenced by this association. I'm personally reasonably certain it won't be, which is why I'd also suggest you treat whatever I write on the subject as reflecting my own opinions, not those of either Red Horse or the DSCC. They are most certainly not consulted by me with regard to what I write. Our engagement represents probably the biggest investment in the netroots by a party committee ever. That's pretty awesome, when you think about it.

And with that out of the way - we're going to follow up at some point soon with more - let me comment on some astonishingly good theater emanating from a Senate campaign I happen to disfavor. If that campaign hadn't seemingly cut me off from its press release distribution list, I probably would have posted this earlier, because it's hilarious. From Newsday:

"Democratic State Senate Candidate Jimmy Dahroug responded to objections to his petetions [sic] by backers of Brian Foley (as reported in Newsday). "This is clearly an act of desperation by Foley's campaign. He failed to secure our party's nomination at the convention. Now Brian and his backers are nervous about facing me in a primary. So his backers are using underhanded and shady tactics to run away from a fair fight."

"Dahroug issued a direct challenge to Brian Foley: "I'm publicly calling on Brian Foley to stop the undemocratic and underhanded actions of his campaign backers. Brian called for a positive, high-minded race. If he truly is committed to the standard he set, he'll back up his words with action."

"Dahroug's campaign filed 1,408 signatures with the Suffolk County Board of Elections, a cushion of over 40% more than the required number. This is about the same number of signatures the Dahroug campaign filed for in its successful 2006 primary race. All signatures were gathered at the homes of registered Democrats by trained Democratic committee members and volunteers. Not a single signature gatherer was paid." [Emphasis added]

That's really rich on a number of levels. Just start with the fact that they misspelled "petitions" in a press release about "petitions".

There are some ironies in the petition signature filings that took place across the state recently. Take the Democratic primary in the Third Senatorial District, for example.

On July 3, third-time contestant Jimmy Dahroug emailed his list with this message:

We've got more than the 1,000 signatures required for our place on the ballot. But we need as big a "cushion" of signatures as possible to stop any potential challenges from Brian Foley.

Jimmy Dahroug filed 1,400 signatures. Brian Foley, the Brookhaven Supervisor who got into the race on the day of the Suffolk County Democratic Convention, arguing that he was more electable against republican Caesar Trunzo (R-FL), collected 3,200. The number of valid signatures required to get on the ballot is 1,000. By comparison, SD-25 challenger Dan Squadron filed 8,000 signatures.

Now, if you've been running since 2003, and the grassroots angle is one you play very heavily in your promotion to voters, isn't it at least somewhat startling that you're getting creamed more than two to one on a core metric of grassroots support by someone who's only been running for a few weeks, as opposed to five years?