One key reason why our team travelled to enver was to bang the drum and toot the horns on our top electoral goal in this state in this cycle, liberating the state Senate from its anachronistic republican majority. Bloggers at the national level as a rule don't pay too close attention to state politics, but in this case, we may have been able to change that, because this state election will have profound consequences far beyond our borders. Simply put, if the third-largest state of the country suddenly becomes a laboratory for Progressive policies after this election, much as we became one after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected in 1928, it will resonate far beyond places like Islip and Poughkeepsie.
Consider, for example, the impact of Democratic control of this state on the financial sector, not a marginal consideration given that the country's largest banks are headquartered here and transact a disproportionate share of their business from their Wall Street offices and the New York Stock Exchange. That mortgage lending crisis didn't need to happen - and if we had had control of the Senate, it might not have.
These are the seeds of our national communications strategy: imagine a second California enacting Progressive goals and benchmarks for its territory, and then think about the impact of, say, California's vehicle efficiency standards on other states. In practice, Sacramento has provided something of a balance to Washington's rabid republicans, and Albany can do the same.
We as New Yorkers know that Joe Robach, Caesar Trunzo, Kemp Hannon and Dean Skelos are figures we'd like to not see in public office. People outside the state - and, in fairness, many of us even, due to the legislature's low profile - don't have the same appreciation of that. But hopefully, we have now changed that with a key constituency.
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