With Craig Johnson’s victory, speculation will heat up over Democrats’ apparent plans to try to persuade a pair of Republican Senators to flip across the aisle. The two most commonly mentioned candidates are Joseph Robach of Rochester and John Bonacic of Orange Country.
Robach is a former Assembly Democrat, who, as Rochester Turning has described, was lured into the Republican camp at least in part by Joe Bruno’s promises of member-item money. He knocked out Democratic Senate incumbent Richard Dollinger, in a challenge he claimed was motivated by a dispute with Shelly Silver over redistricting in his Assembly District. But the prospect of $5 million a year in discretionary funds probably didn’t hurt either.
Bonacic, of course, was a very lonely Republican voice calling for Joe Bruno to step down as majority leader, considering all those FBI investigations and so on. Credit where due: Bonacic went out on a limb, and now there’s no guarantee that Bruno won’t try to saw it off.
So let the debate begin. Let’s be clear: we want the Senate. We’re not pie-in-the-sky idealists in the NY netroots; we know how important it is for the well-being of New Yorkers to have a Democratic Senate at last, and we know how tough it is to take out incumbents. We’ve been there.
But we’re also in this because we want good, progressive Democrats – not just anybody who’s willing to take up the D for the sake of his or her own career advancement. What we’ve done over the last couple years is only the beginning – there are enough resources and determination out there that we shouldn’t feel obligated to just take what we can get. And while we know there's only really one person in the Senate who matters, that's not a state of affairs we plan to continue tolerating indefinitely.
If Robach and Bonacic want to be not just Democrats, but good Democrats, then fine – though it would be nice to see some indication of how we can believe that that will be the case. Because if not: Bonacic’s district has a Democratic registration advantage of 72,607-68,870. Robach’s has a Dem advantage of 74,504-45,665. Sure there’s the power of incumbency, but there’s no reason why they should be considered the only hope for Democrats in those districts. Nor are those the only districts open to change.
They work for us. Just as Democrats are beginning to get that message at the national level, the New York netroots will be making the same point around here. A conservative Dem in a conservative district is a nice thing. A conservative Dem in a liberal district is not so nice. And a corrupt or do-nothing Dem is totally unacceptable. We’re working hard to help Democrats take the Senate and transform Albany. But we’re not interested in just shuffling the usual suspects around if they’re not going to be part of that transformation.
Congrats to all on the victory yesterday - and major, major kudos to the state party for working so well with the grassroots and the netroots. Now let’s get to work.
