You have to ask yourself: why don't more people do this? Here's Dan Squadron, Democratic nominee in the 25th SD out today, thanking voters for their trust.

Ruh Roh: blogger sighted.

If you want to know why Squadron won, here's your answer: he worked really hard. Harder than I've seen anyone ever work, really. As hard as someone who goes out the day after a grueling primary campaign and thanks voters, in fact.

In the end, it wasn't even close: In SD-25, Progressive newcomer Daniel Squadron defeated incumbent Senator Marty Connor by a healthy 10%, 55% to 45%.

Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party - bear with me for the repeated WFP stories, I love them, and they send me stuff - had this to say, per email.

“Daniel Squadron is a true progressive who has got the energy and the leadership we need to shake up Albany,” said Dan Cantor, the WFP’s Executive Director. “We poured our hearts into this race. We knocked on tens of thousands of doors and energized hundreds of volunteers. This was exciting grassroots politics at its best.”

“Together, we were able to join with Daniel to excite thousands of New Yorkers with the bold notion that politicians need to do more than talk. They need to find real solutions to problems facing working families trying to make ends meet as the economy sours and cost of living goes up and up,” Cantor added.

Cantor's right, but as the Democratic Party thanks Senator Connor for his long service, rank and file Democrats should be looking forward to something new and exciting. The import of this race was never who of two Progressives would win; it was whether it was even possible to oust a long-serving incumbent. Well, it's possible.

There's a chill going down many incumbent spines tonight.

Via an email release*, U.S. Senaor Chuck Schumer and Senate candidate Dan Squadron campaigning today in a senior center on the Lower East Side.

Cue the chorus of aggrieved, well-run-campaign-resenting lefties and various reactionary blog monkeys about what a bad person Chuck Schumer is, blah blah blabbity blah.

*Want your stuff published, campaigns? Try sending an email occasionally.

Dear Daniel,

I write to you with a concern that I believe you will gain by addressing. You see, your campaign just isn't the stuff that we lefties can get behind. Frighteningly enough, you are running your campaign in such a way that the possibility of you winning can't simply be dismissed out of hand and with a smile. And that, really, is just simply unacceptable, as you surely must realize.

Progressive campaigns in New York City are run as follows: one gathers a group of people, and they are always the same people, into a room and makes a speech. The content doesn't really matter all that much, truth be told. After that ritual, one passes a hat and asks the participants for their spare change, after which, one has completed the biggest fundraiser of one's campaign. At that point, please bring on the folk singers or, for extra points, that crappy rock band your campaign director's kid plays in. That's authentic, and we like authentic.

And when our candidates fail spectacularly, as they necessarily do, we gather at our local coffeehouse - not at Starbucks, thank you - and bemoan our fate: that we haven't been able, yet again, to force electoral outcomes through the sheer blazing force of our unassailable rightness.

So, please do everyone concerned a favor and stop raising or spending money. It makes you suspect to do either. Them, please stop working so hard - this too is an unforgivable lapse. Our candidates start their feeble fundraising efforts roughly three months before the polls open, and it's traitorous to do otherwise - a deficiency in Progressive consciousness.

Once you've done that, please send out xeroxed mailers about The Power Of The Grassroots. Pretend with us for a moment that a bunch of ineffective scolds standing on street corners are, indeed, the authentic voice of the people. You see, that's us, and we xerox with abandon.

In return, we promise to carry your campaign to the conclusion we all want to see, your inglorious defeat. This because, as much as we may yammer about stuff, we really don't want anything to change. For the abovementioned blazing rightness, our most cherished attribute, to shine dazzlingly enough for our tastes, we prefer to lose every race we contest.

Yours in Solidarity,

The Left

Via email from Dan Squadron, an interesting follow-up to our piece this morning on real estate switching sides.

Connor Stays in Bed With Real Estate
As Democrats on Verge of Taking Over the State Senate

Squadron Maintains "Clean Money Pledge" So
He Can Stand Up to Special Interests

Today, Daniel Squadron, candidate for State Senate in the 25th Senatorial District, admonished incumbent Martin Connor for continuing to accept campaign contributions from Real Estate interests, at a time when the industry is reportedly attempting to curry favor with Senate Democrats in preparation for blocking pro-tenant measures.

Since 1999 Connor has taken nearly $30,000 in contributions from real estate interests, including over $4,000 from the anti-tenant Rent Stabilization Associations. In this election cycle so far, Connor has reported receiving a total of $7,800 from real estate, including contributions from the Real Estate Board of New York and Muss Development.

"It's clear the real estate industry is terrified at the possibility of pro-tenant reforms such as repealing vacancy control. I'm going to have the freedom to throw down the gauntlet on this issue in a way my opponent failed to do as part of the deal that gave us the current system," said Squadron. "While he continues to accept contributions from compromising corporations, PACs and lobbyists, I will stick by my Clean Money Pledge – because I believe my constituents deserve to be 100% confident that I am always fighting for them."

Daniel Squadron is running in the Democratic Primary to represent the 25th State Senate District. He was a co-author, with Senator Charles Schumer, of the book Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time. He has also worked for the public schools and was Communications Director on the campaign to pass the Transportation Bond Act.

Of course, now that Connor has somehow, miraculously, managed to turn the tables and run as the outsider against the big-money favorite, factoids like this - Squadron takes no special-interest PAC money, Connor does - may not be enough. It's really funny how positioning works sometimes, I'll say that much.

Oh wow: State Senate challenger Dan Squadron's campaign just released their petitioning numbers.

Standing in front of the Board of Elections, he announced that his campaign collected over 8,000 signatures on individual nominating petitions – more than eight times the number (1,000) required to be placed on the ballot for the September 9th primary.

"It's wonderful to see the incredible excitement for the type of energetic representation I hope to bring this district," Squadron said. "In every neighborhood, in Brooklyn and Manhattan, people are saying the same thing: it is time to demand more."

Squadron's opponent, Martin Connor, who works part-time as an election lawyer, has knocked countless candidates off the ballot, and has pursued legal challenges against every serious opponent he has faced since 1980—from a lengthy court battle that he ultimately lost against Luis Osorio in 1992 to a residency challenge against Ken Diamondstone that was decided in Diamondstone's favor by the State's highest court.

What's interesting here is that 8,000 signatures is just south of the number of actual votes (9,238 to 11,459) that challenger Ken Diamondstone received in 2006.

All the fuss here about Senator Martin Conner and Daniel Squadron has, for me, left the waters muddied. Let me tell you my position and how I got there. Obviously, you'll decide for yourself.

I am carrying Martin Conner's nominating petitions (I live in the district), even though the Senator has not been an inspiring leader. The bad news is that when, as a constituent, I'd ask Senator Conner for something concrete (for example for support for the Domestic Workers Bill Of Rights or foreclosure prevention), I'd get excuses, reasons he can do nothing or just no answer at all. The good news is that he favors a progressive agenda. That is: He talks the talk, but so far hasn't walked the walk. On the other hand, Democratic Senators live in a special powerless limbo where they are rarely able to effect or affect actual change. So, I am inclined to cut people in that position some slack.

Daniel Squadron, on the other hand, is running from right field, as I see it. He may be proud of his connections to Mayor Bloomberg and Education Commissioner Klein, but that rules me out as a supporter. The Bloomberg-Klein-Squadron Department of Education has been a mismanagement nightmare, at least to public school parents like me.