Posted on 04/20/2007 8:55:11 PM PDT by neverdem
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The former head of the state Republican Party has filed papers to run for Congress in the upper Hudson Valley in 2008 against the incumbent Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand. The Republican, Alexander F. Treadwell, known as Sandy, is a close ally of former Gov. George E. Pataki.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
*ping*
This is the former NY Secretary of State.
The NY GOP record of reclaiming lost House seats hasn’t been a good one, but if there’s any seat they can get back, it’s this one.
Unfortunately, they’ll still have to swat back Democratic challenges against Walsh, Kuhl, and maybe even King.
I don’t know enough about him. I would prefer an elected office-holder. State Senator Betty Little, perhaps, or state Assemblyman Roy McDonald.
Ever since Sweeney lost the seat, I have believed that our best chance at getting it back is former NY State Assembly Minority Leader and 2006 gubernatorial nominee John Faso of Kinderhook. Faso is a conservative who represented part of the district for years in the State Assembly and has excellent name ID in the district.
As for Sandy Treadwell, he recruited RINO Howard Mills to run for the Senate in 2004. The NY-20 gave President Bush 54% in 2004 so there is no need to run a RINO-—in fact, Sweeney’s “pro-choice” position on abortion and moderate voting record did not gain him easier reelections than those of his very conservative predecessor Gerald Solomon nor save him from losing in 2006. If Treadwell is not a conservative, I think he would be a terrible choice for the GOP and would hope that Faso throws his hat in the ring.
BTW, do any of you know if any Republicans other than Kieran Lalor have expressed interest in running in the NY-19 (just south of the NY-20)?
I do know that Assemblyman Roy McDonald has been mentioned. McDonald was Gerald Solomon’s choice to succeed him, but Pataki rallied party support around Sweeney, so McDonald dropped out of the race.
“Unfortunately, they’ll still have to swat back Democratic challenges against Walsh, Kuhl, and maybe even King.”
Also Vito Fussola of Staten Island. The Rodents are trying to recruit some state legislators into challenging him.
It ain't just bad, it's downright awful. Discounting the reclamation of the 1st by Felix Grucci (of whom turned out to be ill-equipped to hold the seat) following the apostate Michael Forbes's party switch in 2000, the last time we won a rodent-held seat was in '94 with, yup, you guessed it, Forbes himself, when he defeated George Hochbrueckner. It's odd to realize our best year in NY state since after the 1980 elections wasn't '94, but 1992 after redistricting. We grabbed 3 formerly rodent-held seats, 2 on Long Island (when Bob Mrazek retired in the 3rd and Pete King won it, and when Rick Lazio defeated Tom Downey in a shocking upset, and the 3rd one was when Jack Quinn won the open Central Buffalo-based district, the first time a Republican had won that district since Edmund Radwan in 1956).
We ought to focus our efforts to try to reclaim (aside from the King seat) the 3 other L.I. seats, despite the shift towards the rodents, we still should be competitive in those areas. Bishop in the 1st ought to be a top target, along with Israel in the 2nd, both of whom are cyphers (why can't we get Lazio to make a comeback ?). McCarthy is as close to mentally retarded as you can get to serve in Congress, and a shocking embarrassment, but the GOP puts up challengers with NO MONEY and expect to win it back.
Aside from those, targeting all the seats we lost in the past election is of paramount importance, and we should also heavily target Jack Quinn's former seat, too.
The Republican, Alexander F. Treadwell, known as Sandy
Doesn’t surprise me. I guess at night he is Sandy the crazy girl and by day Alexander the guy who plays politics. No wonder Rudy got along so well in New York. He had lots of company. I wonder if they traded make up tips.
I’m not entirely sure what Treadwell’s positions on social issues are. How much we can blame him for the ‘04 recruitment of Mills, I don’t know. The fact is, sadly, most of the Republicans in NYS wet their pants at the thought of facing Putzhead Schumer. For some that complained about the wily Al D’Amato, the state and the Senate were better off having him there (and the late Pat Moynihan, too, who at least had some dignity and a shred of intellectual honesty).
As I stated in the previous post, we can recruit half-decent candidates, but how can they expect to be competitive when the party won’t give them any money or adequate ground support ? Take a look at the case of Greg Becker in the 4th back in ‘98 and ‘00. Here was a guy with a great name and impeccable GOP credentials, who had almost no money and held McCarthy in the first outing to 53%, but her fundraising the 2nd time around allowed her to purchase the seat by outspending him nearly $2 million to $270k.
Then you have the problem with symbolic candidacies, too. I remember how “excited” the party was to have recruited 2 Black Republicans in two different cycles, Joan Johnson in ‘00 when Lazio left his seat, and in ‘04 with Hempstead Mayor Jim Garner against the moronic McCarthy. Garner was crushed because he had no money (and it also apparently revealed him so weak that he lost reelection as Mayor afterwards) and Johnson, although financially competitive with Israel, was ruined because 2 other Conservatives were running on separate party lines (Right-to-Life and the CP), and her sole GOP line only got her 35% of the vote (although adding up theirs and hers, she would’ve falled about 2,500 votes short). Johnson was also harmed because she was pro-abort, too old (66), and apparently an awful campaigner.
I’m not that worried about Fossella. It’s been 30 years since the rodents won that seat, and he has a fairly good hold on it.
Had Joan Johnson been pro-life, she would have been on the CP and RTL ballot lines, but, as you mentioned, she was an awful campaigner and probably would have fallen short anyhow.
James Garner faced an uphill fight, and with no money the race was unwinnable. The NY-04 is a combination of socially conservative Catholics, white liberals in the “Five Towns,” and blacks and Hispanic Democrats, and we may have to wait until 2012 redistricting (when hopefully the black areas will be added to the Queens black-majority NY-06) to have a shot at the district (although if the Democrats win the state Senate in 2008 or 2010 and hold the governorship in 2010, we probably won’t be competitive in more than one Long Island CD).
Speaking of black NY Republicans, what has Randy Daniels been up to? Maybe he can run for Mayor of NYC.
To get back those LI seats, you have to take out Newsday. Their pro-Democrat/hate Republican is published every day and brainwashes a good portion of Long Islanders.
I don’t know what Daniels is up to now. The man who succeeded him as Secretary of State, Chris Jacobs, seems a potential up-and-comer in the Buffalo area and could possibly be a future candidate for Quinn’s old House seat (although I think his dream is to be Erie County Exec).
We have that problem everywhere with media brainwashing. I don’t know why we can’t get some rich Conservatives to systematically buy up these publications and flip them away from the dark side (it seems what few ARE owned by Conservatives, they don’t bother with the content of these yellowsheets).
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