My First Rule Of Politics--Pay Your Dues
The Onondaga County Democratic Party has a potential challenger to entrenched Republican incumbent Jim Walsh for the local seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sam Gruber used to be head of the local preservation society, but according to news reports is now "a self-employed cultural resource management consultant serving companies and governments worldwide." He just returned from a year in Italy. The Italian connection will probably gain him some votes on the Northside of Syracuse, but considering that the district now spreads as far west as the Rochester suburbs, those votes probably will not put him over the top.
This latest chimera of a candidate will likely disappear sooner than the past lineup of lightweights, cranks and nobodies--since he has to gather over 1,200 signatures in three days. When will the the local Democratic party wise-up and learn my first rule of politics? A successful candidate has to have paid their dues. Your first attempt at office shouldn't be for Congress. The candidate should have a track record of civic involvement--committees, school boards, showing up at meetings and making statements at hearings. I go to a lot of hearings on a wide variety of city issues and I've never heard Mr. Gruber speak on anything other than preservation issues. He's very good on that issue, by the way. But is that enough to be considered for Congress?
The local Democrats are clueless anyway. They are hanging onto their fiefdom inside the city of Syracuse and abandoning the suburbs to the Republicans. The party chair is a yuppie lawyer who was best high school buds with the head of the national Democratic National Committee. The trend to associate with other non-working class folks and obsess about raising money that marks the current national Democratic Party A.C. (After Clinton) is a hallmark of the local party.
The party has no training and recruiting program for potential candidates. At nominating time they are forced to put the screws to lawyers or businessmen to run for the seats with a county-wide (or larger) constituency. They shrug their shoulders when the candidates turn them down--after seeing no organization and no plan for expanding their base. So the Democratic candidates for offices such as County Executive and U.S. Representative are either non-existent, third party pretenders or fringe personalities. "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." --Will Rogers
This latest chimera of a candidate will likely disappear sooner than the past lineup of lightweights, cranks and nobodies--since he has to gather over 1,200 signatures in three days. When will the the local Democratic party wise-up and learn my first rule of politics? A successful candidate has to have paid their dues. Your first attempt at office shouldn't be for Congress. The candidate should have a track record of civic involvement--committees, school boards, showing up at meetings and making statements at hearings. I go to a lot of hearings on a wide variety of city issues and I've never heard Mr. Gruber speak on anything other than preservation issues. He's very good on that issue, by the way. But is that enough to be considered for Congress?
The local Democrats are clueless anyway. They are hanging onto their fiefdom inside the city of Syracuse and abandoning the suburbs to the Republicans. The party chair is a yuppie lawyer who was best high school buds with the head of the national Democratic National Committee. The trend to associate with other non-working class folks and obsess about raising money that marks the current national Democratic Party A.C. (After Clinton) is a hallmark of the local party.
The party has no training and recruiting program for potential candidates. At nominating time they are forced to put the screws to lawyers or businessmen to run for the seats with a county-wide (or larger) constituency. They shrug their shoulders when the candidates turn them down--after seeing no organization and no plan for expanding their base. So the Democratic candidates for offices such as County Executive and U.S. Representative are either non-existent, third party pretenders or fringe personalities. "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat." --Will Rogers
Yep--Gruber didn't get the signatures. No Democrat in the "race" for Congress.
Posted by
Phil |
7:23 PM