Run for the Border
It’s been a tough fall for the Rensselaer County Dems. They got wiped out on Primary Day, and there has been a line of longtime Dems testifying at a grand jury peeking into Dem boss Tom Wade’s shakedown of campaign contributions from party workers at the county Board of Elections.
Those problems are bad enough. But Democrats across the county are really starting to feel the pinch from the fallout over the Spitzer plan to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses. Democrats on every level are grumbling about the license disaster – polls have New Yorkers opposing the plan at more than 70 percent – and missteps by Dems at the county level aren’t helping their chances.
Republican County Clerk Frank Merola has been a champion recognized at the national level for his opposition to the governor’s license plan. So Dems in the County Legislature blew it big-time when they voted NO on a resolution to support Merola. The lack of opposition from others at the county level has angered votes, especially more conservative Democrats.
The biggest victim of the license blowout will probably be Dem District Attorney candidate Rich McNally. How can you be a law and order candidate when your party is advocating for a turn to lawlessness?
Blowing It
Speaking of McNally, if the rumors are true, he cost himself a lot of votes in North Greenbush. Word has it that at a recent county Dems fundraiser, McNally got up and, at Boss Wade’s prompting, read that the endorsed slate of candidates were on the CB Smith-directed Greenbush Party, which is somewhere around Row Q on the ballot. Which made him a lot of friends with the Dems who actually endorsed for election after winning a caucus – and want nothing to do with Boss Wade and CB.
|