Still another factor in the election was third party and ostensible Tea Party candidate Jack Davis, who garnered 9 percent of the vote. There is no question Jack Davis’s candidacy, which resulted from the 78-year old local businessman collecting enough signatures on a petition to get himself on the ballot, played a large part in Corwin’s defeat. Politico.com noted that “Davis, a wealthy industrialist and Democrat-turned-tea party candidate…spent nearly $3 million out of his own pocket on the race…polls showed Davis siphoning GOP voters from Corwin.” The LA Times reported that “Davis appeared to pull key votes away from Corwin and put the spotlight on the party’s struggle to appease tea party supporters.” And the Weekly Standard opined that Davis was the beneficiary of a “divided” NY Republican party whose chairman selected Jane Corwin to run instead of decorated Iraqi war veteran David Bellavia. Bellavia, a staunch conservative, responded by trashing Corwin’s position on abortion and attempted to run as third party candidate himself. When that attempt failed, Bellavia backed Davis.
There was also a bizarre video. Mike Mallia, chief of staff for Jane Corwin, confronted Davis with a camera and asked him why he “backed out of the debate.” Davis and his aide then assaulted Mallia. Davis spokesman Curtis Ellis characterized the event as “a deliberate harassment and attempt at intimidation by campaign operatives desperate to keep Jack from getting to Washington.” The Erie County GOP, which backed Corwin, released the video, which led the Davis campaign to accuse Corwin of participating in a setup. Corwin denied the accusation, claiming Mallia was there on his own time and without her knowledge. But a poll taken by a local news source, The Batavian, showed this exchange hurting Corwin far more than Davis.
Batavian publisher Howard Owen explained another key factor in Corwin’s defeat, unmentioned in the mainstream media. In the moribund economy of Upstate New York, like many other “rust belt” areas in the nation, free trade, as embodied by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is despised by those who believe they have borne the lion’s share of job losses caused by outsourcing. According to Owen, this was one of the critical issues driving the election. Davis was a “one-issue candidate opposed to free trade,” as was Democrat Kathy Hochul. Corwin? The Republican refused to answer the question one way or the other, and when Davis refused to participate in the aforementioned debate, voters who abandoned him aligned themselves with Hochul, because, as Owens explained, “they had nowhere else to go.”
Another possible factor in Corwin’s defeat was a story in The Buffalo News taking Corwin to task for exaggerating her experience, noting that her claim of having spent “36 years as a successful businesswoman” would have meant that the 44-year-old had been one “since the age of 8.”
Finally, there was the reason for the special election in the first place. Republican Rep. Chris Lee resigned literally hours after gossip website Gawker reported that the married Congressman had sent emails, as well as pictures of himself bare chested, to an unidentified 34-year-old Maryland woman who had posted an ad in the ”Women for Men” section of Craigslist personals. It is quite possible that some voters were turned off by the Republican Party per se as a result.
Thus, while Medicare was a factor, it was hardly the only explanation for Hochul’s victory. National Journalist columnist Charlie Cook offers a somewhat amusing, but equally accurate take on the “referendum” assessment: ”In this Republican-leaning 26th District fight, there is one Democrat, one Republican and, oh, yes, a wealthy, abortion-rights, economic protectionist, former Republican, former Democrat, current tea partier, who ran for Congress in 2004, 2006 and 2008–spending a total of $5.2 million of his own money–and has already spent at least another $1.7 million in this race for Congress. If anyone can find a race next year with a similar configuration, be my guest and apply the ‘lessons learned’ from this race to that one,” he wrote.
Perhaps the real explanation is even simpler, and far less amusing for Republicans. Medicare reform is a complicated issue. So is the budget deficit. When Democrats can explain their entire platform in sound bites, such as “tax the rich” as a solution for budget deficits, or even a single word like “Medi-scare” to obscure the necessity for genuine reform, that’s a huge advantage when it comes to selling their agenda to an electorate, much of which is already attuned to sound-bites at best, and paying little to no attention at worst. The real lesson Republicans have to learn is how to compete with Democrats on that playing field. Perhaps what the Democratic victory in NY-26 really demonstrates is itself a sound-bite: he (or she) who demagogues the best, wins.
Arnold Ahlert is a contributing columnist to the conservative website JewishWorldReview.com.
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If Republicans run scared on the issue of entitlement reform after this singular election, there's no hope we'll EVER climb our way out of our fiscal black hole. Instead of back-tracking, we should be doing much more to convince seniors and prospective seniors that passing along trillions in debt to their children and grand-children so they can live well is the height of immorality…that the entire edifice of our civilization will soon come crashing down unless we restore some sanity to our finances.
But motivating people to sacrifice can only succeed if the sacrifice is shared. Far from being too ambitious, Rep Ryan's plan is not ambitious enough…particularly from an ideological prism. Republicans should be 1) accentuating the necessity of across-the-board cuts to convey a sense of shared pain,…and 2) hammering home to the public the head-in-the-sand irresponsibility of Democrats who would rather pass the buck than make the hard decisions necessary for the survival of our nation.
I like to believe Americans are capable of sacrificing for the common good. World War 2 certainly showed it was possible. But perhaps almost fifty years under the entitlement culture that began as the 'Great Society' have corrupted us beyond redemption.
How about these soundbites
Democrats, buying votes on the backs of our children.
Inflated currency hurts seniors too.
One point totally lost in the discussion at this point is that there was a third-party spoiler in this election. The candidate running on the "Tea Party" ticket was not a true supporter of Tea Party ideals. He was much more of a RINO, and I believe that many voting never took the time to discover exactly WHO he was and what he really stood for. Rather they voted for the "Tea Party" candidate on party only. If you had his votes and the Republican candidate's votes together the Republican candidate would have won.
Whatever the DNC paid him, they got what they wanted.
Just stumbled onto this site, almost by accident, and I cannot believe what I am reading here. Is this site a joke? I can't believe the ignoranace and level of crackpot thinking here. Geez!
So, tell what is ignorant and crackpot in regards to this article.
What a crackpot ignorant statement!
The problem that all Americans face is that if we don't reign in spending on entitlement programs, granny is going over the cliff with the rest of us.
Ryan proposal do not change anything to 55+seniors. This is a dishonest propaganda. Those responsible should be obliged to recognize that it is a scam, that they made it based on an untrue argument to scare the public, nothing to do with Paul Ryan project. It needs a more accurate version showing the man pushing that women over the cliff is Mr. Obam.
great idea; the RINO's are too chicken to do it!
It appears that the country is fairly divided politically between right 35%, left 35% and the muddled middle 30%. One can of course debate the exact percentages but the principle holds. After oftentimes holding their noses, the people on the right and left will generally vote for the Republican or Democrat candidate respectively. The muddled middle consists of people who are either too busy, too lazy or too ….. to pay attention to the issues. Unfortunately a percentage of the muddled middle have enough residual sense of civic responsibility to vote calling themselves independents or moderates to masquerade their ignorance. They are quite susceptible to the inane 30 second sound bites that make our electoral process so insipid. The article is quite right in that the demagogues on the left are much better at this irritating but necessary game than we are. We need to be more creative. The future of our children depend on it.
If so, we'll just learn it the hard way, because they're running out of other people's money much faster than they predicted.
LOL…..they fell for it ! Just like that ole "kill grandma bit " …..aint it ironic ! This crap works both ways , or did you folks think that you were on a one way street ?
This political back and forth goes from the pathetic to the comedic .Republicans and conservatives take note /.Dems play the game just as well as you . If Ryan had any brains , he should've went ot of his way to be specific ……but he didn't .And who were one of the biggest victims ? LOLOLOL……TEABAGGERS !!!!
Here's a point everyones seems to be forgeting ….Social Security and medicare are things that PEOPLE HAVE PAID FOR , IN EVERY PAYCHECK . And they dont have the goldplated medical plans like Ryan and the rest of the politicians . Expect a very hard kick back .
They can pay for it, but that doesn't change the fact that it is illegal, in and of itself.
in and of yourself , you're an imbecile .
Tee hee, can't debate the issue, and on the losing side of an issue, so go ahead, call names.
How can I debate a moron who says Social Security and Medicare is illegal . I am merely describing your mentality chump . How'd you get so stupid ?
The TRUTH of the matter IS , thwe government has been borrowing [LOOTING] Social Security and Medicare SURPLUS for decades . What IS illegal is the fact that those funds have been "borrowed to the tune of approximately 2 TRILLION DOLLARS , and replaced with phony Govt.IOU's .
So get the facts straight jackass .
Silence eh ? You bet .That comes from talking out your arse coyote . .
Republicans trying to make the case for Medicare right now is ludicrous. Why can't they wait till they've won the WH and the Senate before tackling such a large albatross. IMO it's not Medicare that's breaking the bank. What's breaking the bank is the grossly indulgent food stamp program with all the abuses. I don't want people to go hungry but I don't want money shoveled into a black hole of corruption. Can we fix Medicaid's corruption and abuses and illegals getting entitlements up the wazoo first? Come on Ryan get with the program. Knock off the badly timed Medicare reform. I don't want another 4 years of Obama! And stop sending aid to the Middle East.
There's plenty of room for improving Medicare without threatening to take it apart . Vouchers are B.S. the people know it …so should have Ryan . Fraud is the biggest problem . Lack of vigorous prosection of that fraud is just as big . After all, in Florida we just elected a Governor whose Company was convicted of Medicare fraud ! Stiff prison terms , realistic policing , and most of all NO MORE BORROWING FROM SS AND MEDICARE SURPLUSES ,which has been going on for decades and never repaid ,so politicians now whine that they are not solvent ……pay back the the 1.5 trillion that itis owed with phony Govt.IOU's and Medicare and SS will be just fine . Medicaid Fraud is the responsibilty of the States but it is obvious that Federal oversight is necessarry since it is Federally subsidized .Heaven knows federal agencies have grown 16% through ALL Administrations , we now have 2 million Federal Employees . Hows about an Agency to SAVE the governments money by detecting fraud in these areas ? Propositions like Ryans will crash and burn everytime , and that even among Tea Party people . Time for the republicans to get smart.
I gather this web page is news from another planet. Either that it's news extruded from some wealthy fascists rear.