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OPINION PAGE


The Legislative Gazette


September 21, 2010


in both camps. If you are Andrew, do you debate? (Not unless Paladino is coming on strong and then only very early or very late in the game.) Do you fight back against dirty ads? (Yes, you answer his stuff before it begins to stick to you, especially if he is vulnerable to many of the same charges.) Do you take him seriously even though he seems to be a clown? (You bet you do, considering how he decimated his opponent in the Republican primary.) If you are Paladino, you also have decisions to make. Do you keep throwing rotten eggs in every direction? (Hey, it’s worked up until now.) Do you keep making pledges you can’t possibly keep, like cutting taxes to the bone and putting term limits on state legislators? (Yes, even though you know full well that the Legislature is not about to help you.) Do you keep attacking programs for the poor and educational programs? (Of course you do, that’s what got you this far.) Do you attack the press who are attacking you? (Yep, polls show that people hold the press in very low regard, somewhere around the level of skunks and dangerous reptiles. Plus, what do you have to lose? They’re all against you anyway.) Andrew’s father, Mario, once told me that the mark of a great politician is the


Letters to the Editor


for statewide office highlights the need for New York state to do something differently —New York should do what


New York should re-think election procedures T


To the editor:


he poor turnout (and new election machine problems) in the September 14tth primary


Oregon and other states have been doing. Let voters cast their ballots by mail over a two-week period. Voting by mail would make it easier for people to vote. Turnout would increase and state taxpayers would save many millions of dollars because there would


be no need for Election Day expenses. Voting by mail is easier. Voters can reflect on the ballot at home in a less stressful environment. If they have questions about referenda they have more time to ask their questions. In Oregon voter turnout has increased


The Legislative Gazette publishes in Albany under the auspices of the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. The Legislative Gazette is a Research Foundation project that is sponsored and administrated by the State University of New York at New Paltz. The Gazette is produced in part by English/Journalism, Economics/Business and Political Science students for the legislative community in cooperation with the State University Research Foundation. It is published weekly.


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William Rainbolt University at Albany


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The Legislative Gazette Advisory Board Ann Cohen


Hunter College, CUNY


E.J. Conzola II Morrisville State Ross Daly


SUNY Purchase


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Editor Emeritus Glenn C. Doty


significantly — by as much as 40 percent. Having elections by mail would result in no election inspectors and poll workers, no extra paychecks, no rentals of voting locations, no early morning hours for election inspectors, no Election Day set up problems, no confusion where people have to go to vote. And, since everyone would vote by mail, no need for absentee ballots. Voter lists are easier to maintain because ballots that are returned as undeliverable will cause the Board of Elections to


Paladino vs. Cuomo is gonna’ be a humdinger O


kay, let’s play war games — Paladino versus Cuomo. You are sitting around the war room table


PUBLISHER’S CORNER


BY ALAN S. CHARTOCK


ability to think six moves ahead. “Anyone can think one or two moves in advance,” said Cuomo the Elder, “but you’ve got to be good to think six moves ahead.” He went onto explain that if someone hits you, you’ve got to decide whether to hit back and if he hits you again and again, you have to figure out what your strategy should be. Of course, there are imponderables in


all of this. What the political scientists call “intervening variables” will dictate how you conduct your political war. In this run-off, the intervening variables are just how angry the electorate is and just how amused they are by Paladino. I know from interviewing him on several occasions that the man has no real boundaries and he will do whatever he can to win. He is capable of playing fast and loose with the truth. Of course, he isn’t the only politician to do that.


Since he declared his candidacy, Paladino


has hit a nerve with the major New York City dailies. To put it mildly, they don’t like him. The New York Daily News ran a full page headline, “Meet Crazy Carl.” The New York Post seems to have reached an agreement with Cuomo and has unleashed their top political guns against Paladino. The New York Times editorialized in favor of the Republican establishment Lazio, who was soundly, overwhelmingly and unpredictably (the polls got it all wrong) beaten. So what’s going on? First and foremost, everyone believes


government is broken and needs to be fixed. The middle class perceives that it is being screwed and they respond negatively to the idea that the poor are being helped. They see themselves as paying for things like Medicaid programs that benefit others. Because the middle class votes, you can expect the Paladino


war room geniuses to capitalize on that discontent. Sure, the poor vote too, but their numbers are not enough to carry an election. Thus, the poor become Paladino’s target. Then there is racism, which goes hand in hand with the anti- poor message. When a candidate puts out an e-mail with racist messages, gets caught and defends himself by saying that he was “…only passing it on,” you had better consider the possibility that he damned well knew what he was doing. The only other possible alternative was that he was just stupid. This multi, multi, multi-millionaire didn’t gain his wealth by being stupid. So why did the pollsters get it wrong


when they predicted that the Paladino- Lazio Republican primary was too close to call? When you are a candidate of hate, many people won’t tell the truth to their pollster or their mother. They may like Paladino, but they know better than to say it out loud. That’s going to be a challenge for the Cuomo forces. For his part, Andrew continues to move right on the political spectrum. He is saying all the politically fashionable things about government spending. The question is whether people will believe him or whether they will see him as Mario II. Look for his ads to differentiate between him and Papa. This is gonna’ be a humdinger.


check the registration and to remove the name from the ballot. In Oregan voters have two weeks to cast


their ballot. This provides the electorate with the chance to study the issues carefully and to have questions answered. The new voting machines are horrible.


There are privacy issues. Election inspectors look over the shoulders of voters as they scan their ballots in the scanner — causing voters to wonder if someone is watching how they voted. And, lots of paper ballots will be thrown out because most people don’t bother to vote. The old machines were better for the environment and did not waste so much paper.


Paul Feiner Greenburgh town supervisor


No GOP tidal wave is expected in New York


To the editor:


Senate and the House may be premature. There will be no such tidal wave in New York. “Dems could lose 8 Empire State Seats in US House” (Micahel Hill, Associated Press — September 13). The GOP has fielded second tier


P


Eileen Gilligan SUNY Oswego


Lonnie Isabel CUNY Grad. School of Journalism


Robert Miraldi SUNY New Paltz


Shawn Murphy SUNY Plattsburgh


Rik Stevens The Associated Press


Pat Sullivan SUNY New Paltz


challengers such as Jay Townsend to Senator Schumer; Joseph J. DioGuardi to Senator Gillibrand and others going up against incumbent Democratic Party Congressional candidates. Most Republican challengers have no name identification and little money running in districts with more registered Democrats than Republicans. Outside of New York, the odds favor Republican pickups of several Senate and 20 to 30 House seats. But this might not necessarily translate to ten Senate and


redictions of a national Republican tidal wave that would result in Democrats losing control of both the


40 to 60 House seats as some Sunday morning talk show political spin doctors are claiming. In New York, Democrats after November


2nd will still control both Senate seats and probably close to the current 24 of the 26 congressional seats. You can count on one hand the number of serious GOP candidates for Congress running with sufficient name identification and funding against incumbent congressional Democrats who have a realistic chance of winning. Nasty GOP primaries in the 1st


Congressional District between the winner — Randy Altschuler with losers Chris Cox and George Demos (Suffolk County) and 13th (Staten Island/Bay Ridge Brooklyn) between winner Michael Grimm and loser Michael Allegretti may result in damaged Republican candidates going into


See Wave on page 9


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