While Manhattan-Queens Rep. Carolyn Maloney is likely to run to the left of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next year's Democratic primary, she is getting some nonpartisan recognition for a recent amendment adopted in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The National Association for Uniformed Services said in its legislative update this week that the amendment sponsored by Maloney and Rep. Michael Honda would establish an overseas voting advisory panel to "help improve the Federal Voting Assistance Program and ensure the process works better for our service members and families living abroad."
That bill, however, won't be in time to affect the upcoming 23rd Congressional District election to replace Rep. John McHugh, who has been nominated for secretary of the Army by President Obama. Given the presence of Fort Drum in the district, the base of many soldiers who are stationed in war zones including Afghanistan, Maloney and McHugh should join with other public officials in ensuring their votes are counted. That will require changes in the state's election schedule.
Even though the conventional wisdom is that Democratic statewide primaries are won by appealing to New York City liberals, the issue is good politics as well as good policy for Maloney. The success of Democrats in statewide politics in the past decade has not just been a matter of demographics, but smart politics by Democrats like Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton in appealing beyond a strictly liberal constituency. Schumer and Clinton (working with Republicans like Rep. John Sweeney) played key roles in establishing the MILC program to get northeastern dairy farmers some benefits under the federal farm bill. Lately, though, Republicans have neglected the issue to the extent that in March Jim Tedisco wound up losing dairy farm areas in his losing race in the 20th Congressional District. In the 23rd District, socially conservative Democratic state Sen. Darrel Aubertine (a dairy farmer) has the best chance of succeeding the Republican McHugh, and if Republicans had any sense they would cross-endorse Aubertine so as to get him out of the Senate and win his seat there. They also need to come up with candidates like him. Unfortunately, the GOP is deficient in political savvy. It relies on coups, election lawyering and status-quo candidates and consultants, which is a losing strategy.
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