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In the local fight over the ideological bent of the Democratic Party, it was a big night for those with more center-left leanings.
As you probably know by now, Democratic incumbent Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney coasted to victory over state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi in the 17th district fight. (Click here to read our quick recap.)
Maloney made the race into a referendum over electability, casting Biaggi as too far to the left to win in the general.
It’s safe to say Maloney grates some nerves with his style. Also, mailers from an outside group that characterized Biaggi as an anti-cop radical delivered an extra nasty overtone to the race. And as one of the top Democrats to engage in the cartoonishly cynical and dangerous game of promoting extremists in Republican primaries, to elevate candidates deemed easier to beat, Maloney fed into all the worst caricatures of Machiavellian politics. (He’s been chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since last year.)
That said, even for many put off by Maloney’s public persona, his policy priorities and deal-making instincts were seen by voters as more palatable than Biaggi’s progressive, reform-oriented posture.
(Full journalist-with opinions-disclosure: I’m a registered independent, couldn’t vote in the primary, and wouldn’t have had a candidate who comfortably matched my sensibilities if I could, despite Maloney and Biaggi both being highly intelligent and skilled.)
“Tonight, mainstream won, common sense won,” Maloney told a large group of cheering supporters and local politicians at the Peekskill Brewery Tuesday night.
“Democrats want candidates who get results and bring home the win, and tonight we’ve done both,” added Maloney, who became New York’s first openly gay House member in 2013.
And brace yourselves: Even under the best of circumstances, with two saintly campaigns, a race that includes a gay man with an interracial family presents bad actors with slimy opportunities when factoring in outside forces.
It’ll also be fascinating to observe how Maloney campaigns moving forward as he heads into the general election fight.
Assemblyman Mike Lawler resoundingly defeated four rivals in the 17th Congressional District’s Republican primary Tuesday night, setting up the Nov. showdown against Maloney.
“We’ve got to raise enough money to get the message out, and we’ve got to take it to Sean Patrick Maloney,” Examiner Editor-in-Chief Martin Wilbur quotes Lawler in his report last night with the GOP primary results. “He has a record, and his record is voting 100 percent of the time with Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.” (Click here to read Martin’s brief from last night.)
It’ll be similarly interesting to see how Lawler positions himself. Will he embrace an even more moderate stance than during his primary candidacy to attract middle-of-the-road voters or engage in red meat, get-out-the-vote rhetoric attractive to the district’s more conservative voters? Or, perhaps more likely, will he pick his spots? I think he’ll continue to stick strictly to his existing, disciplined talking points — bread-and-butter, kitchen-table economic issues with vague references to “culture” and “values” to cautiously whistle at the right people. Keep your eyes on that space.
Either way, buckle up. This race features plenty of spicy ingredients in the pot, poised to cook at overheated temperatures. Hope not.
Adam Stone is the publisher of Examiner Media. When not running local news outlets or chauffeuring his children, Stone can be found on the tennis courts at Mt. Kisco’s Leonard Park, on his Ipad playing chess, or on the floor cleaning after his two dogs.
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