Matt Doheny said he's going to keep on keepin' on, regardless of whether the Conservative Party chair likes it or not.

Statement from Matt Doheny 21st Congressional Candidate on Chairman Long's Call for Surrender

Matt Doheny proudly carried the Conservative Party banner in 2012,  is endorsed by five county committees and in 2014 one of every five conservatives throughout the district signed his petition. Matt is a true conservative philosophically, on the issues and most importantly in the hearts and minds of the people of the North Country. 

Last Friday, after thwarting the will of rank and file conservatives throughout the North Country, State Conservative Chairman Mike Long told the Glens Falls Post Star that "They’d rather see Mr. Doheny not run, so there’s a better chance of winning the general election."  

Essentially, Long on behalf of the Washington insiders who want to control this seat, was asking Doheny to surrender - to which we offer the following reply:

 "To Chairman Mike Long: Nuts! North Country Conservative, Matt Doheny."

When Bill Owens announced he was not going to run for reelection for the 21st Congressional District, he didn't consult anyone about it in the party.

"Just my family," he said Wednesday on a stop in Saratoga Springs.

Saratoga County Democratic Chairman Todd Kerner said he and the other chairs in the district he has spoken to found out the day that Owens announced his retirement from Congress publicly.

"I think there is was a great deal of disappointment that it was so last minute," Kerner said. "Normally an incumbent will be respectful of the process and the party that supported them and will give (the party) more time."

Kerner said he believes they found an "exceptional candidate" in a short time with documentary filmmaker Aaron Woolf, though he thinks Woolf was "behind the 8-ball" in terms of building a campaign machine for his run.

There was a perception in the campaign (perhaps helped by some prodding by the other side) that Woolf got off to a slow start. But then he wasn't endorsed until February 12 — four weeks after Owens announced he wouldn't seek reelection.

"I think by November everyone will know about him and will be impressed," Kerner said.

In terms of Woolf being a political unknown Owens said "That's what they said about me 4-1/2 years ago. I think there is another pleasant surprise (in Woolf)."

As I put in a previous post, the demographics of the district are somewhat lopsided in favor of the conservative candidates, though Kerner said he doesn't believe that is as significant in the 21st District as it is elsewhere.

"I think the voters in the 21st are unique. They are very independent. They don't look at the labels, they look at the person," he said.

Still, it certainly seemed to make a difference before Owens took office. 

Owens said it is too early to decide whether he will make any endorsements for the race.

"There are a lot of people in it," Owens said, and debates in possible three of the parties — Republicans, Democrats and Green Party. "We'll have to see how it shakes out."

"I hope we have some good debate," he said. Owens said he hopes whoever wins the district pays attention to the electorate as a whole, not just their side of the aisle.

"The person needs to be willing to vote with the other side on some things," he said. "I talked about being a moderate and I think my voting record reflects that is what I was."

As for his life after Congress, Owens said he doesn't know what is in store yet.

"I have not reached a conclusion about what I want to do and what I'm going to be wanted to do," he said with a laugh.

I've been looking a lot at the history of the 21st Congressional District and its unusual status as a battleground district.

Seems that may have been a short-lived status for the district, based on enrollment data and the particulars of previous elections.

I produced some graphs, one of which will appear in the article about the district's evolution and this one, which wasn't too remarkable so we left it out.

UNTIL NOW!

It shows the numbers of voters enlisted in each party as of November every year since 1995 (as far back as the state Board of Election's website kept it for).

The bars fluctuate but the percentage of each party's share of the total enrolled electorate really don't. Dems stay at around 29 percent and the Republicans went down from 44 percent to 42 percent over that period. 

Green party is on the graph, if you couldn't see it. 

On the fundraising side of the race, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says Aaron Woolf is among their "Emerging Races" in their Red-to-Blue Program, designed to raise money nationally for congressional races in tough districts for them. 

As it says of the Red-to-Blue candidates: "These candidates have earned a spot on Red to Blue by surpassing aggressive fundraising, organization and infrastructure goals."

On the website, the DCCC allows you to contribute to Red-to-Blue races at the click of a button and split it among its 16 Red-to-Blue candidates or contribute to just one of them.

It also gives you the same option for 11 out of 12 of its "Emerging Races" candidates. 

The one left out? Aaron Woolf. 

Perhaps an oversight?

I've got an e-mail out to the DCCC to ask about it. I attached the screen shot. I'll update if/when I hear back. 

UPDATE**

Well I hear it was just a technical glitch and should get cleared up... but as of Tuesday evening it's still cutting him out of the contribution page. 

Donald L. Hassig is one of two men running for the Green Party line in the 21st Congressional District. He was unavailable when I wrote about the primary, the candidacy of Matt Funiciello and the divergence of Hassig and the Green Party the last time he ran for that seat. 

Unlike his Green Party competition, Hassig said he doesn't believe he can win this election. "I'm in it to win it in 2020," he said, echoing himself in 2012 when he first ran for Congress. "I'm not going to win. No Green Party candidate is going to win. The purpose of this campaign is to get media attention on the issues." He said without his influence, "Fracking would have never been discussed at all (in 2012)."

Don't tell that to Funiciello, though, who said "This isn't an issues campaign. I'm in it to win it."

Here are Hassig's major campaign issues, as he relayed them to me:

1- Stop hydrofracking in the US entirely. "If we don't have a healthy environment, no matter what else we do we're sunk."
2- Free healthcare for all Americans.
3- Free education to all Americans through graduate school. "It's such a basic necessity. People shouldn't have to incur huge debts and drag them down. Our country can afford this."
4- Free organic food for all Americans. "Our country shouldn't be just about getting people what they have to have, but about giving the country wonderful things."
5- He wants to pay for the last three with taxes on "financial instruments... Any time you are making money off of selling money."
6- A jobs program that promotes more teachers  (for the free education) more doctors (for the free healthcare) and more farmers (for the free organic food).
7- Get out of the World Trade Organization and renegotiate Free Trade agreements.

As for other political issues Hassig has seen: in 2012 when he ran for the seat, Hassig was denounced by the Green Party for comments he made on immigrant labor on North Country farms, particularly dairy farms.

“I do not want Mexicans on the farms of St. Lawrence County, or the farms of Clinton County, or the farms of Washington County — any of these farms,” Hassig said, according to North Country Public Radio.

"I'm not a racist. I don't have a racist bone in my body. I didn't think about racism (when I said it). I said it straight from the heart. The reason I said 'I would like to see them get their asses kicked out of here' is because it is not good for the American people, for American farming and for American cattle."

He said dairy farming is a complicated business and when the boss speaks English but the workers only speak Spanish, it can create issues. "I do not approve of immigrant laborers who do not speak English working on American dairy farms."

Plus, he said, it takes jobs way from Americans.

 But he said he forgives the Green Party for denouncing him, despite it being "pure bad behavior, (since) they weren't interested in my explanation."

*Update*

Originally, the blog post stated:

As for his Green opponent, Funiciello, Hassig said he is the product of the Green Party becoming elitist. "There is a caste system here in America," he said, and the Green Party is putting a business man over a "grassroots activist."

But Hassig said that is not what he meant.

"I said that the Green Party leadership, meaning Gloria Matera, Michael O'Neil, and Peter LaVenia did not like me because they were elitists and I was a person from the lower levels of American society.

 I do not have any reason for believing that Matt Funiciello was recruited by the Green Party leadership to enter the NY-21 race. I certainly did not say that the Green Party was putting a businessman over a grassroots activist. Your article makes me appear to have a negative attitude toward Mr. Funiciello. I have a positive attitude toward him."

He did, in fact, have a positive attitude toward Funiciello when I spoke to him. He also said he believed the Green Party establishment was becoming elitist, however, at one point he also said Green voters were more likely to support Hassig, as a "grassroots activist."

*End of Update*

The state's Green Party co-chair said the party will not be endorsing either candidate before June 24 primary.

Meanwhile, Funiciello said he doesn't believe Hassig was a serious candidate, since he dropped out before the 2012 election to endorse Democrat Bill Owens.

"That was a mistake," Hassig now says, and that he did it at the time because Owens' opponent (and current candidate) Matt Doheney was "such  total fracking cheerleader" and he considered Owens "the lesser of two evils."

Despite the two Green candidates' differences, they both agree the Green primary will be good for the party. "I like the idea of more Green issues being brought up and more people talking about them," Hassig said.