THIS JUST IN!!! Election Guide 2006

The midterm elections are upon us. Two days from now, we will cast our votes. Two days from now, we will choose the direction our state and country will be heading in. Most importantly, two days from now, all these negative attack ads will be OVER.

This has been, without question, one of the harshest election seasons ever. Candidates for office and trying to paint a happy face on their advertisements, but the national parties play the role of "attack dogs", savaging the opponents in all races. Due to an unforeseen side effect of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, the national parties can pretty much do what they want; the candidates can't even stop their own parties, as that now violates the law somehow. It is obvious this needs to be stopped, but will it? We heard a lot of bellyaching this time 2 years ago about the so-called "527" groups, but once the election was over, it was quickly forgotten about.

Democrats everywhere have been trying to make this an election about President Bush, and the lengths to which some Democrats are going in order to help themselves cause me to just scratch my head. For instance, New York's comptroller, Alan "Baby You Can Drive My Car" Hevesi was running ads talking about how he stood up to Bush's Social Security privatization plan. Assemblywoman Joan Christensen is similarly running an ad pointing out her opposition to the president. I thought these two knew this but I guess I'll have to point it out to them... you are in the STATE government. You have NO bearing on ANYTHING that happens at the federal level. That's wonderful that you two oppose the president but it means absolutely ZERO to your jobs.

As for the people who actually DO matter in that regard, namely Congress, we have the Jim Walsh-Dan Maffei battle. Zogby International made two attempts to conduct a poll on this race, and both times they came up with egg on their faces after doing it incorrectly. As you might expect, the representatives for the campaign of Maffei (the Democrat) blamed not Zogby, but THE WALSH CAMPAIGN, saying it was an attempt to suppress the fact that Maffei is winning. As a result, we will go into this election having no idea who is winning... which to some is actually a refreshing change.

I wrote an entire blog entry about this campaign some weeks ago and I stand by everything I wrote. Maffei moved here just to run for Congress, he doesn't know what we need here, and he has made NO effort to tell us what he'll do for us, apart from advocating a federally funded bailout for the area, paid for by higher taxes. This election is NOT about Iraq, because no matter what we do about the war, those decisions will not create a single job here nor will they keep a young professional from moving away in search of a better life. I think Jim Walsh is the clear choice in this race; that is why I will be voting for him.

As for the Senate campaign, when I see a Hillary Clinton ad, I just ask myself one question: Why does she even NEED to run ads? She has re-election sewn up, mostly due to the lack of an effective Republican candidate. Save the money for '08 and start now on plotting how you're going to beat Barack Obama if he runs against you for president.

The New York gubernatorial campaign is a similar story. Democrat Eliot Spitzer has been the Presumed Governor-Elect since he announced his candidacy. The Republicans did not help themselves in either this race or the U.S. Senate race by running two bland candidates with THE SAME FIRST NAME. As a result, I can't tell them apart. Seriously, I forget whether it's John Faso or John Spencer who is running against Spitzer, and the same with who is running against Hillary.

The real trouble in the state races lies in the state senate races. The Democrats have the Assembly, they will win Governor by a landslide, but the Republicans still control the Senate going into Tuesday. Democrats are pushing hard to win the Senate under the guise of "reform", making people believe that if Joe Bruno gets flushed out of his seat of power, things will get better in Albany. Not true. If this happens, what you will have is one-party rule, led by Democrat leaders who all hail from the New York City area. Upstate New York already feels left out in the governing process; this will make it even worse. What you will wind up with is a governor with almost emperor-like power, backed by a "rubber-stamp" legislature. The most likely result is taxes will go up and more businesses will flee Upstate. The truth is our Democratic state senator (Dave Valesky) voted for tax increases and for sending our tax dollars to NYC. When his opponent, Jeff Brown, pointed out his votes in commercials, Valesky called it mudslinging and negative campaigning, and then called Brown a tool of the GOP bosses (that's NOT mudslinging?) I can't vote in this race, as I am in the 50th District, where John DeFrancisco will easily win 2 more years of getting to oppose Destiny USA. But if you're in the 49th District, vote for Jeff Brown so we can avoid one-party rule in Albany.

Now I know one-party rule is what we have in Washington, and it hasn't exactly worked ideally for all of us, but it's better than the alternative. If Democrats do win the House, you can expect the impeachment hearings to begin as soon as they get back in session. That will be their aim for the next two years, not passing any beneficial legislation for anyone. Why would they do this? Simple. Because the Republicans did it to Clinton. That's the reason. If they don't start immediately, it will be because they'll actually make a half-hearted attempt to implement some sort of agenda. When Bush stonewalls or vetoes it, THEN they'll try impeachment. We still have a chance to enact some positive change in this country, but replacing partisanship with partisanship isn't the way to go.

So when you go to vote on Tuesday, remember that we elect our officials to represent us in government and provide important services to our communities; that is the TRUE function of government, not stupid political gamesmanship. Vote for the person who you think will do the best job for you, the person who is voting for him or her. Everyone has their political bent, everyone has things they are for and against, but it all comes back to what your representatives will do for your community. That being said, do go out and vote. I know this is a midterm election and you may be sick and tired of the negative ads but this is your chance to have a true say in things and I've never heard of anyone who voted and then felt bad that they did.