It’s been a while since we checked in on Democratic challenger Sean Eldridge, running in NY-19 against incumbent Republican Chris Gibson, Facebook, I mean Sean Eldridge, trying to buy NY-19 congressional district:
The congressional race in NY-19 has been off my radar this cycle, even though the district is just over the Catskill mountains from Ithaca. Republican incumbent Chris Gibson was on our 2012 Operation Counterweight list.Off my radar until I saw an article at Politico about how Democratic challenger Sean Eldridge is trying to buy the District by handing out money to local businesses and then touting how many jobs he has created in the District. It’s the venture capital equivalent of walking around money.
That was back in early April. How are things going for Eldridge?
Not well, according to left-wing Down With Tyranny blog, Bagels And Cream Cheese And A Million Of His Own Dollars Won’t Win Sean Eldridge A Seat In Congress (emphasis added):
Poor Sean Eldridge! Well, not really… he’s very rich. He married Chris Hughes, the former Harvard roommate of Mark Zuckerberg and the ultimate example of being in the right place at the right time…..Sean was political director of Freedom to Marry. And somehow he turned himself into a DCCC “mystery meat” candidate. Friends have told me he has a progressive heart (or a progressive soul; I can’t remember)…. Other than gay marriage, no one knows what Sean stands for and no one has any solid reason to bother voting for him other than he’s better than Chris Gibson, the Republican incumbent (who happens to be the least right-wing Republican in Congress)….So why “poor Sean?” Things aren’t unfolding that well for him. DCCC Chairman Steve Israel, eager to keep Hughes’ money flowing, has played him for a fool, not even giving him a coveted Red-to-Blue slot until Sean went bonkers on him. “Israel doesn’t help at all,” one heartbroken staffer told me. “All he does for this campaign is ship us bagels and cream cheese every week. We’d all rather have local donuts. He can shove his crappy bagels up his ass with the cream cheese.”Apparently he isn’t the only staffer who doesn’t see things going well. Despite reporting $2,448,887 (of which $965,000 was self-funded) to Gibson’s $1,799,331, the pundits still see this as a race Sean has little chance to win. Obama took the D+1 district in 2008 with 53% and in 2012 with 52% but Cook rates it a “Lean GOP” with a Gibson +4 and Rothenberg called it “Tilt GOP” with a Gibson +2. So, last Friday Sean fired Michael Reid, his campaign manager.
With a bottomless pit of money, and the willingness to spread it around, don’t count Eldridge out of the race.
But he may find that there are some things money just cannot buy — happiness and NY-19.
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