NY House Race for DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney Moved to Toss-Up
“It’s a sign of how big the GOP wave is looking — and how potent the issue of crime is in New York”
Things are so bad for Democrats in the midterms that even the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is struggling for reelection, in New York no less.
Josh Kraushaar reports at Axios:
Midterm shock: Cook moves Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney to “tossup”
This is a seismic shift in the midterm elections:
- Dave Wasserman, U.S. House editor of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, this morning moved the re-election race of House Democrats’ campaign kingmaker — DCCC Chair Sean Patrick Maloney of New York — to a toss-up.
Why it matters: It’s a sign of how big the GOP wave is looking — and how potent the issue of crime is in New York — that Republicans have a shot at unseating the powerful lawmaker in a double-digit Biden district.
The district — NY-17 — had been rated “lean Democrat” by Cook.
- Maloney’s opponent in the newly redrawn district is first-term state Assemblyman Mike Lawler.
- The suburban New York City district backed Biden by 10 points.
What’s happening: On Sunday, Maloney’s campaign admitted to the Albany Times Union that the race is tight.
- Outside Republican groups, including ones aligned with House GOP leaders, have spent over $7 million on attack ads against Maloney to boost Lawler.
This is a bit shocking, and you just know it’s setting off alarm bells at DNC headquarters.
House rating change: Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D) moves from Lean D to Toss Up at @CookPolitical as Dems admit the DCCC chair is now in serious danger in #NY17. Full analysis: https://t.co/89bvezbNuw pic.twitter.com/ncljBkSfZw
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) October 24, 2022
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is spending $605,000 on an ad buy in New York's 17th District, where the committee's chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is locked in a tight race that has the attention and funding of national Republicans. https://t.co/uNq2SsZ5f4
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 25, 2022
This new ad created to attack the Republican candidate Mike Lawler is almost cartoonish. Note how it begins with Sean Patrick Maloney respectfully talking to a police officer.
NEW: The DCCC has made a $605,000 ad buy in #NY17, where their Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney is running.
Cook Political Report rated seat as a "toss up"
CLF has spent $4.6M on ads here, one of their higher buys, according to AdImpact. Rs combined have spent about $6M.
The ad: pic.twitter.com/9FsijiQ8mD
— aaron navarro (@aaronlarnavarro) October 24, 2022
Caroline Vakil of The Hill has more on this:
“When Republicans’ top Super PAC announced an ad buy against Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-17) in April, many assumed it was a gambit to troll or distract the DCCC chair. But two weeks out from Election Day, Maloney finds himself in deep danger, simultaneously fighting for his political life in his Hudson Valley seat and desperately trying to prevent Democrats from being swept out of the House majority,” wrote Cook Political Report U.S. House editor Dave Wasserman.
Wasserman pointed to the gap in spending between outside Republican and Democratic groups — about $3.5 million to $384,000 — as well as Republican momentum in the state, with GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin shrinking the gap between himself and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) in recent polling.
A clip of Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), speaking about cash bail is also being used against the incumbent, a tactic that polls in other races have shown could be effective.
This would be a stunning loss for Democrats. An embarrassing, soul-crushing loss.
It says a lot about the state of the race and where things really stand, despite the spin from Democrats and the media.
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Comments
Things look good, but I wouldn’t get too excited.
A lot of this seems to be motivated by a desire for Dems to fundraise, since they are low on money. It also makes for an enthusiastic voter turnout if the race is tight (but that somewhat affects both sides).
Starting in 2017, this area suddenly turned from purple to deep blue. There was no big change in the population here.
Hopefully whatever caused that change will change back. My first thought would have been Dominion, but we don’t use their machines here. Still we do use machines to scan ballots and transmit the totals …
There is no enthusiasm for Maloney in this district. Mike Lawler his opponent is far more familiar to the voters, having been their state representative. It was Maloney’s fault that they gerrymandered districts and this is to his detriment.
As for turn out and enthusiasm, all i have read from various places in the country is how angry people are at school boards, the shift to Republican by blacks and hispanics but most importantly the Independents who are grocery shopping and putting gas in their cars. The radical agenda of Dems is good on paper but when that Green nonsense renders people unable to heat their homes, buy food or drive to work affording $4 gas without getting shot it gets real in a hurry.
“…a soul-crushing loss…”
No. Democrats have no soul. They were sold at a cheap price a long time ago.
That’s my district. Needless to say I never voted for this guy, but the Clintons wanted him and they got him in. We didn’t elect him to go traipsing off to Ukraine (his campaign literature oddly forgets to mention it, maybe the next mailing?) even the lefties around here probably agree on that.
Best of luck to his opponent Lawler on election day, and may the counting always be in Lawler’s favor.
Sean Patrick Maloney was my Congressman until I moved out of NY state a year ago. He was a disgrace. I also recall that in 2018, he told a reporter that he wanted to take a baseball bat to Trump supporters. I called, wrote and emailed his office to complain. Never heard back from anyone. He is arrogant and a doofus and has never cared about his constituents. Mike Lawler is in his thirties but smart, strong and far more mature than Maloney
I am amazed at the naivete of commentators on this site and similar ones who actually believe the organized crime family that masquerades as the Democratic Party are going to allow their power broken by an election. They will steal this election like they did in 2020 and others and dare us to do anything about it. That’s why they have people locked up in the DC Jail, armed raids on people who protest their policies, packed juries and courts that refuse to convict, rigged machines, false ballots, controlled and fake judiciary, and a hundred other well developed and established ways to overturning any vote that threatens their power. Perhaps, after this election Patriots will finally realize the only justice comes from the muzzles of their guns.
I believe they are weakened when they have to resort to naked shows of force and transparent lies. I think of it as a victory when they resort to such things. The tide turns too slowly, but it does sometimes turn.