This week marks 5 weeks before the Midterm Elections. The recent testimony of the wife of a supreme court justice before the January 6 committee that the 2020 election was “stolen from Donald Trump” emphasizes the importance of this election to the future of Democracy in our country. In recent weeks we have looked at elections at the state-wide level for governors and secretaries of state. It is the congressional elections, however, that will determine whether Biden can continue to work on his agenda that includes, for example, climate change initiatives to mitigate the effects of storms like Hurricane Ian. This Sunday’s Post Standard reported that Republicans are eager to get control of the house to be “actively antagonistic to Biden’s agenda”, and to retaliate against Democrats for investigating the Jan 6 attack, or censuring controversial GOP members, actions antithetical to the kind of congressional problem solving we need on climate issues, for example, to reduce the impact of our increasingly destructive storms.
Social Media has made it possible for us to choose to work on any national, state or local campaigns but here in Central New York are three congressional campaigns that could use our support to deliver congressmen to the house to continue the work of the Biden agenda:
1) NY22 Francis Conole Versus Brandon Williams (for John Katko’s seat) https://conoleforcongress.com
2) NY19 Josh Riley Versus Marc Molinaro https://joshrileyforcongress.com
3) NY21 Matt Castelli Versus Elise Stefanic https://www.castelliforcongress.com
Francis, Josh and Matt all have roots in Central New York and have backgrounds including public service that has motivated them to run for office and provides them with relevant experience that will make them assets in congress, in different ways. They are first time office seekers who aspire to work on issues that will improve the lives of their constituents and basically have “middle of the road” Democratic Party values. Their opponents have various extremist views.
In the NY22, Republican primary, Brandon Williams defeated Steve Wells, the candidate supported by John Katko and other national Republicans. John Katko is not endorsing anyone in that race. Francis is endorsed by the DCCC and part of their “Red to Blue” campaign.
In the NY19, Marc Molinaro was a county executive, previously. Josh is also endorsed by the DCCC and part of their “Red to Blue” campaign.
In the NY21, Elise Stefanic is a formidable, well funded candidate (3rd highest ranking Republican), who does her homework and is in her 5th campaign. She has run unopposed at least once. After his primary win, Matt was impressive on MSNBC’s “Reidout” (interview with Joy Reid) and is working hard on his “ground” game. His stance is less “middle of the road” and more “anti-extremes”. He supports abortion rights for all and gun rights with no bans on semi-automatics, for instance.