Monday, January 18, 2016

More About the Endorsement

It seemed yesterday that only the Oneonta Daily Star was reporting the news that Zephyr Teachout had been endorsed as the Democratic candidate by the chairs of the Democratic committees in the 19th Congressional District. Now the press release has been distributed. It follows.
Chairs from the 19th CD Support Zephyr Teachout   
On Saturday January 16, chairs from Democratic committees across the 19th congressional district met and interviewed four potential candidates for the seat that will be decided in the upcoming November elections. "The chairs were impressed with the qualifications and commitment to public service shown by all four and would be proud to have any one of them represent us in Washington . . . ," said Dutchess County Chair Elisa Sumner.  
Deliberations and input gathered from the chairs resulted in a consensus to support Zephyr Teachout as the Democratic candidate in the 19th. 
The four candidates interviewed were Teachout, Will Yandik, Margo Miller, and Julian Schreibman. 

In an email today to local Democrats, Peter Bujanow, chair of the Columbia County Democratic Committee, explained that the decision "was largely based on [Teachout's] established name recognition as a credible and 'known' candidate, her existing networks that allow her to raise funds in a race predicted to cost $4M, and an established 'ground game' that allows her to execute tactically in a race where many chairs felt we were getting a late start." 
Bujanow reported that our local candidate, Will Yandik, was "extremely impressive in his first appearance in a forum such as this." He continued:
His passion, commitment and willingness to jump into a race was commented on by several of the chairs, and I reinforced those qualities along with all the skills that so many of us have remarked upon as we've worked with Will. . . . However, the need to immediately establish name recognition . . . across eleven counties, raise a significant amount of money, and have an almost immediate ground game, led the majority of county chairs to support Zephyr.
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1 comment:

  1. Steve DunnJanuary 19, 2016 at 12:05 PM

    I am going to hold back in saying what I really want to say about all of this, other than that I went to Will Yandik's gathering in Hillsdale yesterday morning, and was extremely impressed by him. He's very smart, articulate, focused on issues with crossover appeal, charming, and with a great sense of humor. In my judgement, he's clearly the strongest candidate for the Democrats. Period.

    Enough of that. Mr. Bujanow in his statement says a "majority" of the county chairs supported Teachout, and then elsewhere the word "consensus" is used. Those two words are not synonyms. So my question is just who did Mr. Bujanow support? If it is Teachout, I tend to doubt that he is supporting the candidate whom a majority of Columbia County Democrats will end up supporting in the primary.

    I also find it odd, and am almost nonplussed, that the Democratic Party county chairs would be endorsing someone who has not yet even decided to run. But then I find much about NY politics rather odd.

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