This here blog is for the common good old boy club to check up on. It's here that you'll find your political discourse within St. Lawrence, Jefferson, and surrounding counties. We'll give you the straight story of local politics in the North Country. We're entertainment and news for the rural reader, not the dirty downstate demogaugers...
Okay, now this really disturbs me. The Jefferson County Republicans think they can take out the seat long held by incumbent Representative John McHugh because they are going to pick off one of our own moderates and run her as one of their own and create mass confusion for the GOP.
It's never been a secret that Dede Scozzafava is a moderate. We have said it again and again here. What is even worse about her is that she has some serious ethics questions to answer about her involvement in financial mismanagement and corruption with her brother Thomas Scozzafava, a venture capitalist running Hacketts out of business in the North Country.
But what bothers me is that they are actually pushing the idea as a legitimate possibility within the scope of reason. They source this new "coalition to draft dede as a democrat" as their path to undercut our party to win the district. It is wayyy too early to even know who our options even are. I even got an e-mail from someone at draftdede@gmail.com asking if our blog would endorse the effort.
Well we want to use this post to say in no uncertain terms that NO WE DO NOT ENDORSE YOUR PLAN. Take it somewhere else. Thanks, but no thanks.
Can anyone tell me what McHugh is thinking here? Some speculated that maybe McHugh doesn't care what the Republican leadership thinks because he is retiring and he can vote however he likes. Or perhaps McHugh isn't versed in how the card check law would affect jobs in the North Country. Here are some of my favorite points, according to the Heritage Foundation, that members of Congress should consider before voting:
1) A recent Zogby poll found that 71% of union members believe that the current private-ballot process is fair. A McLaughlin & Associates poll found that fully 74% of union members favor keeping the current system in place over replacing it with one that provides less privacy.
2) Conservative estimates show that EFCA would reduce employment opportunities by 765,000 potential jobs in the economy over the next seven years. Other studies estimate even greater effects.
3) Instead of mutual consent, the federal government would then impose working conditions on both employers and employees, whether they were workable or not, and these conditions would be binding on the business for two years until the negotiations are reopened.
That means employees are against the measure, we would lose jobs, and if EFCA goes into effect then these contracts will be run by government bureaucrats (and the contracts will be binding for at least 2 years). It is simply shocking that McHugh could support such an undemocratic measure. What is even more interesting about the debate is that at least six proponents of the Employee "No" Free Choice Act are now against it or now on the fence.
"The legislation is divisive and distracting, said Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln in an interview Monday. The Democratic lawmaker, who was previously seen as a supporter, said the Senate should focus on creating jobs and improving the U.S. economy. 'I have 90,000 Arkansans who need a job, that's my No. 1 priority,' she said. The legislation, she said, would be 'divisive and we don't need that right now. We need to focus on the things that are more important.'
Sen. Lincoln is one of several moderate Democrats expressing doubts about the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill would allow unions to organize workers without a secret ballot, giving employees the power to organize by simply signing cards agreeing to join. A second provision would give federal arbitrators power to impose contract terms on companies that fail to reach negotiated agreements with unions. Both provisions are strongly opposed by business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor are among the Democratic lawmakers who have backed off their previous support."
Here is what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to say about the matter:
“This legislation goes against the fundamental right of political expression without fear of coercion. As Americans, we expect to be able to vote on everything from high school class president to the President of the United States in private. Workers expect the same right in union elections. To put it simply, the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act is undemocratic. To approve it would be to subvert the right to bargain freely over working terms and conditions. It would also strip members of a newly recognized union of their right to accept or reject a contract. In addition, this bill ushers in a new scheme of penalties which are anti-worker and which apply only to employers and not unions. Even though we have regarded secret ballot elections as a fundamental right for more than a century, some Democrats still seem determined to strip that right away from American workers. If this weren’t bad enough, a study released last week by economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar showed that, if enacted, Card Check legislation could cost 600,000 American jobs each year. At a time when all of us are looking to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work, we threaten to undermine those efforts with this job-killing bill."
"Lewis County had the highest January unemployment rate at 11.7 percent, up from 9.1 percent in December and from 7.8 percent in January 2008. St. Lawrence County posted an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent for January, up from 8.7 percent in December and from 7.6 percent in January 2008. Jefferson County's unemployment rate for January was 10.3 percent, up from 8.8 percent in December and from 7.5 percent in January 2008."
Since when did we become a country that no longer values freedom of association, a free and fair democratic process, and mutually beneficial labor contracts? It all smells like socialism to me.
Sorry that I, Mr. Thomas Nast, have been sleepless in Seattle for weeks and haven’t posted. But it has come to my attention that we have some serious nepotism in upstate New York politics, just when we thought those days were over!
Today, directly from the Watertown Daily Times we found out that our newly elected State Senator, Mr. Darrel J. Aubertine, has added several new staffers to the state’s payroll. One such staffer just happens to be his sister, Debra A. Wiley. Now the move is all fine and dandy, except her salary comes straight out of the wallet of the New York State taxpayer. Sounds like straight up nepotism to me. I wonder if the Watertown Daily Times and the writer, Jude Seymour, will follow up and find out just how much she is being paid for her new role as head of constituent liaisons… and I wonder how much Senator Jim Wright paid his constituent liaison staffer? If Wiley gets special treatment for being the new Senator’s sister will anyone make an issue of it when Aubertine wants to run for Congress?
On a positive note for Aubertine at least he can get this out of the way before his Congressional run in 2010 or 2012, depending on how long McHugh wants to stay in the US Congress. It looks like he is staying put and he is making a heck of a run for chair/ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. Bravo to Mr. McHugh!
I remember another former New York politician who sought to clean up New York politics, rid the state of nepotism, and special interest… his name was Eliot Spitzer. It looks like Hillary Clinton taught Aubertine well – reward those close to home.
