The Democratic Party Protects Democracy, Right? Really... Right?
Tuesday, state Sen Tim Kennedy (D) trounced West Seneca Town Supervisor Gary Dickson 68.2% to 31.8% in a special election to fill the seat vacated by long-time Democratic Rep Brian Higgins. Biden beat Trump there 61.7% to 36.6%. The Buffalo-centric district has a PVI of D+9 and the partisan lean is D+18. Kennedy outspent Dickson 47-1, having put a million of his $1.7 million campaign haul into the race. Dickson spent $21,069.
Kennedy, who was selected by Erie County’s super-corrupt Democratic Party bosses, is a pointless careerist who has leaned right in the state legislature and is, more than anything, a supreme establishment hack. Kennedy won’t face a primary challenge on June 25. The party bosses were able to disqualify progressive attorney and advocate Nate McMurray this week on behalf of their boy Tim. McMurray wrote to his supporters “I’ve been removed from the ballot in NY-26. The board of elections deemed my signatures insufficient. Big shock. What can I say, we tried. Thanks for trying too. It feels like even if we collected 100,000 signatures it would not have made a difference. They would have found something to throw me off. I’m a threat to their closed shop business. And don't kid yourself; it's a business. As predicted, the second we turned in the ballots there was a tidal wave of protests and legal actions from Tim Kennedy, my opponent, to keep me off the ballot. That guy did not want you to have a choice (whether it was me or anyone else). A sudden resignation, a special election, hundreds of thousands of dollars to the party chairs, and millions of dollars in advertising and legal fees makes that pretty darn clear. So you will not have a choice. In a blue district, any Democrat will win. And they have ensured there will be only one Democrat to choose: Tim Kennedy.”
Who cares right? Well, I wish everyone cared.
I get that most people have too many other things to worry about. I'm guessing voting turnout in this special election will be abysmal. And you probably think that I’m just another self-interested politician whining. The worst part of running for office is that you become a vector of attack. Even your best intentions are interpreted through the lens of ambition.
Again, I get it. I don’t like most politicians either. In almost a decade of political activity, I met maybe two or three who I actually liked. The widespread apathy is understandable.
Sadly, the powers that be love the apathy. It allows them to control the narrative and stay in power. Long entrenched officials like Jeremy Zellner, the chair of the Democratic Party and chairman of the board of elections, and his long time Republican counterpart are especially loathsome in my experience.
But those types of guys, bumbling around the backrooms of the board of elections or the Larkin building, eating take-out and horse-trading political appointments for decades, wield considerable power in this small town. They can choose candidates and disqualify candidates. Any independent political voice must either be co-opted or destroyed. They play the game and ump it too.
Honestly, someone needs to write a book about the India Walton story alone. That happened. All of it. We went from having a national story, an exciting new chance for dramatic change, but the Buffalo establishment instead chose to literally try and destroy her. It was scary to watch.
Our country is deadlocked in tribalism.
Navigating this two-party system, especially in a region so rife with corruption and self-interested officials holding multiple roles, in these partisan times feels insurmountable. Because of the looming threat of extremism (an absolutely real threat), any dissent within the Democratic Party is viewed as betrayal.
So those who do care about politics on the left, care most about fighting Trump, and rightfully so. It's something I have been at for years, unlike Mr. Kennedy who only recently had his full anti-MAGA conversion. Something tells me running in the bluest district in upstate New York had something to do with his road to Mar a Lago moment. Good for him. I accept all coverts. Think about this (or look below). MAGA hates me. They are still cool with Tim.
But so many were outraged when I spoke out against Kennedy and [Erie County Executive Mark] Poloncarz admonishing me to "hold ranks." But putting our leaders beyond scrutiny leads to demagoguery. Are they not paid and accountable for their service? Indeed, their decades in power?
We as Democrats have become eager to take anyone, so long as they are not MAGA. And beyond that, there is a whole class of political hangers on that will do anything just to be on some random committee or get invited to some lame fundraiser so they can post a picture with the Governor or the Mayor on social media. It’s weird. Which brings me back to Tim Kennedy's unstoppable assent up the party ranks.
Timmy. Definitely not Bobby
How can I put this delicately? I know Timmy Kennedy, and he’s no Bobby Kennedy. He's closer to his son if anything. Despite surrounding himself with lobbyists and PR professionals, plastering us with advertisements, gloss and shellack only goes so far. His use of political funds, his overall agenda, and his performance as a leader (for nearly his entire adult life), when viewed objectively (outside of the tribal, two-party spectrum), are quite frankly detestable.
I used to see this guy waiting outside the office of someone I used to work for, a very rich man, hoping to get five minutes to ask for a contribution. He would just sit there, for long stretches of time, like a pet. If I can speak without any gloss myself for second, I cannot believe that guy, who used to sit their like that, is going to represent Buffalo and Niagara Falls on a national level— and then if I look at the Republican members of Congress in rural New York, it’s even worse!
Kennedy is, however, maybe a perfect embodiment of Western New York political scene: calculating, robotic, entrenched, inevitable, a controlled asset manipulated by party officials to advance their agenda of cronyism, insular jobs, and no-show positions in exchange for his assent and the satisfaction of his desire for public accolade. Before you kill me for stating these painfully obvious truths, look at his campaign donations from AIPAC alone.
Look, I'm open to being proven wrong. I've had numerous interactions with Kennedy and his inner circle. To use the word “mercenary” would be a soft euphemism. I can’t sugarcoat it. They glory in it. But surprise me guys. Go for it.
Show me that Tim has grown, and can rise to the mantle of this office. Having run for Congress myself, and having spent literally years visiting small towns to get a nomination, I find this backroom anointment and coronation appalling. But you’re anointed, Tim. Use it for good.
My strength and my weakness.
I know. I speak bluntly. It’s been my Achilles heel in politics, this frankness. But I can’t help it. What's the point of communication but to communicate. Do you really crave more empty gobbledygook from politicians? No one sane wants the vulgarness of Trump, but I sure don't want the vapidness of team Kennedy's PR-spin either. Do you? Did you see his TV debate? Yikes.
This is what I am communicating to you now: it’s a friends and family operation in Erie County. We all know that. Let’s not pretend otherwise. I am not talking about Illuminati-level conspiracy. You’ve heard the phrase "everyday heroism." In Erie County, it’s everyday conspiracy. Run-of-the-mill corruption, the type of corruption a guy like me would not tolerate. And unless we as a community look beyond the commercials and headlines and stand up to it, it’s never going to change.
"Wait," you might say, "Nate, your signatures were all messed up. You're just like them." Sure. Nice try. I hired a young man to help me get signatures (like everyone does) in the middle of March snow and rain— why do we need hundreds of signatures anyway? Oh yeah, to prevent competition— and they used the most seasoned election attorneys to create legal arguments not only to disqualify me but to vilify me and belittle that idealistic young man.
Sadly, and shockingly, the young man I hired passed away recently. I couldn't believe it. I have experienced this a few times, meeting people through politics and then suddenly losing them. It's always difficult, but this time even more so, because he was so young! But I am sure proud to have worked with him. He did his best. I saw it. And more importantly, he was a good person, motivated by an idealistic zeal. God speed D. Rest in power.
They went after me, and by proxy him, not only to disqualify me, but to send a message to anyone who dares stand up to their authority:
Don’t “F” with Erie County.
Point taken. Message received. I will not be running in Erie County— a place that was always hard for me compared to the rest of Western New York anyway— anytime soon. The barriers to entry are just too high, and the politics just too insane. No one has ever said— EVER— that Buffalo is a beacon of good governance and exceptionalism. But it’s not my job to fix it, even if I desperately wanted it to be. You guys take care.
That was before the election. Afterwards, McMurray wrote that the special election, basically, wasn’t even democracy. “Hardly anyone turned out to vote,” he wrote. “The results were so lopsided for the Democrat, just like the results in nearby Republican districts are for Republicans. It doesn’t matter who’s on the ballot. That means, if you live in these areas, including places like Batavia and much of upstate New York that are carved into Republican districts, you will likely never, ever be represented by a Democrat unless you move. And you maybe never even get to choose between two Republicans either! Because party administrators control the primary process so tightly, so challenging their handpicked candidates is nearly impossible. This means primaries hardly ever happen; effectively, there is no democracy. Only the appearance of democracy. Nothing is ever in doubt. It’s a show. Is this what children imagine democracy to be when they learn about it in school? Little fiefdoms, where the only possible choice was hand selected months or even years earlier? It’s un-American. Truly. Almost like North Korea, with the key difference being is that we have two groups organizing little shows, instead of one, and a little friction on the edges.”
Coverage of what happened in western New York’s special election doesn’t touch on any of this. It’s just about how Kennedy’s election means that, at least until GOP special elections change the numbers, MAGA Mike will just have a one vote margin. I’m not so sure that’s even correct because of teh death of Donald Payne, Jr (D-NJ). In any case, it’s close and it’s fluid. But it isn’t the full story of the corrupt system that put a miserable hack like Tim Kennedy into Congress— and will keep him there.
And, by the way, in the 2022 midterm, turnout in NY-26 was meh— just 245,222 voted, down from 319,947 in 2020. Tuesday, just 68,212 bothered.