Fun with animation

Blogger Cake of Death had a funny little play with that Soccer headbutt a few months back.
Gotta love the effort put into this stuff.

The 25th NY State Senate District

Back in late April, I was in a discussion with Kevin Breslin, State Committee member from Brooklyn and District Leader from the Carrol Gardens, Park Slope, Cobble Hill area (I'm not sure what his specific AD was).

During our discussion, we were talking about local races and that I attempted a City Council run last year. He asked if I was going to run again this year

"No," I said, "I'm going to take a back seat and help on a campaign. I helped Frank Scala with his Special Election race in February and since he's staying on through the November Election, will help him through the summer."

I then added, "If I only lived two blocks west, I would've been in Shelly Silver's district and I would most certainly have put my summer on hold to challenge him."

Mr. Breslin then said, "Well, I can't do anything with Manhattan races, but the 25th Senatorial District runs in my part of town and into lower Manhattan, so if you know anyone who would be willing to run against Martin Connor and put his name on the ballot, I can take care of the Brooklyn part."

I said, "Well, I live in Connor's district, but I'm really not looking to run this year."

His eyes opened up and he made his pitch. "Look, Daniel, you don't have to campaign. Just go to the Manhattan County and get them to take care of the Manhattan part. I can get the Brooklyn side for you. I'm not asking you to campaign, but to just be a name. We can't let Martin Connor go unchallenged again like he was in 2004."

He told me to think it over and get back to him. I did for a couple days. But I felt this year is not my year. Too much has happened in the past twelve months from my council campaign, to work, to things in my personal life, and I didn't want another thing to add to it. I also knew that if I agreed to this and got on the ballot and was a candidate, I couldn't simply be a name. I know me. I would campaign. I would try to reach out to my voting base and all the time I'd spend on this campaign would ruin my personal life.

About a month after this conversation and right before petitioning, Kevin Breslin passed away. Whether or not his death would've affected petitioning in Brooklyn is unknown. I'm sure he had other Brooklyn leaders that would've picked up where he left off, but if I ended up campaigning and needed to appear in Brooklyn, I'm not sure how much I would've gotten done there.

Since I did not run and word from the Manhattan GOP was that there was no candidate for the seat, it appeared that Sen. Martin Connor was going to walk his way into a reelection.
Then I heard about Ken Diamondstone.

Ken Diamondstone sought received the support of the Working Families Party and the Green Party. As a registered Democrat, he also petitioned to get into a Democratic Primary against Martin Connor.

As usual, Connor challenged Diamondstone's petitions. Only, Diamondstone survived the challenge. And Diamondstone then got the endorsement of the New York Times.

When Primary Election results came in, Martin Connor won with 56% of the vote. A very strong showing by Ken Diamondstone.

So was that it? No. By having the Working Families and Green Party support, Diamondstone will be on the ballot come November 7. Primaries only bring out 20% of a particular voting base, while Generals bring out closer to 50%. And Generals also include all other voters, Republicans, Working Families, Conservative, Independents, all of whome could vote AGAINST an incumbent. So Martin Connor's Primary victory is not a win by any means.

I once said I could never see myself voting for some left-leaning "almost" socialist candidate with the Working Families Party, but knowing how undemocratic, democrat Martin Connor is, I think I've found my first WFP candidate. Here's hoping that 51% of the voters in the 25th Senate District agree and decide to vote out an incumbent.