David Nachbar, a Bausch and Lomb Vice-President, intends to challenge Eric Massa for the Democratic nomination in the 29th. Nachbar, who is Louise Slaughter's (NY-28) candidate, is a millionaire from Pittsford, the most affluent suburb in Monroe County.
I'll have some further analysis on this soon, but for the time being, I'll just say this: Randy Kuhl must feel like the Democrats just gave him a second birthday. Wait -- that's not strong enough -- Randy probably feels like it is his birthday, Christmas, and the Fourth of July.
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And a happy new year! This is the guy from the company under SEC investigation for insider trading, and by the way is losing money, whose main source of wealth is...well, insider trading?
Love it! So now we have two former Republicans slugging it out to represent Democrats. This can only get better.
You forgot to mention executive compensation. Nachbar's will go under the microscope, and deservedly so. Why should the guy who ran the personnel department at a mediocre company for a couple of years be a millionaire and ready for retirement in his mid-40s?
Nachbar went on a quiet ‘listening tour’ I guess you’d call it – in the last election cycle. His views on social security and taxation were straight from the Republican playbook. He was OK with the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy (surprise, surprise). He didn’t think the cap ought to be raised on social security but rather thought we should turn to private accounts for a solution. Those of us who met with him were turned off big time. After the meeting our consensus was, considering his views, the guy might as well be a damned Republican. (Not surprisingly, later it turned out he was indeed still registered as a Republican – “Paperwork Error”, he called it).
The best chance we have of turning the horrendous mess this country is facing around is to elect Democrats in 2008. And TOTAL MORONIC IDIOTS like Louise Slaughter are effectively sabotaging the best hope for the 29th district. Remember, Eric Massa came within 1% of winning in the last cycle against a candidate whom even Karl Rove now admits is one of the most vulnerable. David Nachbar has absolutely no chance of winning a primary here. In fact, he faces nothing but pure, unadulterated hostility from the democratic base. Democratic Chairs from the district BEGGED him not to run. He didn’t listen. It’s all about him, not what’s best for the district or the future of our country. Louise Slaughter also needs to be held accountable for her role in this. She knows damned well how a primary impacts fundraising. I suggest that if David Nachbar really wants to help Democrats, he will change his registration back to Republican. Then he can run in a primary against a like-minded candidate (Randy), and push for his pet causes like privatization of social security and ‘tax reform’.
The TOTAL MORONIC IDIOT you refer to is also the chair of the House Rules Committee which controls all floor action of half of the legislative branch of government. Translation -- she IS the Washington establishment and it has decided that Massa is a loser. We can all think of many reasons why they feel that way, but I'll save that for another day.
Let me repeat: Nachbar has absolutely no chance of winning a primary here. Why? Because our values as Democrats mean something. You can put a wolf in sheep clothing, but you can’t get the base to vote for him.
Bud, I don't know if they've agreed that Massa is a loser. Instead, I think they've decided that he's too independent for them. If Louise takes a rich political neophyte under her wing, she will have a malleable protege (Nachbar) instead of a thorn in her side (Massa).
Rottenchester -- I think you miss Slaughter's point. She could care less about a single "maverick" (arguable point, but I'll concede for now) Dem in her backyard. She's not building a Dem majority by seeking sycophants who kow-tow to the majority leadership. They need numbers. The veto override should be evidence of this. It wasn't even close. Massa's a flawed candidate in her mind; she's signaled that right from the start, and other national Dems seem to feel the same way. He's a Wesley Clark putz, a loser with no roots in our area, and a very suspect background. He blew his big chance in '06 with a mediocre campaign punctuated by strange events that further exacerbated his weird personality problems. Wake up, folks.
Seems like your argument is circular: Slaughter (and other unnamed Dems) wisely consider Massa a flawed candidate. In her wisdom, Slaughter picks an even more flawed candidate to replace Massa. I don't get it.
Also, how was Massa's campaign mediocre? He raised more money than a lot of other Dems, and came quite close to a victory in a pretty red district. I'm sure he could have done better but his campaign certainly wasn't a joke.
Here's an example that supports my maverick thesis: Dan Maffei in NY-25 raised a lot less than Massa in a more blue district and came about as close to his weak opponent as Massa. Yet nobody's recruiting millionaires to run against him. Perhaps that's because Maffei is more of an establishment candidate than Massa.
Some of us in our county met with Nachbar before the last election. I remember being really annoyed when he suggested health savings accounts as a solution to the healthcare crisis. When I told him that many in this district barely have money to pay the bills, much less set funds aside into a health savings account, he gave me a blank look. He was wearing an expensive pin striped suit; I was in jeans. He talked about his horse farm. I don't think it was intentional on his part, but he had an air of superiority that made me feel out of place. His shtick might charm the corporate crowd up in Rochester, but I don't think it will play to a room full of folks struggling on the edge of poverty in Allegheny County. I don't want a candidate who makes me feel inferior. He totally does not play outside of Rochester and apparantly Louise Slaughter is too blind to see this. I'm really disappointed in her. I used to admire her, but not now.
Missy - part of the B&L executive culture under the previous president was an informal contest over who could dress the best. I don't have a reference for it - I just remember reading it in a D&C profile of the company - and I don't know whether Nachbar joined the company after it happened. But it's interesting that you single out how nicely he was dressed.
He's a Wesley Clark putz, a loser with no roots in our area, and a very suspect background. He blew his big chance in '06 with a mediocre campaign punctuated by strange events that further exacerbated his weird personality problems.
Bud, are you saying that Slaughter views Massa that way, or is it your opinion?
The suggestion Massa is unstable, and that Clark is a putz deserves some explanation.
I believe he means that Massa is a Wesley Clark putz, not that Clark is a putz.
No matter, I agree that either claim deserves explanation. Unfortunately, Bud, who posts using a Verizon DSL IP in Washington, DC, seems to be missing in action at the moment.
I would also like to point out that Eric Massa has been in Corning longer than Nachbar has been in Rochester. Nachbar joined B&L in the Fall of 2002. Prior to that he was with a firm in Minnesota, and before that, CitiBank, Asia. I'm the leader of my town's Dmeocratic Committee, and have yet to hear from Mr. Nachbar. To my knowledge, he made no effort to find out if he would have any support from the grass roots. If my committee is any indication, he doesn't.