Mayor Williams in the New York Sun

I found this tidbit online about independent political candidates. Mayor Jay Williams was quoted for this New York Sun article.

In 1960, when John F. Kennedy ran for president, only 1.6% of Americans were registered as independents. Today, the number is estimated at 21.7% of registered voters, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, while self-identified independents now narrowly surpass Democrats or Republicans, according to the Gallup Poll. This is a sea change, and like most significant demographic trends, it is being driven from the bottom up.

Just ask Youngstown, Ohio's Jay Williams, who, at 34, was elected in November as the first independent and African-American mayor of that Midwestern city, winning 52% of the vote in a six-way race. Why did Mr. Williams choose to run as an independent in this heavily Democratic city?

"There was a growing frustration with this unbridled loyalty to the Democratic Party ... what I tapped into was that people were ready for change," Mr. Williams says. "I couldn't be painted in a corner by a party ... I'm moderate to liberal on some issues, but conservative on many others. And I absolutely intend to capitalize on that political freedom. There is no expectation from the electorate other than to do what I think is best for the city ..."

What you hear from this Gen-X mayor is an attitude echoed by many of our generation. We want freedom of choice. In every other aspect of American life, the idea that choice means picking between a stale "brand a" and "brand b" ended a long time ago. At a time when people have become accustomed to 500 cable channels and the endless variety of the Internet, we don't want to have to choose between a pre-fabricated menu of special interest controlled positions.

Check out the full article here:
http://www.nysun.com/article/31852

Interesting Quote

"As a Democrat I do not often find it easy to talk with other Democrats about our need to affirm our commitment to the respect for life and how we need to emphasize our party's firm belief in the worth of every human being. As a Catholic I do not often find it easy to talk with other Catholics about my feeling that abortion should and will remain safe and legal and that we should instead focus our efforts on creating a better world where there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, and where women who face unplanned pregnancies receive greater support and where men take more responsibility for their actions. I do not want to make an argument about abortion. I want to make a difference in the number of abortions. We can go forward even if we can't agree. We can have the same goal even if we do not share the same beliefs." Thomas R. Suozzi, the county executive of Long Island's Nassau County, in a May 10, 2005 speech at Adelphi University.

Why George is an ass... and I don't mean W

Editors Note: I have played a bit of a Mad Libs with this story, inserting my own commentary in parentheses and italics. Enjoy!

Bush-backing Democrat seeks new office

JOE MILICIA
Associated Press

The former mayor of Youngstown, who boldly (stupidly) supported President Bush during the 2004 campaign, is running for a new office - and he's still a Democrat (in name only).

If anyone is angry with George McKelvey for backing Bush and criticizing the left wing, McKelvey hasn't noticed (although that is a lie).

"I have never been received more warmly in my life (just not outside my own home)," said McKelvey, who is campaigning for a seat on the three-member board of commissioners in heavily blue-collar Mahoning County.

McKelvey upset Democrats across the country when he stated during the Republican National Convention: "The left wing hates George Bush the most because he believes in God, and you better believe that." (The left wing hates George Bush because we are still trying to figure out what he did that has been good for this country, and you better believe that.")

But the remark and his relationship with Bush aren't fatal to his candidacy in next month's Democratic primary, said political science professor William Binning of Youngstown State University.

He thinks McKelvey, who served (served subtituted for worked, because he didn't really do any work) eight years as mayor and left office at the end of December because of term limits, has a shot to win.

"When you're the mayor of Youngstown, you're pretty big down here. He's sort of got celebrity status," Binning said. "Some of the Democratic voters are overlooking his sins (and are foolish for it)."

Phyllis Vivod, 68 of Campbell, is one of the them. The registered Democrat voted for Bush and doesn't even remember McKelvey's remark from the convention (along with anything he did as mayor).

"He's OK with me as far as I'm concerned," Vivod said, ("as long as he is running for sanitation engineer").

McKelvey, who is prone to fiery rants, said the "God" comment was not aimed (only) at the hardworking Democrats of Youngstown.

"It was directed to the Hollywood nutballs, (the hardworking Democrats of Youngstown, and my own children)" McKelvey said. "I couldn't even use strong enough terms to describe how anti-Christian they are."

McKelvey, 56, said his campaign is motivated by his love of public service (and his strong desire to avoid the unemployment line). He never considered switching parties or running as an independent. And he scoffs at the widespread expectation that Bush was going to give him a job. (The President informed him long ago that America has a better chance of becoming a communist state than McKelvey has to work for the administration.)

"That's a mystery," Binning said. "Why isn't he assistant secretary of HUD or ambassador to Bermuda - someplace without nuclear weapons (and a low tolerance for those who smoked a lot of weed in their childhood)?"

McKelvey said he never was offered a job and never asked for one. He said his goal in supporting Bush was to help the nearby Youngstown Air Reserve Station avoid last year's base closings by the Pentagon (and finally get out of Youngstown!).

The air base survived and McKelvey isn't shy about taking credit (although he realizes he was simply riding a bandwagon steered by Tim Ryan).

"You'd have to be stuck on stupid (which I know a lot about) not to know who had a greater impact on keeping the air base open - Mayor McKelvey, who met with the president on eight occasions, or the other side (led by Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine) that was blowing up 30-foot rats, putting his name on it and calling him profane names," McKelvey said.

His opponent, David Ludt, a former tow truck company owner, is seeking his third term as county commissioner. Ludt said he's running on his record and won't make an issue of McKelvey's ties to Bush (because too many people are already doing that for him).

But Ludt disputes McKelvey's claim about the air base, saying the Pentagon never intended to close it.

Elmer Smith, 87, of Struthers, does feel McKelvey helped save air base jobs. For decades, Smith has followed Mahoning Valley politics, which is somewhat of a pastime in the three-county area bordering Pennsylvania.

But even if McKelvey helped save the air base, it doesn't mean Smith will vote for him.

"I don't think he had enough backbone in office," Smith said. "Someone always was pulling the strings for him." (Ed. Note: I like this Smith guy...)

Besides, Ludt once hauled Smith's broken down car all the way from Cleveland.

In addition to Ludt's old towing customers, McKelvey won't get much support from union voters, Binning said.

"Union leaders were dumfounded that he ran and they were very much opposed to him," Binning said.

That doesn't worry McKelvey, who thinks political endorsements are worthless(, much like this own political career).

"You can't even tell your wife how to vote let alone have the audacity to think you can command your members," McKelvey said.

He knows that first hand. His wife voted for John Kerry.

The race for the 60th

The race for the 60th is on. The frontruner is without a doubt Bob Hagan but the challengers are an interesting bunch, including two twenty-somethings trying to make a name for themselves. Ian Stublarec and Michael Latessa, both of Youngstown, are 24 and 26 respectively. According to the Trib, Latessa is the founder/consultant of the Creativity Incubator in Youngstown. His main priorities, he said, are education and economic development. Stublarec is a substitute teacher with Youngstown City Schools and said the funding of education was his top priority. He said he supports a proposal that would form a bi-partisan committee to create ways to fund 100 percent of the cost of public education in Ohio. Thats great and all but the creation of a committee is just passing the buck. Give me someone who can actually have the ideas to solve the problem and then maybe I will vote for them. Not that it matters. I am on the Hagan Train anyway... Chooo Chooooo!

I love Ted...

Ted Strickland did not have to enter the fray in a statewide race. He could have been the Sixth District rep until the day he died. Shoot, even dead, he’d probably beat any Republican challengers in the Sixth District as it was carved up after the last census.

Or, as he told the Youngstown Vindicator, “Not to sound prideful, but I probably could have stayed until retirement.”

The Hillsboro Time-Gazette (4/21/06)

Representatives Gone Wild!

I thought this article is the perfect summation of the crazy, wacky and stupid things that Members of Congress will do. I like the comparison between McKinney and Traficant, although with due respect to McKinney (or not, in fact), she is nothing like Jim Traficant. At least Jim appreciated the embarassment that he was. Somehow he was able to both respect and make light of the instutition at the same time, and all without hitting a cop. Enjoy the article. Time for me to go work on the farm...

Representatives Gone Wild!
By John Mercurio, NationalJournal.com
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, April 6, 2006

With all due respect, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., is fast becoming the Rep. James Traficant, I-Jail, of 2006.

That's not to suggest McKinney belongs in prison or should be booted from the House, as Traficant was in 2002. We'll let the U.S. attorney and grand jury decide whether McKinney did in fact tangle with a Capitol Police officer, a possible felony, last week.

New charges include her spending federal funds to fly singer Isaac Hayes to Atlanta -- a House rules violation -- and holding a campaign event with him, a more serious charge. And I'm certainly not making a cheap-shot parallel between the hairstyle choices of McKinney and her former colleague from Ohio -- although, of course, I could.

No, I'm talking about the not so rare breed of lawmaker, most often found in the "People's House" but occasionally in the upper chamber, who, presumably, arrives on Capitol Hill with the noblest goals, but ultimately, through a series of unfortunate acts, contributes more to late-night comedians than their colleagues or constituents.

Sure, there are ideological extremists on all sides and scandal-plagued politicians of every stripe. But this is something more. This is Enid Waldholtz and husband Joe, or Ed Mezvinsky and his "organic brain damage" legal defense. It's Helen Chenoweth and her black helicopters, Jay Kim and his ankle bracelet, Wes Cooley and his motorcycle career, or "B-1" Bob Dornan and, well, where do we begin?

And we're keeping an eye on Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who this week second-guessed his Democratic challenger Joe Sestak on where Sestak sent his 5-year-old daughter to be treated for a malignant brain tumor.

Sometimes their careers end in scandal, amidst a swirl of ethical misconduct. Sometimes they end quietly in ballot-box defeat. Regardless, they always end.

Indeed, it's fitting that the careers of Reps. McKinney and Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are unraveling at the same time. Miles apart in many ways, these two congressional caricatures are noted masters at the art of ginning up extremist elements of their respective parties, often for personal gain. DeLay's rhetoric during the Terri Schiavo controversy can only be matched by McKinney's claims that President Bush was warned before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And both, in their various states of demise, are being widely abandoned by party leaders and even some of the activists they've worked so hard to court.

One blogger on the conservative "Outside the Beltway" called DeLay's resignation "good news all around for the GOP. It helps stop the bleeding caused by the [Jack] Abramoff scandal and related misdeeds that, even if he had no criminal complicity in, were direct results of decisions made by DeLay." Meanwhile, John Aravosis, a liberal blogger, dismissed McKinney as a "nutsy-cuckoo Democrat from Georgia."

Amid his own tumult this week, DeLay actually felt compelled to weigh in on McKinney, calling her a "racist." "Everything is racism with her. There is incredible racism that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney," DeLay, abruptly assuming his place as a detached observer of congressional culture, said without even a wink of irony.

McKinney's career looked like it was over in 2002, when Denise Majette beat the five-term congresswoman handily in a Democratic primary. McKinney had brought Louis Farrakhan to campaign for her. Her father, state Rep. Billy McKinney, blamed the "J-E-W-S" for her loss.

Notably, the 2002 election marked another pivotal moment in which McKinney's career stumbled at the same time as one of her arch-nemeses. On the same day Majette defeated McKinney four years ago, then-Rep. Bob Barr, a conservative GOP firebrand, fell in a primary to Rep. John Linder. At that time, southern political guru Hastings Wyman wrote that their defeats may be "part of a larger trend toward moderation throughout the South -- a trend that is likely to leave a substantial imprint on national politics."

Alas, no such luck. Two years later, Majette vacated her House seat to mount a quixotic Senate bid against Johnny Isakson, who easily won. McKinney easily won her old seat back. Revealing her party's antipathy toward her, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., broke with tradition and denied to credit McKinney with her 10 years of seniority for committee assignments.

"I think what happened last week was a very unfortunate incident," Pelosi said of the McKinney scuffle. "I don't think any of it justifies hitting a police officer." Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that all lawmakers have a responsibility to obey Capitol Police. "I think we all should cooperate fully," he said. Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, has so far been silent on the issue.

McKinney once again faces a strong primary challenge, this time from DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson, who said last week that McKinney's behavior has "shortchanged" her constituents. "It's why she is ineffective in Congress."

For her part, McKinney says she is not distracted from the firestorm she created. "Rest assured, I am doing the work they sent me to Washington to do," she told supporters in Atlanta on Monday. "Nothing is going to keep me away from my responsibilities."

Nothing except, perhaps, McKinney herself.

-- John Mercurio is a NationalJournal.com contributing writer and a senior editor of The Hotline. His e-mail address is jmercurio@nationaljournal.com.