We ended the GOP Convention with a “split ticket” to see who faces Sen. Kristen Gilligan. David Malpass and Bruce Blakeman are running in a primary, while Joe DioGuardi, who is petitioning to get on the Republican line, has the conservative nomination all to himself. There have been calls for any number of people to drop out, or for DioGuardi to drop the conservative line and “give it” to whoever wins the Republican one.
I have a better idea. How about we move up the primary to the beginning of summer, instead of having to wait until September 15th?
This is what primaries are for: three different candidates, each with different positive and negatives, and each with different ideas on what it means to be a Republican. This is where we should have a robust debate over what we want as a Senator, or even where we want the party to go, and then let the people vote on it.
But instead of having the primary in June, giving the candidates the summer to let the voters get to know them, then hit it hard and fast after labor day…we have to wait until the middle of September to know who the candidate is in the first place.
Finding an opponent for Kristen Gillibrand has felt a little like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Both Rudy Giuliani and Dan Senor were all set to announce “any day now” before Lucy pulled the ball, leaving us screaming “Good Grief” as we fall flat on our ass. However there is one of the current candidates I find myself becoming more and more of a fan of, economist and Forbes columnist David Malpass.
Two things are clear aboot running for US Senate in 
So before I went on sabbatical at the beginning of October, we were questioning two things. One was health care reform. The other, at least in New York, was what Rudy Giuliani was going to do with his life. And while the former is as funked up as if ever was, we’re starting to get clarity on the second.
I’ve always been a big fan of Rudy Giuliani’s, but I’m starting to lose patience. While other states already have their Senate and/or Gubernatorial candidates in place (in some states more than one), we keep hearing from Rudy that he’s “thinking aboot it” and that he’ll, at least in theory, make up his mind after this set of elections. He was also the only top New York Republican who wasn’t at this week’s convention that election Ed Cox as our new state party chair.
It bothers me that we don’t have a declare opponent for Kristen Gillibrand yet, especially after last week when she was one of seven Senators who voted AGAINST defunding ACORN (after that whole child prostitution expose thingy). The former “blue dog” is now openly bragging aboot being a new voice for progressives (::cough::poseur::cough::), and is vulnerable no matter how much the President gets involved.
