...the value of reminding the blogsphere that Gail Collins and Danny Hakim are/were carrying water for a nitwit: priceless.
I wasn't going to get involved any more with the Newell race, or any of his public utterances, the thing is over. But I received several calls and emails on Newell's announcement of his fundraising prowess. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but Newell is bragging about bringing in only $40K after an anti-Silver carpet bombing from the Times and New York Post.
What's that say about MSM influence and/or opinion of candidate Newell after all this free attention and endorsement?
But wait, it gets better (it always does). As our friend Zinger writes in below, Newell got roughly 90 percent of those contributions from people that can't vote, because they don't live in the district.
Anyhow, Zinger writes in:
I've been reading quite a bit about this Paul Newell guy who's challenging Shelly Silver of Manhattan for the Assembly seat representing downtown Manhattan. I was impressed when I read Newell's most recent press release (http://www.newellnyc.org/2008/08/paul-newell-outfundraises-shel.html) about raising more money than Silver in the last period. Then, I looked at his filing, and guess what? Newell really did raise more than Shelly Silver. But a couple of lines in the release jumped out at me, including this one from Newell's campaign manager:
"It is not just the total numbers that are important" explained Evan Hutchison, Newell's campaign manager, "but where the money came from that matters. This is truly a grassroots campaign and these filings bear that out
I agree, it is important where the money comes from in a grassroots campaign. And, after re-reading that line I looked again at Newell's filing...and counted how many contributions came from inside the Assembly District. My method wasn't scientific, I used only zip codes, but by my count only 22 contributions came from residents of the district he wants to represent: 147 out of 169 contributions came from outside the district - a whopping 87%! This is a grassroots campaign?
Which leads me to this quote from Mr. Newell himself:
"The momentum is shifting rapidly in this race," said Newell. "Downtown voters understand that change is very much possible in New York State and they have shown that by re-upping their support of an Albany unswayed by corporate contributions."
Considering that only 22 souls who can vote for Mr. Newell actually gave him money, it's a stretch to claim that downtown voters think anything at all about Mr. Newell. And, as for this demonstrating a shift in momentum, well, probably only in the minds of Paul and his campaign manager.
John Peter Zinger
John Peter, we agree. Now can we get you to open your own blog? Kinda like Brinker. Job 1 could be tormenting Roatti and Bouldin with the knowledge that, similar to my prediction, we aren't going away.
