Suprisingly, less than one week into the race for Greenburgh Town Supervisor, - and still 3 1/2 months before the primary - there are daily developments to follow. Feiner put out on his website [www.paulfeiner.com] his argument for retuning for a 12th(?) term as Town Supervisor. It appears that this is an appeal to potential donors from various mail/email lists and not a statement intended for the typical voter. Either way, give Feiner credit: it took a few days, but he has articulated positive reasons to vote for him (as opposed to insinuating only that Bernstein is going to go all Jefferson Davis and lead Edgemont to secede from the United States of Greenburgh - which makes Feiner Abraham Lincoln... or James Buchanan?). I'll quote Feiner directly:
As a long time supporter, you know of my “Problem Solver” reputation for helping thousands of residents resolve their concerns both large and small. You also know of my ongoing commitment to rethink and improve how government does business. I am as idealistic and energized as I was in my first term as Supervisor, yet with the knowledge and experience gained from over two decades in office.The last few months have been the most rewarding days of my tenure as Greenburgh Town Supervisor. So much is being accomplished that will provide long term benefits for the Town. We continue to tighten up the way we spend your tax dollars with new initiatives that make government more efficient. We’re making
Greenburgh greener and we’re creating affordable housing opportunities.
OK, so (1) he's the "problem solver" (hopefully he trademarked that term long ago) who ... helps resolve concerns (maybe a bit awkward, but the point is strong: Feiner is the consummate constituent service pol.); (2) rethinks/improves govt (he does come up with a lot of ideas that get into lohud.com); (3) idealistic & energized as ever but now with knowledge & experience (ok... but could cut both ways); (4) continuing to tighten up govt spending of tax dollars (um, Paul, I would make this your first argument - take it from Andy Spano: this is what contested elections in Westchester are all about); (5) Greenburgh is green! (enough said); and (6) creating affordable housing (ok, contentious issue which opens up a lot of corollary issues, but at least he's tackling this head on - and this issue could give Feiner a wedge to force Bernstein into a corner (i.e., what exactly is Edgemont's position on new affordable housing?) and it also allows Feiner to invoke Astorino as a straw man (although, despite lib/dem assumptions, I'm not convinced that anti-tax Astorino is unpopular).
Not bad for a start. But I'm interested in the emphasis on fund raising. Feiner raises the red flag of ... House of Sports financing for Bernstein! (Notice the clever use of the ambiguous "inferior bid" language!) Did HOS indeed publicly pledge to raise fund to defeat Feiner? I missed that. Feiner says this may be the most expensive campaign of his career (which prompts the question of how much he spent against his last serious challenger, whom I'm guessing was Bill Greenawalt, about 8 years ago). He wants contributions: which suggests that the supposed war chest of $136,000 is insufficient. Is Feiner really going to spend $200K in 3+ months on this race? Where and how will the Feiner campaign spend that much money?
Question: does anyone have access to the precinct-by-precinct breakdown from the Feiner-Greenawalt prmary? I'm guessing that the data is proprietary to the Democratic Party because it was a primary. I would love to see the breakdown and from where each candidate got his turnout.
[In case anyone actually is reading this blog, here's an interesting note: this blog has been revived for only about 3 days, but I've already heard from one reader.... any guesses who that might be?]
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