Is There an Upset in the Making in New York?

The Wall Street Journal ^ | September 12, 2010 | John Fund

[Clintonfatigued]

New York's Kirsten Gillibrand doesn't appear on lists of endangered Democratic Senate incumbents. But as an appointed Senator who has never faced a statewide electorate, she still has reason to look over her shoulder. Despite having held office for 18 months, the latest Quinnipiac Poll gives her no more than 45% of the vote against any of three possible GOP opponents. She holds a comfortable lead only because many New Yorkers have heard little or nothing about the GOP candidates.

Nonetheless, a full 39% of New York voters haven't heard enough about Ms. Gillibrand to form an opinion about her either. In a volatile, anti-liberal incumbent year, anything can happen. In 1994, the last such year, even the respected and well-known Daniel Patrick Moynihan won only 55% of the vote against an unknown Republican in what would prove Moynihan's last re-election campaign for the Senate in New York.

That makes the September 14 GOP primary to choose her opponent worth noting. Right now, none of the three candidates is known to more than a third of the primary electorate, so victory may go to the candidate with the most impressive endorsements. In that department, former Bear Stearns economist and Reagan administration official David Malpass has the clear edge. In recent days he scooped up enthusiastic support from both former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the New York Post.

His opponents include Bruce Blakeman, a former Port Authority commissioner who is burdened by his ties to a discredited GOP machine in Nassau County, and Joe DioGuardi, a former congressman and former partner at the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen. Mr. DioGuardi has seen Congressional profligacy up close, but at age 70 he has been out of office for over two decades.

[Clintonfatigued]

This race is an outside shot. Perhaps the GOP nominee will have some personal wealth to spare.

[Honorary Serb]

Joe DioGuardi is Albanian, not Italian. And he is a vile, total Serbophobe and buddy of the Serbophobe McCain. Both DioGuardi and McCain are long-time supporters of KLA islamic terrorism.

DON’T vote for him! Vote for the other guy. You’ll be glad you did!!!!

[Clintonfatigued]

“Vote for the other guy”

Which other guy?

[God luvs America]

Malpass is the guy....there are Malpass signs all over the place up here...when push comes to shove Malpass can beat gilibrand head-to-head as i don’t expect heavy turnout in the nobama regions (bronx, brooklyn, queens, manhattan) in Nov...

[Argus]

A Republican getting elected to the Senate from New York would be up there with Mullah Omar converting to Christianity. Aint gonna happen.

[Clintonfatigued]

It’s happened before. Remember Al D’Amato and George Pataki?

[bill1952]

A Republican getting elected to the Senate from New York would be up there with Mullah Omar converting to Christianity.

Or a Republican winning Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat in uber liberal Massachusetts

[nhwingut]

Joe DioGuardi is a Al Gore disciple, a big time global warming con man.

DO NOT VOTE for this guy, NY Freepers. Please.

[justiceseeker93]

Joe DioGuardi is Albanian, not Italian.

I've heard that too (also that he did legal work for Albanian interests). If so, how did he get that surname? His father had to be of at least part Italian ancestry, it would seem. Can someone please clarify this?

Malpass might be the brightest of the three Republicans by far, but he's just not a good public speaker, so it's difficult to see him catching fire in a short campaign as an underdog.

[Cicero]

Sounds like Malpas is the best of the three.

[Cicero]

Maybe his family is from the region around Trieste. There would me a mix of people there, including Albanians.

[justiceseeker93]

A Republican getting elected to the Senate from New York would be up there with Mullah Omar converting to Christianity.

LOL!!! It wasn't all that long ago when Al D'Amato was elected to a Senate seat held for a long time before that by "Rockefeller Republican" Jacob Javits. There were a few other Republican senators within memory: Jim Buckley (Bill Buckley's brother, elected on the third party Conservative line) and Kenneth Keating (another Rockefeller type who was knocked out by Bobby Kennedy in 1964) come to mind.

[Honorary Serb]

This explains it all re his surname.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_J._DioGuardi

All Americans—not just American Serbs—have suffered from Serbophobe public officials for a very long time. This includes their propensity to bring jihadists and Albanian mafia types (among others) to our shores. These politicians are bad news. Get rid of them!!!!

[Bokababe]

Here's the supposed family roots according to Dio Guardi

In Dio Guardi's mind, all the Albanians world-wide have been "persecuted" and "mistreated" and deprived of their "natural homelands" which seem to stretch from one end of the Balkans through Italy. But their boldest bid has been in the Balkans, claiming everything from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Southern Serbia, Montenegro and Northern Greece -- as shown on this map which used to grace the webpage of the Albanian American Civic League organization that Dio Guardi founded.

In fact, Dio Guardi's AACL is nothing more than a front for the Albanian Mafia, who decided to "buy Kosovo" for their drug/illegal arms/sex-slaving routes, and Dio Guardi was oh-so-helpful in getting politicians to feed at that Albanian Mafia trough for campaign donations in return for votes. Back in the 1990's, they were literally robbing banks and ATM's here in the US to donate to the AACL and their chosen politicians. Ultimately they bought the 1999 NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia.

Joseph Dio Guardi is a vile man, who manipulate the US foreign policy for his own ends. He ought to be in jail for treason, not in Congress!

[Argus]

The Mass senate election was a freak occurrence, a perfect storm. Lightning will most likely not strike twice in NY.

[Clintonfatigued]

Wow, that is horrific. Which candidate do you prefer?

[Faith-Hope]

About two weeks ago polls for Congressman Ciro Rodriguez, D. from San Antonio were showing him behind his Republican opponent

[Clintonfatigued]

If you’re from New York, hopefully you can help us stomp the ‘Rats there.

[Political Junkie Too]

I didn't trust Quinnipiac earlier, and I don't trust them now.

From their poll:

From August 23 - 31, Quinnipiac University surveyed 359 New York State Republican likely primary voters with a margin of error of +/- 5.2 percentage points and 866 New York State registered Democrats with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

Does this say that they are only polling Republicans and Democrats, and that they are polling Democrats to Republicans 2:1? That may be the ration in New York, but what Independents? How does the independent vote get factored into Quinnipiac polls, especially in this election season?

-PJ