The extremely close fight for NY-19 could come down to the Hasidic community of Kiryas Joel.
Both Democratic Rep. John Hall and Republican Nan Hayworth met with the two factions of KJ this week to seek their endorsements, according to the Middletown Times Herald-Record, which reports:
Hayworth’s spokesman, Douglas Cunningham, said Friday that their discussions were cordial, but that neither side indicated who they would support.
“We did not make any promises to them except that we would be as accessible to them as to any other constituents,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham also said prominent Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — the front-runner for governor — have been pressuring Kiryas Joel’s leaders to support Hall.”
YNN’s Curtis Schick asked Hayworth herself for an updated today and was told she is “of course” looking for the support of KJ leaders, but haven’t received as of yet.
Blogger Yossi Gestetner Tweeted that former President Bill Clinton “called KJ leadership 2 push 4 Hall” the same day (I believe Friday) that House Whip Eric Cantor made a personal trip to the community to seek support for Hayworth.
A Hasidic source said Cantor also told the leaders that he would be a candidate for speaker if the GOP takes back the House and a groundswell of support fails to develop for Minority Leader John Boehner. The same source told me former Gov. George Pataki and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani both called KJ leaders on Hayworth’s behalf.
KJ played a pivotal role in Hall’s upset win over then-GOP Rep. Sue Kelly in 2006.
At the time, then-US Sen. Hillary Clinton, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (an Orthodox Jew) and gubernatorial frontrunner Eliot Spitzer made calls on Hall’s behalf. Kelly used NYC Mayor Bloomberg as her pitchman.
The Herald-Record recalls:
“In that race, establishment leaders dropped Kelly at the last minute and switched their endorsement to Hall, who also had the support of the opposition bloc. Hall wound up with nearly 2,800 votes in Kiryas Joel — more than half of his 4,760-vote margin of victory in the election.”
“The village’s strategists are pragmatic, tending to steer their votes to candidates who will win and help them while in office. One factor working against Hayworth is that she has refused to seek the sort of earmark grants that Kiryas Joel covets.”
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2 Responses
Hayworth’s pledge against earmarks shows her integrity as a candidate. This kind of parochial spending is the reason for our runaway deficit spending — typically benefiting Congressional Districts in the South with a lot more clout than NY’s-19th. NYS spends a lot more in taxes than it gets back from the Federal Govt., so Schumer and Silver’s recommendations would not lead to a more prosperous NY State.
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Hayworth supports a strong military and will not get caught up in the DemoLib leftist arguments that the so-called “Palestinians” are an oppressed people or that Zionism = apartheid. Despite the Democrat’s historic support by many Jews, Republican conservatives (allied with Christian conservatives) have become Israel’s best allies during the past 10 years. The Democratic party and their leftist supporters have too many people who blame Israel for Palestinian terrorists and I don’t trust them anymore.
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Sheldon Silver is the past and he has led Albany’s Assembly into a dysfunctional, corrupt mess. Eric Cantor is the future – a fiscal conservative, a social moderate and a strong supporter of America’s alliance with Israel.
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This is why Nan Hayworth is the right choice.
Cantor’s office is now denying the “Hasidic source”.