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John Hall's "Still The One"
1500 stamping, cheering, clapping and singing supporters of Rock-singer-songwriter turned Congressional Candidate John Hall filled New York City's Town Hall to capacity Sunday night. The audience, very mixed in age (young and old-like-me) almost all white, seemed to me to be fans of the performers and of Hall's campaign.
Armed with press pass and nostalga for 70's folk/rock, I heard Jackson Browne sing against "posion nuclear power," (a song made famous by Browne and written by Hall, Nanci Griffith's classic "Dance a Little Closer (lyrics http://www.nanci-griffith.com/lyrics/latfad.html ). Other songs by Rosanne Cash ("Waiting Game"), Steve Earle ("This Land is Your Land") and lifted the audience higher and higher. Concert highlights included Hall hits for Orleans "Still the one" (lyrics http://www.romantic-lyrics.com/ls12.shtml ) and "Dance with Me" (Lyrics: http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/dancewit.htm ).
Hall's campaign predicted photos of the event, but none are available as I write. If I get them, I will post them. Based on ticket prices and the packed house the event could have brought in more than $100,000 for what appears to be a very expensive primary campaign. In the general election Bush loyalist, incumbent Sue Kelly has more than $1.5 million on hand. Perhaps feeling the anti-Bush, anti-war tide, she's already begun running TV ads.
In the primary, those running including Hall, Judy Aydellott, Ben Shuldiner and
Darren Rigger have kept the focus on Kelly and her support for the Bush administration.
Winning Congress is the
Winning Congress is the whole ball of wax, and if left wingers (and for that matter, neo-libs like me) are expected to support Bob Casey, we must provide support in kind to those on the left end who have a real shot of beating a Republican. Sice Hall will win this primary, Gate is supportive of his ultimate victory.
That being said, this concert was wrist slitting boring to the max; wimp rock hell. There was nary an upbeat song by anyone but Earle, even though this crew produced such winners as "Doctor My Eyes" and "My Baby Thinks He's a Train". Hell, left-wing rock has produced hard charging winners by the Clash, Neil Young, Springsteen and Little Steven, whose "I am a Patriot", done by Browne, with the others joining in(Cash reading the words off a sheet of paper) was one of the rare times I woke up. But, except for Earle, no one caught on to this essential point. In the words of the unfairly forgotten Tonio K., "Yes I wish I was as mellow/As for instance Jackson Browne/But "Fountain of Sorrow" my ass motherfucker/I hope you wind up in the ground".
And, btw, Millstone, "This Land is Your Land" was written by Woody Guthrie.
What makes you so certain
What makes you so certain that Hall is going to win the primary...it seems like you consider it a forgone conclusion. There have not been any independent polls (Hall's push poll that shows he has some 50 supporters is hardly worth anyone's time) and from what I have been able to tell, Ben Shuldiner has been the most visible, most active Democrat in the race. His signs are everywhere and his people are everywhere knocking on doors. If you think this race is already won, perhaps you and John should start booking some more fundraising events out-of-district for after the Primary. Cheers.
The Push Poll was done by Sue Kelly,
I have been told. I agree that Ben S' campaign has been very high energy. There is, of course, no way to know, even if there were polling, how the primary will turn out. Hall is not a guaranteed winner, of course. At this point he seems to be running in front, to me.
If you've looked at the results of polling for the General election in the 20th, you'll see some reason to be concerned about whether Democrats can win at all up there.