One of the greatest pleasures about being involved in politics is when you get to meet a candidate that really inspires you. I love writing about the good candidates and I get very angry at my fellow progressives who denigrate the candidates of the Democratic Party. The truth is that the Democrats have MANY good candidates. But they need the help of those same progressives who complain about the Democratic Party in order to get beyond the primaries. The unwillingness of many progressives to get active in Democratic primaries condemns to failure those very candidates that progressives most want. The truth is that the best candidates seldom get the big money. They depend on grassroots and those grassroots are notoriously fickle. Hence my constant nagging that progressives should stop whining about the Democratic Party and start REMAKING the Democratic Party by getting behind the best candidates big time.
In the past I have highlighted some absolutely brilliant candidates, most notably Norm Siegel and Paul Wooten from the 2005 elections, and Chris Owens running for Congress right now [1]. What these people share are intelligence, progressive values, dedication and vision. And, in each case, they INSPIRE people in a way that many Democrats, including some otherwise very good ones, completely fail to do. Our party desperately needs inspiring people in elected positions and that is one reason I push hard for these candidates.
The other thing these inspiring, progressive, intelligent candidates generally share is the fact that the Democratic machine and the big donors aren’t interested in them. It is up to us to get them elected…or, as is too often the case, not. Again, the fickle grassroots more often than not fail to come through.
In an effort to share the enthusiasm I feel when I meet a good candidate, I want to introduce another person I have met who inspires me. At the March Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats meeting, I met Eric Andrews, candidate for State Senate in the 20th district to replace Carl Andrews. My wife had previously had some interaction with him and had considered him largely a grandstander…but we both were extremely impressed with him at the CBID meeting.
This is one of the races that is uncertain because of the NY-11 Congressional race. The NY-11 race is drawing so many candidates that it is leaving up in the air several other races. Is Nick Perry running for re-election to the Assembly or running for Congress? He insists Congress, which will come as a relief to Wellington Sharpe running to replace him. Similarly, rumors abound as to whether Carl Andrews will remain in the State Senate (to the relief of Chris Owens) or run for Congress (to the relief of Eric Adams). So, either Eric Andrews is running for an open seat, or he is potentially challenging incumbent Carl Andrews, whose association with the corrupt Clarence Norman machine taints his own credibility.
Eric Adams is best known as being the NYPD Captain who is willing to criticize his police superiors on minority relations, civil rights and on their handling of terrorist warnings. Eric Adams is the head of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and an ally of the former head of the NYCLU, Norman Siegel. So, in my mind, Eric Adams combines some very fine qualities—service in law enforcement, spokesperson for minority rights, and advocate of civil liberties. This combination is rare and refreshing! His style is very much that of a police captain. Not fiery and preacher-like, but rather gruff and no-nonsense. Both styles are appealing in their own way. Eric Adams has real dedication to New York City, to law enforcement and to the rights of all Americans. He genuinely seems to be running so he can bring that dedication to the state senate.
His style and his dedication reminded me of a Democracy for NYC meeting in Park Slope I wrote about earlier [2] where a blue collar UAW member from Kensington expressed his views on politicians. His view was that Democrat/Republican, reform/machine, progressive/regressive…whatever. He doesn’t care. What he wants to see is a politician with a record of direct and dedicated community service, someone who is INVOLVED in the community in a real and tangible way.
I couldn’t help thinking that Eric Adams would impress this man from Kensington. And that is what we need: someone who will impress the blue collar workers from Kensington!
Eric Adams recognizes the difficulty that Democrats face in Albany and one of his goals is to find ways of leveraging his position as State Senator to help his community in ways above and beyond legislative methods. He refers to the bully pulpit of the elected official, which he (and I agree with him!) feels the Democrats have lost the skill to use. I would like to hear more about how he would find ways to get LEGISLATURE through Albany, but since many with more experience than he have failed to solve that mess, perhaps we do need someone who can recreate the bully pulpit as a means of accomplishing great things for the community.
Eric Adams unequivocally stated that he is pro-choice, in favor of marriage equality, and is opposed to the abuse of eminent domain that Bloomberg, Pataki and their buddy Ratner have threatened. These stands, most certainly, were cheered by the crowd. And odd moment came when a CBID member asked what is apparently his standard question for all politicians: “What would you do about the problem of flag burning.
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