Following up on part 487 of my series on the race to fill Anthony Weiner’s vacanct congressional seat, I should note I’ve gotten some pushback from left wing friends about my blasting Would-be Congresswoman Liz Holtzman (D-70s) for blaming Israel and the Jews for pushing us into the Iraq War.
As such, I will note here that The Forward (among other reputable sources) long ago published an article which makes clear in no uncertain terms that, far from pushing for an Iraqi invasion, Ariel Sharon and AIPAC had no enthusiasm whatsoever for our Iraqi adventure.
Now onto today’s main event
After a short flirtation with running an elder statesman, I’ve consistently argued that the Democrats should take the 9th District special very seriously and run a strong candidate, which I’ve generally defined as a Queens Democrat with some electoral history in the turf, and some special appeal to the Orthodox and Russian Jewish communities and the Jewish social services establishment.
There is however, one non-Jewish candidate who can make a case for his own strength.
Between his old City Council seat and his current State Senate seat, Joe Addabbo has probably represented more of this district than any other potential candidate (at least during the current century).
Further, this race will coincide with a special election for Assembly in much of this district (specifically, the Rockaway/Howard Beach and vicinity 23rd AD) where the Republicans have a strong candidate real shot, while the Democrats will be running a candidate whose bases lies outside the 9th Congressional.
There is no dount that there is going to be excellerated turnout in the 23rd AD and that this may benefit the GOP conadiate in the 9th congressional.
The strongest potential GOP candidate himself represent Addabbo’s old Council seat which greatly overlaps the 23rd AD.
In addition, there are still a few people here who remember and revere Addabbo's dad and his service in Congress (though the number is far fewer than Joe Jr. thinks).
Under the circumstances, there’s a pretty interesting case for an Addabbo nomination in this race.
Though I still think David Weprin, Rory Lancman or even Karen Koslowitz would be better choices, one could not dismiss Joe Addabbo out of hand.
That is, unless one started worrying about a Republican named Eric Ulrich taking his seat in the State Senate