Another Election to Watch - Westchester County, NY

When Chris Christie won in NJ back in 2009 and started garnering all sorts of press as a Republican intent on reforming alot of the blueishness that makes a blue state blue, I drew attention to Rob Astorino who ran and won for Westchester County Executive.  Rob is sort of a Christie Mini-Me, not because he is any less capable, but only because Westchester County is smaller than the state of New Jersey.  Rob had a simple "Stop the Madness" message and defeated an opponent with the most recognizable name in politics in Westchester.  Rob has governed sensibly, but inauspiciously because his energies have been hijacked and sapped keeping the Feds at bay in Westchester.  Read about that here.

Now Rob is running for re-election and it is playing out as you would expect.  His opponent is a union-backed scumbag career politician whose supporters are pulling out all of the cheap plays in the Democrats juvenile playbook, like stealing yard signs.

But this year, they have a new trick - smearing any Republican as a "Tea Party Republican."  As you may know, I certainly don't see the "Tea Party" label as a smear, but in these here parts (we are in the heart of New York TimesLand) it is a smear to all the NPRbots who make this state blue.  So, Bramson supporters have printed up and have been placing yard signs that falsely appear to be from the Astorino campaign advertising him as a self-professed "Tea Party Republican." (Frankly, I have no beef whatsoever if Astorino was as Tea Partyish as Ted Cruz, but he isn't.  Still, the way the game is played matters.  Bramson's dirty tricks are typical of the thuggish left and if you expect anything less than thuggish government from these characters, well, you deserve what you get - like, for instance, cancelled health insurance...)

Why is this important?  Well, it is important in an of itself if you live in Westchester - it's the difference between a fiscally sensible governing program versus Democratic business as usual, all-about-the-unions program, nominally administered by a hack politician.  But it is also about the future.  As a presumably successful two-term  Westchester County Executive, Astorino will have the chops to perhaps get the New York governor's mansion back in Republican hands.  More than the chops, perhaps even the electoral numbers.  Downstate voters are NY Republican's Achilles Heel.  If Rob could take enough downstate votes via name recognition and successful governance and combine those with largely Republican leaning upstaters into a political base, that would be a formula to defeat all but the most formidable Democrat.  And behind Andy Cuomo, there aren't alot of formidable potential opponents on the Democratic bench.

It all comes down to THE MAP.   Republicans need someone who can naturally win in the green areas of that map and blunt the advantage of Democrats in the white areas.  Rob could be that someone. That is why the unions and the Dems are out to destroy Rob now, to deny him that second term.  And why this is one election to watch along with the governors race in Virginia.