Maureen O'Connell

Maureen O'Connell's string of dirty tricks in the 7th NY State Senate race shows that despite their rout in November, Republicans still haven't remembered the lesson of their founder:

“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”

--Abraham Lincoln, the best Republican President

If you are a Nassau County (NY) blogger or reader or know of anybody who lives there, make sure you get out the vote by 9 pm tonight.

Keep up with what's happening online and off at The Daily Gotham. We have information on phone banking. If you want to drop by their campaign office, give them a call at 516-393-0700.

Just to underscore the importance of this race, we have word that this special election has broken all records in New York, costing a whopping $5,000,000.

It has also prompted The Brennan Center for Justice, Common Cause/NY, DEMOS, League of Women Voters/NYS, NYPIRG to create a task force, hotline and blog to monitor voter suppression in the county. Yes, because even though this is a majority white county, the 20% of minority voters in the district could decide the election.

So hop over to The Daily Gotham to keep up on all what's happening.

Liza blogged about it this morning, but I thought I'd weigh in on the race that's presently consuming all of us.

As Liza lays out, there are several reasons to be interested in what at first glance appears to be simply a by-election of little relevance beyond the borders of one district. However, the circumstances surrounding this election are far-reaching.

New York State has a bicameral legislature, the lower House of which is held by Democrats, the upper, the state Senate, by republicans. They have held this body largely without challenge or interruption (there were two, in the last century, in 1932 and 1964 respectively) for one hundred and fifty years. In the 2006 election, for the first time in memory, Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate; it is ripe for a takeover.

This special election is for a seat in the state Senate. A few weeks ago, Governor Sptzer tapped a republican Senator, Michael Balboni, for a seat in his cabinet. To replace him, the other side nominated one Maureen O'Connell, presently the Nassau County Clerk and formerly a member of the State Assembly.

It's her record that puts choice on this ballot.