105TH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT Leaders analyze Kosiur defeat Sex offender law deemed a factor BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
“ . . . Victory has 100 fathers and defeat is an orphan . . . ” That adage, popularized by John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, reflects how Democrats are casting about for the parentage of Edward Kosiur’s loss to Republican George Amedore Jr. in Tuesday’s special election. Politicians on both sides acknowledge that Kosiur’s sponsorship of a sex-offender residency law in the Schenectady County Legislature contributed to his loss, but say it’s not that simple. Regardless, County Attorney Chris Gardner said legislative leaders will meet with town officials Friday to talk about possible changes to the law, which residents of the rural areas of the 105th Assembly District feared could push sex offenders their way while squeezing them out of urban areas. However, the post-mortem on the high-profile Assembly race by local politicians is much more complicated. Niskayuna Supervisor Luke Smith, a Democrat, said the legislation played a role in Kosiur’s defeat, but “I don’t think it speaks to the enormity of his loss. There are other factors going on.” Kosiur lost to Amedore by more than 2,800 votes. He fared poorly in the towns of Schenectady County and in Montgomery County. Today, Amedore will be sworn in twice, at 10 a.m. at Veterans Park, Schenectady, and at noon at Amsterdam City Hall. Schenectady County Democratic Committee Chairman Brian Quail said the law did not play a factor in Kosiur’s defeat. “I am not convinced it had an effect. There is no hard evidence of that. People who are saying that it did are Monday morning quarterbacks who need something to hang their hats on,” he said. Quail said a group of Kosiur opponents distorted the law and used information out of context in its literature and on its Web site. “It is not a relocation law. We are not busing people to rural areas,” he said. Amsterdam Supervisor Thomas DiMezza, a Democrat who supported Amedore, said the law was a contributing factor to Kosiur’s defeat, at least in Montgomery County. Local officials fear the Schenectady County law will push convicted sex offenders into Montgomery County, which does not restrict where sex offenders may live. Schenectady County Republican Committee Chairman Tom Buchanan said the law “was another [Democratic] gimmick that blew up on them. It upset their liberal base and at same time turned rural areas against them. It was a controversial, polarizing issue.” Amedore himself, at a Capitol news conference with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, RSchenectady, said opposition to the county sex offender law probably did play a part in his victory. He cited a relatively high, 50 percent turnout in Duanesburg and Princetown, where the law sponsored by Kosiur was unpopular, but also noted that some parents in the city of Schenectady opposed it, too. MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED Quail said the reason Kosiur lost was that Democrats had a diffi cult time breaking through with their message to voters. The message: Kosiur had the experience and track record to deliver jobs and lower taxes. “Our message was more complicated and needed more time. It was not the wrong message,” he said. Republicans muddied the Democrat’s message by allegedly “distorting and confusing” Kosiur’s voting record as a former city councilman and as a county legislator, Quail said. “When you have to articulate our message in the context of the Amedore attacks, it is very hard to break through the distortion and clutter,” Quail said. “They were in tear-down mode and we were in build-up mode.” Another Democratic leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said local Democrats wanted to go after Amedore early in the campaign but were prevented from doing so by the state Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. “DACC said negative loses,” the official said. The committee, an operation of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, ran Kosiur’s campaign and set strategy. It also paid campaign expenses, including those for approximately a dozen mailings sent to 83,000 enrolled voters in the 105th Assembly District and TV and radio spots. The Republican Assembly Campaign Committee ran Amedore’s campaign and paid its expenses. The two committees spent more than $500,000 by mid-July, making this special election the most expensive in recent memory. Polls conducted by Democrats showed the Kosiur was the underdog from the beginning of the campaign, the local official said. Democrats tried to counter this by having Kosiur rely heavily on Paul Tonko’s support. Tonko held the 105th district seat for 24 years until he was elected in June as head of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. DiMezza said voters in Montgomery County “didn’t care for the fact that Kosiur relied so much on Tonko. I heard the comment over and over again: Who’s running? Paul or Ed?” Tedisco, however, said Tonko seemed to help the Democrats, because Republican polling showed Amedore’s lead declining after Tonko became active in the campaign. Amedore said Tonko called him Wednesday to congratulate him on his victory, and they had a cordial conversation. He plans to get together with the former assemblyman to discuss projects Tonko had been working on. STRATEGY FAILED The local Democratic official said Kosiur’s campaign should have been more aggressive in addressing alleged campaign attacks against his voting record. “There were distortions and I think the people running the campaign didn’t go after Amedore. You can’t play defense all the time. If someone goes negative, you have to have a response up in 24 hours and be willing to point out fl aws in the opponent’s record,” the official said. The official also faulted Kosiur campaign coordinators for not having a strategy to deal with Tedisco, who hand-picked Amedore and supported him financially and organizationally. “He threw the dice, put all his money on this race and ran a tactically shrewd campaign,” the offi cial said. He added that Republicans had a clearer message, that of cutting taxes. Amedore denied any distortions, and said his campaign had been “very positive, straightforward, upbeat.” Tedisco said Amedore was “a Republican with a Republican agenda, not a light Republican with a light Republican agenda,” an apparent reference to his conservatism on fiscal and social issues. Buchanan called Amedore’s victory “a huge shot in arm on many levels. It’s a wake-up call to local Democrats that government by press release and gimmicks isn’t going to work any more. People want change.” The local Democratic official said county Republicans, despite their rhetoric, remain politically uncompetitive. In the upcoming City Council and county Legislature races, they are running six candidates for 12 seats while Democrats are running 12 candidates.
It wasn’t as rare as an incumbent legislator being knocked off, but Democrat Ed Kosiur’s loss to Republican George Amedore Tuesday in a special election for state Assembly was almost as shocking. And the result was the same: a seat (and one considered to be “safe,” at that) changed hands. While it won’t have much impact in the still-heavily Democratic Assembly, it should lead to some soul-searching on the part of Democrats — both locally and in Albany — about what went wrong. How did it happen that Kosiur, a Schenectady County legislator and former city councilman, lost badly to a virtual unknown, a house builder with no political experience, in a district with a big Democratic enrollment advantage? It wasn’t for the usual reason that favorites lose, either: low voter turnout. With 24,500 people going to the polls (out of 83,000 eligible), the turnout was decent. And for a special election held in summer, excellent. The most likely explanation is the sex offender law that Kosiur championed, probably thinking it was a sure ticket to Albany. The legislation bars all sex offenders, no matter how dangerous, from living almost anywhere in Schenectady County; it will prevent them from moving in, and evict those who are already here. Clearly, it backfired politically. All the town supervisors, who were not consulted, came out against it. People in the few rural parts of Schenectady County where sex offenders would be allowed to live also were not pleased. And they, apparently, came out and voted to register their displeasure. The same may have happened in Montgomery County, another likely destination for the displaced Schenectady sex offenders. And Kosiur’s position may have cost him in other parts of Schenectady County as well. Some Democrats were turned off by the legislation, which they saw as opportunistic, hysterical and misguided —it is — and apparently either voted against him or stayed home. There are other possible reasons why people may have voted against Kosiur. One is that they were annoyed by the overkill, the blizzard of phone messages and oversized lawn signs. They also might have been protesting the lock that the Democrats now have on city and county government, refusing to let them send one of their own to the state Legislature. Last, it could have had something to do with Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s problems of late, which are related to his desire to knock off a few GOP senators in the next election and give that barely Republican chamber, too, to the Democrats. In fact it was Spitzer who opened the door to this defeat by appointing longtime incumbent Paul Tonko, a Democrat, to head a state agency. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Speaker can’t be very happy now, just as Spitzer’s nemesis, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, wasn’t happy when Spitzer cost him a seat in another special election this year after he appointed Michael Balboni, a Republican senator from Long Island, to be his homeland security chief. That’s a lot of ifs, but it’s likely that some combination of them led to this upset. Of course, Amedore, who ran an energetic campaign, also deserves some credit, as does Schenectady’s other Republican assemblyman, Jim Tedisco, who hand-picked and advised him. The victory burnishes Tedisco’s credentials as a strategist, and allows him a measure of revenge for having half of Schenectady taken away from him years ago when the Democrats gerrymandered his district in an attempt to make his life harder and Tonko’s easier. But the biggest and best message from this election may be that voters in Schenectady have a mind of their own, that they can’t be manipulated or their votes taken for granted, no matter which party has the power.
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Kosiur’s loss and the roots of hysteria Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
Yes, I took note of the loss of Ed Kosiur to George Amedore Jr. in the special election this week for a seat in the state Assembly. I certainly did, having in mind that Kosiur went into the election best known for his sponsorship of a Schenectady County law that will force registered sex offenders to move out of their homes in most of the populated areas of the county, a law that I have been at pains to ridicule and deride. Did his legislative achievement backfire on him? It’s hard to say what factors go into voters’ decisions, without detailed exit polls, but I don’t think anyone would argue at this point that it helped him. He is a Democrat, and he ran in a district (Schenectady and Montgomery counties) where Democrats outnumber Republicans 30,652 to 25,891 and furthermore against an opponent with no experience in public offi ce. You would think all he would have to do is show up. Yet not only did he lose, he lost decisively — 13,666 to 10,855 votes by preliminary count. It was a big turnout for a special election, in the middle of summer with no other contests on the ballot, and though big turnouts generally favor Democrats, this one certainly did not. My own view: The wave of sex-offender panic that he rode was very useful to him in the beginning, but he rode it too far. He rode it into the realm of absurdity, and more and more people became aware of that, especially as the leaders of Schenectady County’s own towns protested against it. They weren’t necessarily protesting the underlying irrationality of the sex-offender panic; they were protesting that Kosiur’s mythical “predators” were going to be dumped on them, but even so, it did make his law look less than Solomonic. ORIGIN OF HYSTERIA I suggested the other day that the panic over sex offenders and where they live is part of larger hysteria over the sexual abuse of children that began in the early 1980s and that ran through a daycare panic phase and a recovered-memory phase, both of which have since been discredited, before reaching its current sex-offender phase, but I modestly refrained from guessing what might have caused the hysteria to arise in the first place. Now, in response to popular demand, I herewith offer my guess. For generations we had little concern about the well-being of our children for the simple reason that children were mostly home with their mothers. Papa was out earning the daily bread; mama was home doing the cleaning, the cooking and the childrearing. That began to change in the late 1960s with the rise of the women’s movement and with economic changes that I don’t necessarily understand, the end result of which was that more and more women went out into the working world, and increasingly we turned our children over to strangers. As a parent myself, I can attest that we have strong biological bonds to our offspring, especially to our very young offspring, and we feel considerable anxiety when they are out of sight. This is what led to the widespread fear that our children were being mistreated in our absence. It was a combination of natural biological anxiety and a certain amount of guilt that we were not personally protecting them. Thus arose the nightmare widely shared, that in the privacy and seclusion of daycare centers, human monsters were committing the most grotesque outrages on our children, raping and sodomizing them and threatening them with disembowelment if they told anyone. In one way it was nuts — it wasn’t factually true — but in another way it wasn’t. It was the expression of a very natural and deep-rooted anxiety. At the same time there arose a related fear that our children would be snatched away by strangers, and this was manifest in the great missing-children panic of the same time period, which has not ended yet and which is part of the same phenomenon. We had pictures of missing children on milk cartons and even, briefly, on Thruway tickets, if you remember that. We still have them on Wal-Mart bulletin boards and on direct-mail fliers, courtesy of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was a creature of that time and which continues to spread the fear. If you look into it you will fi nd that most of those missing children are either teenage runaways or children who were taken by one parent or another in a custody dispute. Very few of them were abducted by strangers, which has always been and continues to be a rare occurrence, though you would never know that from the propaganda. The propaganda, which perversely we seem to thrive on, suggests that depraved beings — “predators,” in current parlance — are lurking behind the bushes waiting to grab our children. It’s the kind of fear that fairy tales are built on, and it’s a very primitive thing, as primitive as the bogeyman, that evil being who lurks in the dark. We can be told over and over that most sexual offenses against children are committed not by strangers but by family members and trusted friends. It doesn’t get through. We can be told that sex offenders have lower rates of recidivism than other types of criminals, and that doesn’t get through either. We can be told that recovered memory is hokum, that no case of satanic ritual abuse in any daycare center in the United States of America has ever been documented. The underlying fear remains. When our little children are out of our sight, a primeval anxiety kicks in. And it kicked in hard when social changes in this country put mothers to work outside the home. That’s my guess. Every once in a while, of course, an actual, horrible case of abduction, rape and murder of a child does occur, and then the fear seems rational and justified. But at bottom it’s a reaction to something else altogether.
Amedore is ready to serve 105th in Assembly Republican newcomer says much needs to be done in Albany as Democrats lick wounds
By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer First published: Thursday, August 2, 2007
SCHENECTADY -- Fresh off his watershed victory, Assemblyman-elect George Amedore Jr. on Wednesday laid out his vision for the 105th District as Schenectady County Democrats struggled to come to grips with the defeat of Edward Kosiur in their backyard. "There is so much to say, but better yet, so much to do," Amedore said during an appearance at the state Capitol with Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, who represents the other side of Schenectady and recruited Amedore.
Amedore, 38, of Rotterdam, a luxury home builder who won in his first try for elected office, then repeated familiar themes that helped him cruise to a 13,666-10,855 win in Tuesday's special election. He will replace former Assemblyman Paul Tonko, the Amsterdam Democrat who had held the office for 24 years. Amedore's victory breaks the long-held Democratic party control of the seat.
The district includes all of Montgomery County and parts of Schenectady County. Amedore took both counties.
Although the election results must still be certified, the 1,450 absentee ballots won't change the outcome. Turnout was pegged at 31 percent, which both parties agreed was extraordinary for a mid-summer election.
Addressing the district's out-of-control property taxes and the economic plight will top his agenda, Amedore said. He railed against the "dysfunction" in Albany.
"We need to reform, to cut taxes, create jobs and work for the needy," Amedore said, conceding that change will not happen overnight.
Tedisco said the win shows that local Republicans are still viable.
"It moves us in a proper and positive direction and shows that the Republican Party and its agenda can resonate," Tedisco said, acknowledging that the party heavily subsidized Amedore.
Republicans estimate they spent about $500,000 on the race while the Democrats invested about $750,000, officials said.
"This was a race between two different people who were going to succeed Paul Tonko and the best man won based on the Republican agenda," Tedisco added.
Kosiur, 51, did not respond to several calls Wednesday to his cell phone or a message left at his home seeking comment.
Some prominent Democratic Party leaders who campaigned for Kosiur weren't in a talking mood either.
"It's a shame his tax record was distorted, that's the piece that has to do with the Legislature," said Schenectady County Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage. "These races were run by RAC (Republican Assembly Committee) and DAC (Democratic Assembly Committee), not by me but by these entities."
Savage, however, declined to comment on whether the sexual offender legislation which Kosiur sponsored and the county legislators passed was a factor in the race. It takes effect October 1.
Niskayuna Supervisor Luke Smith said he believes that law -- which bans convicted sexual offenders from within 2,000 feet of a school, playground, day care center and and other places children congregate -- may have backfired on Kosiur.
"I think there was some hope it would help him, but I think it hurt him, but there are other factors that contribute to the enormity of the loss," said Smith, a Democrat.
Republicans pointed to Kosiur's record of raising property taxes and the sexual offender legislation as fatal to his campaign. Privately, some Democrats are expressing those similar sentiments, noting those negatives led to his loss.
Schenectady County Democrat Chairman Brian Quail said the Democrats may have made some political miscalculations and just ran out of time. "We had a difficult time getting traction with a number of issues because the responses are more complicated," he said, specifically mentioning the cellphone tax and the sex offender law. "They were very effective with the 10-second tear-down and we didn't have enough time to build up," he said, referring to Amedore's contracting work in the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" national TV show.
Schenectady County Republican Chairman Tom Buchanan said there a buzz around Amedore's candidacy that got people working to get him elected.
"We were able to get the bodies and organization and we implemented an intense get-out-the-vote effort we've never seen before," Buchanan said, adding they targeted voters three times within the last 48 hours. "This is a huge win."
Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.
The sex offender laws AND the taxes. Perhaps this will set the dems in a different direction. Perhaps in the direction of the 'people'.
I believe that the people listened to the facts that were put out there by both sides and made their own decision on how they voted. Some actually did their own research to obtain their own facts as well. But I still must say again, that with George Amedore's dynamic, young, energetic, sincere, new thinking attitude, coupled with the looming sex offender law that all rural areas were clearly not pleased with, it was a certain 'win'.
If Ed Kosiur plans to oppose George Amedore again, the dems clearly need to come up with a new plan that would match or exceed the reps. Obviously, recinding the sex offender law would be a great start!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Too bad people are just looking at the Sex Offendor thing, when it's actually more that in the city and towns such as Rotterdam that his tax record and the fact that the County needs to take everybody's money and syphon it into the sespool of a city.
Good point there BK. But the sex offender law ..... we can nip in the bud now. The taxes will take a bit of time for sure!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I agree BK it's time the county starts to give something back to the townships instead of dumping our tax money into a 2 block size septic tank called State Street.
Every once in a while, of course, an actual, horrible case of abduction, rape and murder of a child does occur, and then the fear seems rational and justified. But at bottom it’s a reaction to something else altogether.
"....a man/woman looks in the mirror sees himself, turns away and straight away forgets what he/she looks like..."
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I agree BK it's time the county starts to give something back to the townships instead of dumping our tax money into a 2 block size septic tank called State Street.
I doubt if the townships will get much of anything. Just loo at the city of Schenectady. The Mt. Pleasant, Bellevue area were always quaint neighborhoods. They are now approaching Hamilton Hill status and I don't see them doing much for them. They are just over taxing those folks and pumping the money into State Street. Oh and let's not forget their self voted raises!!! Pathetic!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The city and county councils just can't figure why we're sick and tired of the way that they're running the city and county. As you said Bumble they voted themselves raises when the city is falling down around them and they don't even care. The residents are almost taxed into bancruptcy and the powers to be don't even care as long as they can say look at what we did to State St. It's just sickening the way they're running the city.
And that is one of the many reasons why I did not vote for Ed Kosiur. He IS part of that City of Schenectady pathetic democratic machine. And the phrase from the movie Forest Gump fits that democratic disfunctional machine perfectly....
'STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES'!!
It don't get any better than that people!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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