Democracy In Albany

Anyway, dollars raised is not going to be the determining factor in this raise, either is spinning on past political affiliation.  However, if money raised were going to be an issue, it is clear who would be even more of a loser than we initially thought...the Barack Wannabee.

Steck made a loan to the campaign. Why?  It's obviously not because he's having trouble raising money.  My guess- It was to get the campaign moving before the checks started rolling in. It's a short primary campaign.

And he did it without Brooks' access to the Clinton, and less so Jennings, network of check-writers.

The rest of the candidates seem to be left in the dust, fund-raising-wise.

While Tonko is still hitting the hustings as if he was running, he's apparently $200K behind in fund-raising, with the primary four and a half months away.

I personally feel that the candidate should have a proven track record of serving the people on a more local level before getting this plum job.

Remember Tehran has a very young movement that is against the Iranian president. Those Iranian kids don't want to fight America and they will take control of the government. Iran is strong and they were strong when we helped Iraq fight them during the Iraq-Iran war. Iran's government not the Iranian people are the Al Qeada insurgency in Iraq. The Iranian's pushed Carter around in the 1970s now he playing kiss kiss with Hammas in Cairo. Imagine if George W. was president the Iranian hostage crisis, he would have wiped Tehran off the map. We are Americans not push overs that is how we gain our independence from Britain.

What I'll say here is that the numbers alone show that Steck has outperformed his less-than-worthy opponent Tracey Brooks by taking in way more than expected.  And what the numbers don't show as that this may not be enough to offset Darius Shahinfar's movement on the netroots, something the Brooks-loving media on here won't pick up on, but you will.

you and I are generally on the same page but "left in the dust" is hardly accurate.

Phil Steck started first raised a very respectable $150k plus kicking in $50k of his own. He spent about $50k leaving him with about $150k.

Tracey Brooks started second and raised about $175k, more than Mr. Steck, but no $'s of her own so a total less than Mr. Steck, and spent about $25k leaving her tied with Steck at about $150k cash on hand.

Mr Mittleman kicked in $100k of his own, raised almost nothing, and spent half his money leaving him behind at $50k cash on hand.

Darius Shahinfar started last, kicked in $50k of his own, and raised about $30k in just 3 weeks of campaigning with no real push for fund raising. He spent virtually nothing in the 1st quarter leaving him with about $80k cash on hand.

So Steck and Brooks have about $70k cash on hand advantage, a very, very small number in today's fund raising environment.

This race is wide, wide open and nobody has left anybody in the dust so far. It has all just gotten started.

So let's have some clear persepctive, ok?

You are correct that this campaign is all about the people of the 21st district.

Luckily, the people have several good choices to pick from and by September I think we will have a very clear picture of who the people of this district think will perform the best in representing their interests in Washington.