Gendebien announces NY-21 candidacy, and the Empire Strikes Back

Bad weather coming?

By Darren Johnson
Journal & Press

Most everyone has a snow day today, including me, but, right now, nothing’s happening…

I guess I’ll head to Hannaford or Byron’s and stock up, though. Just in case, for once, the weather people are right and a blizzard is coming.

If you go to Hannaford, pick this up. I look at the various newspapers on the racks, and, if there were a design contest for them, I think we’d win “best use of color.” My thought is, we pay for color, may as well use it!

So, as a local newspaper editor, I’ve been getting political emails.

The presumptive Democratic NY-21 pick to replace Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is apparently stepping down soon once sworn in as UN Ambassador, sent out this release:

Farmer and small business owner Blake Gendebien has been unanimously endorsed by the 15 Democratic County Chairs making him the presumptive Democratic nominee in the potential NY-21 special election, pending Rep. Elise Stefanik’s resignation upon her confirmation as Ambassador to the U.N.

“I’m honored and deeply grateful to each of the 15 Democratic chairs. They have run a thoughtful process that has brought out the best in each of us at a particularly challenging time. No one was expecting a special election, but they stepped up,” said Gendebien. “This is just the beginning. I’m not going to stop working until we win and can make life in the North Country a whole lot better and a whole lot more affordable.”

The endorsement shows strong enthusiasm for Gendebien’s platform, which is focused on lowering costs and securing the border.

New York State requires that the Democratic County Party Chairs select the nominee upon a congressional vacancy. The seat will become vacant if and when Rep. Elise Stefanik is confirmed as President Trump’s Ambassador to the United Nations and resigns from Congress. Rep. Stefanik’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was held on Tuesday, January 21st. Her confirmation vote has not yet been scheduled.

The Chairs of the fifteen counties in New York State’s 21st Congressional District released the following statement today:

“The 15 Democratic Chairmen of NY-21 announced their unanimous support for longtime North Country resident Blake Gendebien as the candidate they will nominate when and if a Special Election is called. Gendebien, owner and President of Twin Mill Farms in Lisbon, New York since 2002 as well as Vice-Chairman of Agri-Mark Dairy Cooperative covering New York and New England, brings an authentic voice that will fight for sensible solutions to the challenges affecting NY-21 and this nation. As a husband, father, farmer, small business owner and former school board member, Blake will fight to lower costs and secure our borders. An outsider to the political arena, Blake Gendebien embodies the voice and grit that distinguishes this district.”

After launching his campaign in mid December, Gendebien has raised more than $700,000 from over 20,000 individual donors, chipping in an average contribution of $25.

“We’ve heard rumors about who the Republicans are considering nominating, and there couldn’t be a sharper contrast in the upcoming special election,” said Campaign Manager Emily Goldson. “Most are career politicians who have no idea how to deliver on lower prices, lower taxes, and securing our border. No matter who their nominee is, we have the team, resources, and message to win this race.”

Stefanik Responds

From her political campaign account, Stefanik sent out a long Fox News piece bashing Gendebien.

The guy looks pretty regular in that photo above, but apparently has a lot of opinions.

Here are some things Gendebien said, according to the piece (which was gathered from recorded audio from 2013 that Republicans somehow got from a small-town newspaper reporter? I’d never give up my notes like that, but I digress):

"If it weren't for the Hispanic labor, I wouldn't be doing this," Gendebien said while describing the process for milking cows. "So there's three Hispanic employees. They would need to be replaced by probably six local people. And it's hard to find one person that does not have domestic abuse problems, alcohol problems, wage garnishments."

"So when you hire these local guys, all of a sudden you're bombarded with social program stuff like what do you call it? I don't even – I'm not in that world, so I don't know," he went on. "So the court will call you. Is Brian showing up to work? What is Brian making? He has a child with this girl. He has a child with this girl. He has a court date. He needs to appear on this day. So you've got all of these plans and these guys have to leave for court all the time because they're in custody battles and, what's it called, child support battles. And they want you to lie and tell that you don't make this money. And it's just awful. And they show up late. They show up. They drink too much. There is just no labor force out there."

The Fox News hit piece has lots of quotes like these. Again, from a dozen years ago, told in confidence to a reporter who allegedly kept the audio all this time? Who knows how Fox News got the audio? The story doesn’t say. Here is the whole piece.

And, while the statements may cause pearl-clutching in today’s political climate, I’ve done a lot of farmer interviews, too, and he’s not saying anything that many other farmers haven’t said off the record.

Could Gendebien win?

Probably not, but I did see a bland Democratic Assembly candidate win a special election once in a 2-to-1 GOP district. How did he do it? He was low-key. Did nothing flashy. He came off as boring and non-confrontational in a couple of newspaper interviews. Sacrificial lamb — or so we thought. It was heavily assumed the GOP nominee would win in this district that always heavily went GOP. But special elections are different. Only the diehards show up to vote. A few days before the election, the district was blanketed with signs from the Democrat — it was too late for the Republican to respond. That last-second blitz reminded the Democratic minority to show up and vote, and their votes were enough to help this candidate pull off the upset. Then, once you’re an incumbent, it’s easy to win again and again. A high-integrity guy, I think he eventually found the job boring and left to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Government jobs don’t pay a lot — unless you’re corrupt!

And now for the comics — ‘Broom Hilda’ by Russell Myers

More tomorrow!