If Stefanik becomes Trump's VP candidate...
Maybe it will lead to a competitive congressional race here, finally
By Darren Johnson
Journal & Press
A no-win topic to write about in a community paper is anything to do with a congressperson.
Especially in this day and age, when everyone is so polarized.
(We can’t afford to lose readers, considering the plight of printed newspapers, in general. I’ll be careful here…)
Congresspeople deal with national issues, for the most part, and most of their press releases are rhetoric of that sort.
Also, their districts are so large — what are the odds of even bumping into one of them?
I used to work at a small-town paper where the local congressman would send in endless press releases and vanity photos of himself — this was last century, when they mailed actual photos.
One such photo I’d gotten particularly annoyed me, so I stuck it on the cork board adjacent to my desk, to be ironic. Over time, push pins would find their way into the smug visage of this congressman. Eventually, his image was one big pin cushion.
One day, while I was out on assignment, my co-workers said that the congressman had surprise visited the office. They had to leap up to rip the pin-holed photo of him off of the cork board before he or his handlers saw it, lest we’d seem biased, I guess.
Another time, I was covering a high school art exhibit hosted by the congressman. It was on a weekend and my wife was working and I had our baby daughter with me.
She decided to throw up on herself on the car ride, and I didn’t have backup clothes and was running late, so I cleaned her up the best I could and reversed her shirt so the vomit wouldn’t be obvious.
As congresspeople do during these exhibits they sponsor, he was pretending to appreciate the high school art, and then saw my baby — and, of course, like a magnet to steel gravitated to hug her. The look on his face when he, in his fancy suit, realized something didn’t smell right.
Now I’m in this district, with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and realize it’s better not to publish too much about her in the paper, either good or bad.
The people who dislike her really dislike her. They say they’re cancelling their subscriptions even when I run her ads. Last I checked, she does have a free speech right — which includes placing ads.
And why don’t her opponents place ads? Perhaps because they are controlled by consultants, who would rather advertise in media that gives them an agency fee, like TV. They don’t see the value in local newspapers, because they don’t live here. (The consultants also know their candidate isn’t going to win — not that they tell that to the candidate.)
I do an interview with Stefanik before each election. She doesn’t do interviews with most newspapers, so maybe the rest of the media sees me as a sell-out because she does talk to The Journal & Press.
The reality is, I take all politicians with a grain of salt. And, especially in our new political era, Stefanik mostly issues press releases about national items nowadays. A community paper should stick to local issues.
But — and I say this as someone who is jaded about party politics left or right — it is intriguing to think about what if Stefanik is named Donald Trump’s VP candidate?
Yes, the people who hate her really hate her, but, by that same token, Stefanik does win her elections by a wide margin, so obviously a lot of people do like her.
Would it be good for our region if the congressperson becomes VP? Would our region get some special considerations for much-needed economic development, for example?
If Stefanik is the VP pick, then the Republicans will have to sub in someone else to run for local congress. You can’t legally run for two offices at once.
Will the Democrats run a credible, truly local candidate — someone with a track record of winning locally — to compete?
I watched this episode of “Face the Nation” on Sunday and guest South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — the other female on Trump’s VP shortlist — came off as completely unhinged. This has to help Stefanik's chances of being named VP. Trump should pick a female, right?
While based on ideology, Trump choosing Stefanik surely will rankle many of her critics, you have to figure if it’s not Stefanik, it will just be someone else with similar views chosen by Trump.
And maybe — looking at it pragmatically — having our congressperson elected Vice President might put our region on the map.
Our region is often overlooked and underappreciated, statewide and nationally, which is why it’s so gerrymandered and why out-of-state vanity candidates often run here, as opposed to home-grown candidates who may actually have a following here.
It’s why we still have broadband issues here — 24 years into the 21st century — because there’s no one who unifies us, to give us a voice. Look at the state senate and assembly maps — our area is completely gerrymandered. We don’t have THE person to advocate for us. We have several pols with a pinkie toe in our kiddie pool, barely making a ripple. The congressional lines aren’t much better.
If Stefanik doesn’t run for congress this fall, I’d implore both major parties to try to find that person to make us known. No vanity candidates from outside our region. Real people with real swagger getting local results while also getting us national attention.
By the way, don’t imply my political beliefs based on this column. I get criticized by the far left and the far right, but, in reality, I’m just a weary observer, usually skeptical of any incumbent, not much different at this point in my life than when I had the pin-holed picture on my wall of a different congressperson.
What’s your take on any of this? Post a comment here.