KEW GARDENS, N.Y. -- Democrat David Weprin got a little help from his female friends this afternoon ahead of Tuesday's close special election in New York's 9th District.
With Weprin off the campaign trail on Saturday observing the Jewish Sabbath, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., former Rep. Liz Holtzman, D-N.Y., and several other local and state female elected officials stumped on his behalf, saying Republican Bob Turner would endanger abortion rights and education issues for women.
With Weprin off the campaign trail on Saturday observing the Jewish Sabbath, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., former Rep. Liz Holtzman, D-N.Y., and several other local and state female elected officials stumped on his behalf, saying Republican Bob Turner would endanger abortion rights and education issues for women.
The women's vote will be a crucial one in the neck-and-neck race, and Friday's Siena poll showed the candidates were splitting the female demographic, each receiving 47 percent.
"We need David Weprin in Congress to fight for our rights, end the House Republican war on women and get Americans back to work," said Maloney. "Bob Turner would be another vote for the radical Republican agenda to strip away women's access to life-saving health care, undermine Social Security and Medicare and turn their back on efforts to get our economy back on track."
The longtime congresswoman, who represents the affluent, east side of Manhattan and western Queens, pushed back against the notion that this special election should be used to register growing frustration with the Obama administration.
"If you want to send a message to Obama, call the White House," said Maloney. "If you want a great congressman that will fight for the district, vote for Weprin."
Still, Maloney acknowledged in an interview with Hotline On Call after the event that the recent poll numbers were cause for Democrats to be worried about the race.
"Of course I'm concerned, and I want to win. David has never lost an election, and I do not expect him to start now," said Maloney. "The district is three-to-one Democratic, and he's working hard, we're working hard, and we need to get our voters to the polls."
And that get-out-the-vote mission has been a top priority for Democrats in the campaign's final weekend. With over 1,000 volunteers on the ground, by midday on Saturday, Weprin's campaign had knocked on over 25,000 doors and were set to hit 50,000 by day's end. Before this weekend, Democrats had already contacted over 128,000 voters either by phone or in person.
Democrats also tapped an influential name to reach voters, with a robocall going out from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who held the House seat in the 1980s and 1990s
"As someone who used to represent this district in Congress, I know what it takes to represent the diverse and wonderful people of the 9th CD, and David Weprin has what it takes," Schumer says in the call, paid for with coordinated funds from the Democratic National Committee.
Another surrogate who's also helping out Weprin's campaign - Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, former lead singer for Sha Na Na. No stranger to special elections, Bauman also campaigned for now-Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., in the May contest where Democrats pulled off an upset. While this race's dynamics are now reversed, the 9th District contest is especially near and dear to Bauman, a Queens native. "The people who believe passionately in this notion that we can cut, cut, cut our way our of this economic malaise that was caused at the end of the Bush administration, they will show up on Tuesday," Bauman told On Call. But as long as our people show up as well, we will prevail." The '60s and '70s singer is doing his part to reach the key senior demographic, going to several senior centers Bauman gave a preview of the lyrical message he's taking to those groups in the final hours: "Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba dang de dang dang vote for David Weprin."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/blogs/hotlineoncall/2011/09/dem-congresswoman-don-t-blame-weprin-for-obama-s-problems-10
"We need David Weprin in Congress to fight for our rights, end the House Republican war on women and get Americans back to work," said Maloney. "Bob Turner would be another vote for the radical Republican agenda to strip away women's access to life-saving health care, undermine Social Security and Medicare and turn their back on efforts to get our economy back on track."
The longtime congresswoman, who represents the affluent, east side of Manhattan and western Queens, pushed back against the notion that this special election should be used to register growing frustration with the Obama administration.
"If you want to send a message to Obama, call the White House," said Maloney. "If you want a great congressman that will fight for the district, vote for Weprin."
Still, Maloney acknowledged in an interview with Hotline On Call after the event that the recent poll numbers were cause for Democrats to be worried about the race.
"Of course I'm concerned, and I want to win. David has never lost an election, and I do not expect him to start now," said Maloney. "The district is three-to-one Democratic, and he's working hard, we're working hard, and we need to get our voters to the polls."
And that get-out-the-vote mission has been a top priority for Democrats in the campaign's final weekend. With over 1,000 volunteers on the ground, by midday on Saturday, Weprin's campaign had knocked on over 25,000 doors and were set to hit 50,000 by day's end. Before this weekend, Democrats had already contacted over 128,000 voters either by phone or in person.
Democrats also tapped an influential name to reach voters, with a robocall going out from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who held the House seat in the 1980s and 1990s
"As someone who used to represent this district in Congress, I know what it takes to represent the diverse and wonderful people of the 9th CD, and David Weprin has what it takes," Schumer says in the call, paid for with coordinated funds from the Democratic National Committee.
Another surrogate who's also helping out Weprin's campaign - Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, former lead singer for Sha Na Na. No stranger to special elections, Bauman also campaigned for now-Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., in the May contest where Democrats pulled off an upset. While this race's dynamics are now reversed, the 9th District contest is especially near and dear to Bauman, a Queens native. "The people who believe passionately in this notion that we can cut, cut, cut our way our of this economic malaise that was caused at the end of the Bush administration, they will show up on Tuesday," Bauman told On Call. But as long as our people show up as well, we will prevail." The '60s and '70s singer is doing his part to reach the key senior demographic, going to several senior centers Bauman gave a preview of the lyrical message he's taking to those groups in the final hours: "Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba dang de dang dang vote for David Weprin."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/blogs/hotlineoncall/2011/09/dem-congresswoman-don-t-blame-weprin-for-obama-s-problems-10