Council Candidate Evan Thies Rages Against the Machine
Twenty-eight-year-old City Council candidate Evan Thies of Williamsburg thinks the local 2009 races are a fight between two factions of the Democratic party.
“The truth is, even though everybody is a Democrat, there are essentially two parties,” he said when I sat down with him yesterday. “There are the progressives and then there are the machine people.”
Thies went on to say, “We have a real shot in the next election of putting the progressives ahead, finally, and making this a truly progressive city as opposed to one that’s tied to an era of machine politics and just government inertia that we’ve suffered through for years and years, since Tamanny Hall.”
Thies is a former staffer for David Yassky and earned some fame in 2004 when he unfurled a huge banner from a window in the The Plaza Hotel to protest the G.O.P convention.
Obama Vs. McCain Polling Data
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 49.6
- 44.1
- Obama +5.5
Favorable Ratings
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 54.9
- 36.1
- +18.8
- McCain
- 50.7
- 39.6
- +11.1
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Have you ever had to actually speak to Evan Thies? Like Yassky, he is among the most arrogant people in politics, and you know thats saying a lot. Did not serve his boss well, and I cant imagine him serving the district well, either. If he is the "progressive" candidate, I'll take the "machine's" this time.
Problem is, Yazzky is part of the machine. So does that make Thies another Demapublican, like Yazzky?
People remember Your Assky's support for developer Louis Kestenbaum and Thies's doubletalk.
They also remember the money that developer Joshua Guttman gave to Yazzky, and Even Thies's doubletalk.
And how much has Yzaaky ... and Thies helped Ratner?
Shocking. the establishment is going after Evan. That didn't take long.
Let's see. Evan is
pricipled
progressive
smart
Last i checked, that's more than i can say for most NYC politicians.
Bored at work should find a new hobby, because blogging ain't cutting it.
This guy was a communication's director? I don't remember the last time I heard a candidate for office say "uh" that many times in 1:08. As to his point, who is he talking about?
yeah--agreed with 5:02. The content of what he was saying doesn't even matter. He sounded like a moron trying to say something. "uh," "uh," "uh."
It is ironic to me that people on liberal blogs will rage one minute about the culture of sound bites in the popular press and then attack candidates who clearly think about what they are saying - as Thies is doing in this clip.
Look Mr. Thies prime opponent in this race will be Democratic District Leader JoAnne Simon. So the little smart ass thinks he has an issue to run on.
Problem is Simon has been anti-county machine at every turn. Bucking County Leader Vito Lopez in the last two all important Surrogate's races supporing the reform minded Margarita Lopez Torres and this year's winner Diana Johnson.
Thies has absolutely no neighborhood chops. He did work for Yassky who no one took to seriously during the last race so he is not to be counted out.
Jo Anne Simon, Alan Fleischman, Ralph Perfetto and Joanne Seminara are the only district leaders who have consistently stood up to the party bosses.
C'mon, Evan, find a real issue to campaign on. Don't even think of trying to paint Jo Anne as being part of the machine. That's pathetic. But I guess desperate kids do desperate things.
By the way, your campaign kick-off party is at a notoriously troublesome bar that's not even in the district but I'm sure the voters who live on Union Street will understand that you don't care about them. It's good for them to find out now.
Jo Anne Simon, Alan Fleischman, Ralph Perfetto and Joanne Seminara are the only district leaders who have consistently stood up to the party bosses.
C'mon, Evan, find a real issue to campaign on. Don't even think of trying to paint Jo Anne as being part of the machine. That's pathetic. But I guess desperate kids do desperate things.
By the way, your campaign kick-off party is at a notoriously troublesome bar that's not even in the district but I'm sure the voters who live on Union Street will understand that you don't care about them. It's good for them to find out now.
Not for nothing, but isn’t this guy a lobbyist now? How progressive is that?
It is quite apparent the pedestrian banter espoused by a majority of the commenters fail to see the idea that Mr. Thies represents-removal of the political status quo. Historically, on the municipal, national, and international levels, positive, progressive challenges to the political static, have always been met with restrictionist rhetoric.
The formulaic diatribes of those heralding their "reformists" reveal that those commenters (using vapid linguistic critiques in failed attempts of political wit) represent machine existence veiled in reformist cloth, a nod to demagogeury's grand, yet much needed decline.
Evan Thies is a challenge to that crumbling establishment. If he was not a true and progressive threat, then one would have to question why this one minute and eight seconds was so worthy of such raucous discourse.
11:08: because it's a slow day. Evan's barely worth the minute himself. His story is the eternal one; the young and ambitious challeneging the older and ambitious, in a contest which will determine only who is hungrier.
The divide here is not between "progresives" and "the machine", one can possibly be both, one can surely be neither. Thies and Simon have certainly flirted with both; neither qualify as vestal virgins. If Ken Daimondstone enters, he will certainly be closer to the "pure" side of this false division than either Thies or Simon, although he'd surely be more ineffective than either as well.
Hopefully, Thies isn't really stupid enough to believe his own rhetoric. The tape provides evidence that he's making it up as he's going along. The question is, are the voters stupid enough?
Progressive in Brooklyn (4:11) -
How do you know who the hell I am or what I stand for based on a 3.5 line comment on a blog?
I actually like Abraham Isaac's comment the best of all.
Say what you will about Thies, but saying he is one of the most arrogant people in politics is ridiculous. He is active in Greenpoint and Williamsburg community groups in addition to the community board-- those groups are important, and their members certainly do not seem arrogant.
Also, pigeonholing someone's every thought based on their previous employer's ideas is pretty closed minded.
Evan is a sincere political activist who I have seen over the years work with numerous community groups to achieve practical and yes, progressive goals. He is a persuasive leader well versed in Brooklyn's issues de jour of sustainable development, affordable housing and industrial retention. Also, anyone who deigns to hold a seat on a Community Board can't be all that arrogant. Those meetings DRAG!!
Evan is a sincere political activist who I have seen over the years work with numerous community groups to achieve practical and yes, progressive goals. He is a persuasive leader well versed in Brooklyn's issues de jour of sustainable development, affordable housing and industrial retention. Also, anyone who deigns to hold a seat on a Community Board can't be all that arrogant. Those meetings DRAG!!
Sincere or not, the people of the 33rd need more than someone who will offer dime store political theory backed up by little other than his own ambition. Based on this, alone, the 33rd should look elsewhere for its next council member.