Exactly Right

One of the tragedies of the Charlie King campaign was that he raised the second most amount of money in the race and, as Andrew Cuomo said repeatedly today, King was "exactly right," on a number of issues. So how can a candidate with money, who is "exactly right" on the issues, do so poorly? First, King was locked out of the institutional support by Cuomo. Note the endorsement by Rep. Ed Towns ("While I originally supported a different candidate in the race, I have now reevaluated the candidates' credentials...") Towns, who was having troubles with unions over his support of CAFTA, switched his support from King to Cuomo, who many unions are backing. In policy, Mark Green had King beat. King's signature issue was access to health care. The Daily News editorial board has been on a health care crusade on behalf of 9/11 rescue workers. The two crusaders never seemed to join forces. And while King set up a phone-line for people to call and make their complaints about health care, Green was reminded people of what he's already done on that issue. (The Joe Camel lawsuit, etc.) It seems like the only place left to go was to be the the un-Cuomo and the un-Green candidate. In came Sean Maloney, who had a more legitimate claim to the title since he never ran for office before. -- Azi Paybarah