Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. A letter to an old friend
Political Note #256 Jackie Gordon NY CD 02
2020 General Election
Jackie Gordon https://jackiegordonforcongress.com/ wants to join a club that has not existed for long. Black Members of Congress who represent majority white districts. Before 2018, there were six (two of whom are no longer in Congress). In 2018, eight more black Members of Congress were elected from predominantly white districts.
New York’s second Congressional is a good place for Jackie Gordon to try to joint the group. Republican Peter King is retiring after represented the District since 1992. New York’s 2nd District is no longer a clearly Republican District. In 1992, GHW Bush carried the district by a smidge. In 2016, Donald Trump carried the district 53-44. In between, Democratic Presidential candidates won by an average of 9 points.
Right now, Jackie Gordon is the only Democrat running for this open seat on the south shore of Long Island, in both Suffolk and Nassau County. She has been active in Long Island politics. She’s been a member of the Babylon Town Council for twelve years.
She was in the military for longer. She retired from the Army Reserves as a Lt. Colonel, having worked in logistics in Germany and Guantanamo and in the Military Police in Afghanistan. Her day job was in education. Most recently, she has been a guidance counselor at Wilson Tech Center in Farmingdale, LI. Like many who grew up in Queens, she moved to live and work in the Long Island suburbs.
Like many New Yorkers, she is an immigrant. She was born in Jamaica. The West Indies not Queens. She was a single mom, has a son who still lives with her and a daughter who is a Captain in the US Air Force.
Where is Jackie Gordon on the Democratic spectrum? Like most Democrats running either to oust a Republican incumbent or to win an open Republican seat, she is moderate:
- Health Care. She advocates for access to health care rather than Medicare for All.
- She advocates for the kind of technology high school she works in.
- She advocates for veterans.
- Economy and Taxes. She proposes to tax the wealthy and rebuild our infrastructure.
- She is for background checks and red flag laws.
Where is Jackie Gordon on the Democratic spectrum? She is well connected. In 2018, Liuba Gretchen Shirley, a less well connected Democrat, raised more than $850,000 in her run against King’s $3 million plus. She lost in a close race – 53-47, 13,000 votes. Jackie Gordon is better positioned, better connected. The Suffolk County Democratic Chair is a Babylon Town Supervisor. As a member of Babylon’s Town Council, she has worked with Richard Schaffer. He praises, said he would support her if she had primary opposition. She will probably not have primary opposition.
Jackie Gordon is in the mainstream of the Democratic Party on the issues and in its politics. She is not raising enough money, though. With a school pension and a military pension, she can afford to take the time to run. She is no self-funder, though. As of the September 30 deadline, she had raised just under $200,000. She needs to do better. A lot better. The Cook Report sees this as a seat which leans Republican. Three Republicans are after the nomination. All three announced recently and have not reported their fund raising. Whoever wins the Republican nomination will have raised plenty. She’ll get some help with the Suffolk County Democrats behind her. She’ll need more help than that. Help Jackie Gordon https://jackiegordonforcongress.com/. If she can compete financially, she can win.
Below are Congressional seats Democrats are trying to flip from incumbent Republicans. The ones with asterisks ran in 2018*
Congress
California 50 Ammar Campa-Hajjar* to win this now open Rep seat
Florida 16 Margaret Good to beat incumbent Vern Buchanan
Illinois 13 Betsy D Londrigen* to beat incumbent Rodney Davis
Indiana 05 Christina Hale to win this open Republican seat
Iowa 04 JD Scholten* to beat incumbent Steve King
Kansas 02 Michelle De La Isla to beat incumbent Steve Watkins
Michigan 06 Jon Hoadley to beat incumbent Fred Upton
Minnesota 01 Dan Feehan* to beat incumbent Jim Hagedorn
New York 02 Jackie Gordon to win this open Republican seat
New York 21 Tedra Cobb* to beat incumbent Elise Stefanic
Ohio 04 Mike Larsen to beat incumbent Jim Jordan
Pennsylvania 10 Eugene DePasquale to beat incumbent Scott Perry
Texas 23 Gina Ortiz Jones* to win this open Republican seat
Washington 03 Carolyn Long* to beat incumbent Jaime Herrera Beutler
VOTE
If you are eligible, you can vote in an entirely different election. You can vote a slate of candidates for the World Zionist Convention.
To be eligible.
- You have to be 18 years old before January 21, 2020.
- You have to be Jewish. That is, tou have to self-identify as Jewish.
- You have to feel a connection to Israel, be opposed to anti-Semitism, andsupport the idea of Israel as a democratic state and as a haven for Jews.
- You have to pay $7.50 to vote. This supports the cost of an independent agency that operates and oversees the election.
You can give Zionism a progressive voice. Vote for the slate supported by ARZA (Reform and Progressive Zionists). ARZA organized in 2015 and won nearly 40% of the voting delegates. It was the largest bloc at the World Zionist Congress.
Voting began on January 21 and continues until Purim in March. Go to https://arza.org/. ARZA will help you vote for its slate.
