Parties have yet to sharpen stances for '22 elections
Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio meets Staten Island Chuck on Groundhog Day, 2014. The groundhog died after the mayor dropped it. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
Sometimes what’s missing tells you more than what’s visible. In their last convention, conducted remotely due to COVID-19, members of the Republican National Committee did something remarkable.
They failed to issue a platform.
That meant no written positions on key domestic issues, and no reprise of their 2016 platform fight over arming Ukraine to defend against Russia.
The first-in-memory, platform-free party went on to lose the White House and Senate.
Now, with the GOP campaigning to take back a majority in the House of Representatives, stances and ideology and ideas remain up for grabs, as they are in some places for the Democrats, too.
We know who belongs to the major parties and where they live, but we can’t be sure what issues they’ll choose to prioritize once in office.
Just as the last congressional elections were a referendum on President Donald Trump, this round will be something of a referendum on President Joe Biden and possibly a verdict on Trump’s sad efforts to nullify the people’s decision.
Will Trump still be party boss this cycle, and will he and his allies influence GOP governance proposals?
He has been conducting a strange personal feud over COVID vaccines with Ron DeSantis, the GOP governor of his current home state of Florida. But any actual impact on Republican national health policy, as it might help constituents, remains elusive.
Famous differences persist among Democrats. The party caucus has in its ranks the lefty Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx), who’s aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, but also Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City), who’s allied with conservative Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, on such issues as Medicare purchases of prescription drugs.
The upcoming Democratic scrum in the newly scrambled 3rd Congressional District could offer differences on the presumed left-right spectrum. Candidate Melanie D’Arrigo and possible candidate state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi would be said to represent the left in the five-county, Long Island Nassau-based district primary.
Nassau Legis. Josh Lafazan seems nearly bipartisan, while Robert Zimmerman, a longtime Democratic National Committee member, and Jon Kaiman, with past ties to departing Rep. Tom Suozzi, are viewed as moderates.
Such labels are always vague and limited.
In western New York, incumbent Republican Chris Jacobs, running in a presumably "safe" new GOP seat, reportedly faces a primary challenge from attorney Todd Aldinger who has brought lawsuits against mandating masks and COVID vaccines. But Jacobs is also on that political bandwagon, and stuck with his caucus leadership by voting against the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill which he linked to "socialism."
A possible Democratic primary in New York City promises a clearer intra-party contrast. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s seriously considering running for Congress in the newer, bluer CD11 linking Staten Island and Brooklyn. But Democrat Max Rose, ousted last time by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, has a more conservative profile than the ex-mayor whom he’s condemned in the past.
Rose might gain from the fight if he first beats de Blasio, who’s widely scorned in much of the district, before facing Malliotakis in the general election. But neighborhoods, counties and districts have a dynamic all their own that defies right-left categories, making it all hard to predict.
In the campaign ecology of today, memes, slanders and celebrity all eclipse practical positions on taxes, spending, peace and war. People would like to know what they are voting for, not just whom — and it falls to the candidates and party leaders to tell us.
Columnist Dan Janison’s opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
