Dawidziak: Suddenly, it's election season

Michael Dawidziak is a political consultant and pollster.

Yesterday, the Tuesday after Labor Day, is traditionally the busiest day of the year for political professionals. Candidates come back from summer vacations to realize that Election Day is a short 60 days away.

An extreme sense of urgency afflicts most campaigns, and they call their pollsters and campaign strategists. Retailers have Black Friday, accountants have April 15, and political professionals have "Panic Tuesday."

And it's worse in the state of New York, because primary Election Day is only a week away. This is often referred to in the political business as "the one-week campaign." Voters, just getting back from summer vacations, for the most part haven't paid politics any attention at all. Many have been busy doing back-to-school shopping and the like. It's impossible to get them to focus on campaign issues until after Labor Day.

For years, the timing of the New York primary made the major parties almost invulnerable to attack. Would-be challengers to the parties' convention nominees had to spend the bulk of their summers gathering an onerous number of signatures to get on the ballot. Next, they often had to spend more time and money fending off legal challenges by the parties to their petitions. Then, finally, they'd get a week to campaign -- and found themselves outspent and outgunned by a well-financed opposition and a voter turnout operation staffed by an organized party committee.

But things have been changing in recent years. As the parties' committee structures have weakened, access to campaign technology has leveled the playing field for many challengers. Professionally run campaigns, mixed with committed volunteers and hardworking candidates, have more often been a recipe for success in primaries. Steve Flotteron and Chris Bodkin's David vs. Goliath victory in the 2005 Islip Town Board elections, despite the powerful Islip Republican Party, is a perfect example. (I was an unpaid consultant for their campaign.)

There's not a lot of primary action on Long Island next Tuesday, but what is happening could make for some interesting fireworks. The biggest battleground is probably the council races in the Town of Smithtown, but there are also primaries in various parties and areas for county legislator, town board and district court judge. There's a Democratic primary in Riverhead for town supervisor and for the town council. And in Nassau, there are primaries in four legislative districts, made complicated by the GOP's redistricting scheme.

Primary challenges to incumbents aren't always initiated by outsiders. Sometimes the more radical (some might say independent) officials in government are targeted for extinction by the powers that be -- or at least, the powers they've rubbed the wrong way. Such was the case with the primary defeats of Suffolk County Legis. Wayne Prospect (D-Dix Hills) and Greg Blass (R-Jamesport) in 1989. Going back a little further, popular Nassau County Executive Ralph Caso was taken out in a 1977 primary for being a little too independent of the Republican Party; then-party chairman Joseph Margiotta ran Francis Purcell against him.

It's all part of the democratic process and, for better or worse, everybody gets to play. But, too often, the results are based on an influx of cash by special-interest groups seeking to incite only a small portion of the electorate. For one recent example, Assemb. Ginny Fields (D-Oakdale) lost in last year's primary to challenger Ken Mangan, who had the strong support of teachers unions.

Special interests count on voter apathy keeping the majority of eligible voters home. The only antidote is for voters to plug in and turn out.

Next Tuesday could be your only chance to keep a popular representative in office or to throw out somebody you're dissatisfied with. Either way, you need to be informed and vote. There's much more to say about the process but not right now . . . the phone is ringing off the hook.