Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

I got a letter published in the Louisville Courier-Journal a while ago. When I lived out there last year, letter-to-the-editor links were never permanent, but this one seems to be.

In any event, here's the full text. The title is not mine, the rest is.

Scared off challengers

I noted with interest David Hawpe's column concerning the likelihood that U.S. Rep. Anne Northup will "get a pass this next election." Hawpe cites several of Northup's less popular positions -- such as support for the ill-advised war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich, and privatizing Social Security -- suggesting that these stands could become a campaign liability.

But Northup held all of those positions during the last campaign, too, with not a peep from Hawpe during the 2004 campaign season. Hawpe casually dismisses Tony Miller, Northup's 2004 opponent, implying without backup that Miller failed to demonstrate the "courage, conviction and commitment" that Hawpe longs for in a Democratic candidate.

Perhaps if certain prominent progressive Louisvillians had better promoted the Democratic cause in 2004, Northup's margin would not have sufficed to scare off potential challengers for 2006. Northup owes Hawpe a debt of gratitude.

TERRY McMAHON
2004 Press Secretary
Tony Miller for Congress
New York, N.Y. 10012

Oh, snap. He really deserves this too. In 2002, Jack Conway ran for Congress against Anne Northup. (For the record, he almost won, and if Bush hadn't announced the then-popular Iraq war at an event in Louisville for Northup, he probably would have. He also would have won if Northup hadn't implied he's a pedophile, but that's neither here nor there.) David Hawpe, the preeminent progressive commentator for Louisville's only major newspaper, wrote a ton of columns supporting Conway and, more often, disparaging Northup. In 2004, on the other hand, not so much. I arrived in Louisville at the end of April, and he never wrote a positive column about Tony Miller or a negative column about Anne Northup while I was there. I believe he stopped in January. (Fortunately, the paper did write unfair editorials holding Tony to an impossible standard and Anne to no standard. I only wish that were neither here nor there.)

On the one hand, Tony Miller lacked some skills as a candidate, he, alas, did not have a very good press secretary, and I suspect a lot of the Louisville Democratic establishment had it in for him. On the other hand, the issues involved (i.e., the ones Hawpe cites himself that I quote in the letter) are important enough that a less petty progressive might suck it up and help out Tony regardless. I remember one volunteer on our campaign who once told me she didn't really agree with Tony on everything, but she agreed with him on a lot, and he was so much better than Northup it wasn't funny. She was awesome.

In general, cutting off your nose to spite your face will naturally progress towards missing your nose. To wit, the Louisville Democratic establishment abandoned Tony, and then Tony lost by so much that Northup appears unbeatable. If the 2004 race had been decided by four or five points again, plenty of challengers would be eager to enter a race against Northup in what appears a much more favorable campaign year. But now that Tony lost 60-38, it's not as easy for a Democrat to claim s/he has a realistic shot at winning. In other words, if David Hawpe had written three or four columns (he writes two or three a week) to help us out during the 2004 season, he might have avoided not having a candidate now. You get what you pay for.

This is why I'm not that upset that Jack Conway has to skip the race. Conway was a terrific candidate and will be in the future, but throughout 2004, I always had the impression that he wanted us to lose, so he could run again in 2006. He refused, for example, to speak at events immediately before or after Tony, he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do fundraising for us, and he wouldn't do campaign ads for us. I wrote a blog entry a long time ago that alluded to a future post that would excoriate the guy blocked by this photo. That guy was Conway, then the Kerry-Edwards state chair, who everyone expected would challenge Northup in 2006. As the plan went, I would write a quick endorsement post, explaining both why he's a jerk and why we should support him anyway. Now Tony Miller lost by a far greater margin than anyone ever had to Northup before, and Conway's got too high a hill to climb. Tough deal. Wonder if there's anything he could have done?

As long as I'm disparaging prominent Louisville Democrats, the third person my letter alludes to when I say "certain prominent progressive Louisvillians" is Mayor Jerry Abramson. Abramson was mayor for about 12 years before being term-limited in the late 1990s, but when Louisville merged with the surrounding counties earlier this decade, he became eligible again. Now, thanks to his approval ratings in the mid-80s, he's presumably mayor until 2014. You can see where he gets the nickname "Mayor for Life." He's a Democrat.

Abramson supported Jack Conway heavily in his 2002 race against Northup. His support for Tony Miller, however, was mixed. He did not donate to Tony personally, but his campaign committee did put in $1000. Since Abramson never has to contest his elections, apparently that campaign fund only had one fundraiser, ever. So, you could argue that, instead of Jerry Abramson, the guy who was actually supporting Tony was whoever hosted the event and convinced the donors to give. And yes, that guy was Tony Miller. At least, that's what I heard. Thanks, mayor!

But no, Jerry Abramson supported Tony. He said so! The Tuesday before the election, Tony had a fundraiser in downtown Louisville with U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House Minority Whip. Given the presence of prominent campaign donors and Washington Democrats, looks like the mayor couldn't resist, and he came on in to make everyone stand up when he entered. He told the assembled guests that it was crucial that we elected Tony to Congress, and he asked that we all support Tony as strongly as he was. (To his credit, he didn't add that supporting Tony as strongly as he was would be not at all.) I was already pissed at the hypocrisy, but, fortunately, it would only get worse.

One of Northup's perpetual campaign gimmicks is that she's so awesome at bringing federal money back to Louisville. Yes, this is pork. She sits on Appropriations, with only about 35 other members of Congress ahead of her in seniority, and she does an average job of bringing money back for local works projects. She is, however, a fantastic self-promoter, and when another one of these federal-money announcements came down the pike towards the end of the campaign, she insisted that the two officials who had worked hardest for this money get together to announce it jointly. That's right: Anne Northup and Democratic Mayor Jerry Abramson.

Those of us on Team Tony submitted to the mayor and his staff that he could decline to appear in public with our opponent the last week of the campaign, lest it appear that the mayor actually supported her. We never got a satisfactory answer, for reasons that will soon become clear. So it happened, and Northup and Abramson held a joint event to compliment each other, and the assembled press asked only about whether this means the mayor actually supports Northup instead of his fellow Democrat Tony Miller. Abramson said he supported Tony but there were two great candidates in the race. Northup said that she and Abramson got along great together, and the fact that he was standing there with her said something. Abramson didn't respond.

There were other classic moments in the history of Jerry Abramson trying to distance himself from Tony Miller, but we didn't know the extent of it until after the election, when the son of a bitch told Newsweek that he voted for Northup.

In conclusion, what a dick. Now you guys are stuck with Northup through at least 2008, because you refused to help Tony when you didn't feel like it and couldn't see how it helped you. Now you're stuck, and it's your own damn fault.