Reply #4: Absolutely! Here in NY we have...

[TreasonousBastard]

the possiblity of losing several House seats, one Senate seat, the Governor's mansion, and at least one house of the state legislature. Mid-term elections are always dangerous, but with an appointed Senator (whom I happen to like, btw, and hope she keeps her seat) and a Governor on the skids, we are in a very fragile condition.

There are calls for primaries, but primaries leave everyone scarred, and if an incumbant is involved it just makes it all the more difficult to beat an opponent who didn't have to go through all that. The White House has already stopped primary challenges to Gillibrand, slowing the Republican rush to run against her. If there were to be a primary, they'd be running their A-list and we could lose the seat-- this way she'll probably be running against a nobody with the oppostion ceding the seat thinking it's too expensive to win.

Paterson refused to step down on his own, so the White House stepped in, but he still refuses to do the right thing. If he backed down and let Cuomo be the appointed candidate, we could sweep the election, but now we're in trouble.

Hasn't every President since Washington been involved in local politics when it suited them? This isn't a civics class or citizenship test we're dealing with-- it's politics in real time, which is never pretty.