Smullen Doesn't Give A Shake

 

 

 

By Zamboni

There's a nasty (i.e., very fun) fight going on between the Republicans who are vying for Elise "Elsie" Stefanik's Congressional seat in NY-21.

As we posted a little over a month ago, the Trump-endorsed candidate, Anthony Constantino, is giving a whole lot of headaches to the more traditional, state-party-blessed hopeful, Assemblyman Robert Smullen. No love is lost between these two dudes, and when they met in a debate last week, the fur kinda flew.

"Both candidates adhered to the rules of decorum during the debate, confining their statements to their allotted time and requiring little intervention from [the] moderator," Yahoo news reports. "But they continued to attack each other in harsh terms, with Constantino casting Smullen as an unknown 'C-lister' who has failed to adequately support Trump. Smullen countered that Constantino is 'unfit to serve' and noted his campaign had once hired a man accused of murder."

(Note to the file: That last bit is true. We kid you not.)

"The caustic parley that has defined the primary race spilled over when Constantino reached across his podium to offer Smullen a handshake," Yahoo continued. "Smullen ignored Constantino, gathered his belongings, and walked off the television studio set."

Wow. Smullen later explained that he wasn't going to shake hands because Constantino had sent him a mean text. (The text was not nice, but it was also ridiculous.) This gave Constantino another line of attack, and made Smullen look petty — positively Trumpy, in fact.

The snub reminded us of Ann Richards's reaction when her Republican opponent for Texas governor, Clayton Williams, pulled the same stunt on her. It was back in 1990, when Trumpian behavior was still unknown. "Oh, Clayton," she said, "that's bad." Yup. We cats PURR.

Schadenfreude In NY-21

By Miss Kubelik

We cats no longer live in New York's 21st Congressional District, thank goodness. We were recently redistricted in NY-20, but the border between being represented by MAGAt Elise "Elsie" Stefanik and Democrat Paul Tonko is maybe a block away. If someone opens a can of tuna in a house in the 21st, we hear it.

Which means that we drive around NY-21 a lot. Before yesterday's primary, we couldn't help noticing the dearth of yard signs for Republican Congressional candidate Robert Smullen — among many, many (ugly) ones at the side of the road for his Trump-endorsed opponent, Anthony Constantino.

 This was strange. Smullen was officially endorsed by the New York Republican Party (hi, Ed Cox!). Surely that meant he had the full weight of county parties' organizing muscle behind him... right?

Another oddity: Constantino supporters far outnumbered Smullen stans at a candidates' forum in Saratoga Springs last week. Although bad behavior by both Constantino and his fans caused the event to spiral into chaos (see above), Smullen's lack of visibility in the crowd was campaign malpractice. If you can't turn your people out to a candidate Q&A, you won't be able to turn them out on Election Day.

Spoiler: He didn't. Smullen was crushed by Constantino by 19 points.

We cats are enjoying this very much. Smullen will be listed on the Conservative Party line on the November ballot, and now he has to figure out if he's going to stay there and fight, or throw in the towel to a guy whose hand he refused to shake after a debate in May. And while party leaders in the 21st district are grudgingly endorsing Constantino (even though he didn't meet with many of them during the primary to ask for their support), the state GOP has a conundrum on its hands — thanks to New York's weird multi-party ballot and Benedict Donald throwing a monkey wrench into everything.

(And what will "Elsie" do? Will she finally get off her ass the fence and endorse Constantino? All she's done so far is tweet an anodyne statement, saying the primary was a "hard-fought election and the voters have spoken loudly." How bold! How trenchant!)

Take heart, New York Republicans. You're not the only ones suffering from Trump wreaking havoc in your party. Look what happened on Capitol Hill today: a canceled bill signing, a shouting match at lunch. The GOP is such a bunch of happy campers right now. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Alexander MacDougall, The Times-Union)

Nightmare In NY-21

 

By Baxter

Every time we're even vaguely tempted to feel sorry for Republicans yoked to the antics of Benedict Donald, we instantly remind ourselves that they made their bed, and they must lie in it. (See above.)

They passed up so many off-ramp opportunities in the last 10 years. And now, things are much worse for them. Trump 2.0 is way more erratic and weird. MAGA is furious about the Epstein files, the war in Iran, and gas and food prices. Impeachment and the 25th amendment are openly discussed. And Donald just made the GOP's upcoming midterm massacre even bloodier — at least in our neck of the woods.

"President Donald Trump endorsed the CEO of a sticker company to fill outgoing Rep. Elise Stefanik's House seat," POLITICO reports, "[announcing] over social media Tuesday that he's backing Republican Anthony Constantino over Assemblyman Robert Smullen, the preferred nominee of the New York GOP and the state Conservative Party."

Constantino is a nutcase, and Smullen is pretty awful, too. With Trump's interference, what was already promising to be a fun Republican-on-Republican cat fight for Elsie's seat just got more delicious. And what a huge middle finger to GOP state party chair Ed (Tricia Nixon) Cox and the hapless county chairs in the district who had confidently endorsed Smullen before Sticker Mule Man jumped into the race.

As for Elsie, she's on her silly book tour, and no doubt will try to dodge questions. But Trump has just put her in another awkward position. Can she really stay silent? Reporters should hound her mercilessly.

Here's the best part: Smullen is guaranteed to be on the November ballot, on the Conservative Party line. If Constantino wins the Republican primary in June, we don't see how Democrat Blake Gendebien loses a three-way race. We cats PURR.

A Bad Week For MAGA, And It's Only Monday

By Miss Kubelik

Will somebody tell Benedict Donald that Bad Bunny's spectacular Super Bowl halftime show crushed TPUSA's silly counter-program in the ratings? (Trump might not be surprised, since Bad Bunny was even spotted on screens at the Mar-a-Lago Super Bowl party. Hilarious!)

In more bad news for Trump World today, Pam Bondi is scheduled to testify to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and it should be quite the show. Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who viewed some of the Epstein files today under the substandard conditions in which DOJ made them available, has said that there are plenty of unexplained redactions (and non-redactions), plus breezy chats about trafficking girls as young as nine. So gross. 

The Epstein fallout is causing a storm in the UK, but here in the United States it's more of a slow roll, which actually might be worse. It means a steady drumbeat of Epstein, Epstein, Epstein from now until November. The Trumpsters may have privately decided that their sacrificial lamb might be Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has shamelessly lied about his Epstein connections and seems generally universally loathed. But MAGA should be warned: Cutting Lutnick loose won't be enough.

Meanwhile, things keep going not so great for the GOP at large. In Colorado, for example, the state party is deep in debt and its leaders are brawling. Financial woes and kerfuffles are unwelcome at any time, but it's particularly bad for Colorado Republicans given that this year they already have to defend one very flippable House seat, plus two others — Lauren Boebert's previous district, and her current one — that could easily be lost in a wave year.

Closer to (our) home, New York Republicans have more headaches on their hands. Bruce Blakeman, the presumed GOP opponent to Governor Kathy Hochul since Elise "Elsie" Stefanik dropped out of the race, was flatly told by Fulton County Sheriff Richard C. Giardino nope, nope, nopity-nope when he asked Giardino to be his running mate. (So, why float Giardino's name in the first place? This is the kind of stuff that happens when you don't know what you're doing.)

Not to be outdone, up in Elsie's soon-to-be-old Congressional stomping grounds of NY-21, two candidates hoping to replace her are in a cat fight to end all cat fights. Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino has threatened Assemblyman Robert Smullen with a cease-and-desist letter over Smullen's accusations that Constantino is a tax cheat. Sticker Mule Anthony is big, big mad, but Smullen is firing back. "It should come as no surprise that Anthony Constantino is accusing me of lying about his tax record," he said. “This is typical of him. Unfortunately for him, I won’t be intimidated and the facts are clearly on our side."

Way to go, guys. Don't focus on keeping the seat in Mikey Johnson's column — just attack one another viciously during the primary. Speaking for Democrats, we love to see it. We cats PURR.