Campaign Advice

This evening Mr. Harry Wilson, a Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller, spoke at the Young Republicans (Officials) at the Women's National Republican Club. The following is an email that I sent to his Campaign Manager.
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Mr Wilson made a credible case that DiNapoli should be vulnerable. My hope is that you can put the point across that as DiNapoli was "present at the creation" of this fiscal catastrophe he cannot be part of the solution. There are a few topics that were raised which I want to address. Permit me to offer my thoughts to the candidate.

First we must be careful of the tendency of the most committed conservatives to undercut a campaign on what they perceive as a matter of principle. For more on how that can happen just ask President McCain. That is why I pointed out that the expertise demonstrated in the GM reorganization could prove a two edged sword. The reaction of the follicly challenged man who wanted the UAW members to suffer more demonstrated my point.

May I suggest a two pronged response? First is the distinction that you already make between the two cases of GM and Chrysler. This could be prepared in mind numbing indeed Clintonian detail so as to smother the issue. It may be worth producing a glossy handout on the topic.

The second way to handle unhappiness over GM is to put it in context. Sure the average auto worker has benefited beyond their skill set at the expense of the general public. In that they resemble unionized State employees with overly generous contracts. Just as at the State level the real culprits are the politicians bosses and connected beneficiaries of a corrupt system so in the case of the financial crises that bankrupted GM we should focus on those truly to blame.

GM could not be saved without government money because there was no private money available. Who was to blame for that happening? Here I would name names and place the blame not only on Fannie and Freddie but on Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel and Barack Obama. Your role is to protect the little guy and even to see his over reaching in context. UAW greed deserves a haircut. Politicians deserve to be scalped.

The other subject that was mentioned was a reform of the pension system. You could advocate shifting from using the final year to averaging the high three to calculate pensions.

My hope is that this email has proven to be worth your time. With your permission I would like to blog it, there being nothing that I believe to be confidential.

Sincerely,