The Backbencher vs Pelosi 2.0

There is a special election scheduled for Tuesday, March 29 for the Suffolk County Legislature's 6th District, which includes Miller Place.  Can you feel the electricity in the air?

The contenders are Martin Haley, a career pol from the Miller Place/Rocky Point area.  He has already been in the legislature and he is currently building commissioner for the Town of Brookhaven.  He had a stint as a realtor, but he seems to have stuck to government work.  He is running on the Republican ticket.

The Democrat is Sarah Anker, a "longtime community leader, public servant and working mom with a track record of standing up for the community and getting results", to quote her website.  While she has yet to hold a political office, she has mingled with the Dems for quite a while on such pressing issues as helicopter over flights of the North Shore (against) and duck hunting in Mt. Sinai Harbor (also against but, curiously, she is endorsed by Planned Parenthood).  She was able to grab a small slice of the limelight with her helicopter issue, when she got Chuck Schumer to come out for a press conference about it (but, now that I think about it, how difficult is it to get Schumer to appear someplace where cameras are also present?).

Who to pick?  

Pick the quintessential political benchwarmer?  A nice guy, probably with his heart in the right place, but one of those guys who's specialty is staying under the radar while keeping on the public payroll, doing enough to hold a job but not enough to tick anyone off or bring much attention to himself.  Or, the energetic community activist who has plenty of ideas on how to make your life better and, by golly, she is gonna make sure your life is better!  As per her website, she is a mom (mom's know best)  and she gets results.  She was "Woman of the Year for the Environment", so I am sure she knows what is our best interest.

Even better, Anker is endorsed by a whole bunch of unions.  The Long Island Federation of Labor endorses her, and the unions are so great for our economy, aren't they?  But wait, Haley has the endorsement of the Sheriff's union.  That makes him a "law and order" guy, right?

So, who to pick?

Anker is a woman, and her election would mean that there would be FOUR, not a measly three, women in the legislature.  And, as a woman, she would bring us all up to speed on womanly-type stuff, right?  Haley is a guy, and he does not represent anyone special.  

So, after much thought and deliberation (well, some, at least), I have come to a conclusion.  I am going to vote for Martin Haley.  He is old enough and been at the public trough long enough to have his income and retirement covered, so he is not going to do anything really radical to upset the apple cart and really make government "responsive" (which means, "even more expensive and ridiculous") .  He will be a reliable Republican vote and that will be good enough for me. 

Sarah Anker, on the other (left) hand, represents the Nancy Pelosi-ing of local politics.  She fits the mold of the well-off stay at home mom who is no longer challenged by her kid's homework, shoe shopping and nail-saloning, and her husband probably wants her to do something other than spend money.  She exudes the self righteousness that most liberals have -- that they know what is best for us, and they want the government to force us to conform to their ideal image.

With both candidates, you know what you are going to get.  With Haley, you get a career go-along-to-get-along, slightly back-roomish, pol.  With Anker, you get Gladys Kravitz (although Sarah is much easier on the eyes).