Yesterday, in a tiny northern corner of NewYork state, in a
blood-red district six hours from Manhattan,
a Democratic assemblyman walloped
a Republican opponent in a hotly-contested race for a vacant state senate
seat.
The race is of interest not least because it represents a Democratic
takeover of one of the most staunchly Republican constituencies in the
state--the district was last represented by a Democrat in the early (00s-early) 20th century. It
also closes the Republican margin in the state senate--GOP-controlled since the
1960s--to a single vote. Scads of local Democratic money and big GOTV efforts
from progressive state organizations like the Working Families Party went
into this more-than-symbolic victory.
The real story, however, may be the political heterodoxy of
both these candidates. Darrel Aubertine, sixth-generation Democrat (and dairy
farmer) and yesterday's winner, holds a staunchly pro-life position on
abortion. William Barclay, conversely, is a lifelong Republican with a whiff of
the aristocratic about him, who nonetheless supports choice. Though electing Democratic
candidates is the name of the game for liberals this election year, the
Aubertine pill was hard to swallow for hardcore, upscale Democrats in New York City. A friend
in local politics told me that the sense of trench warfare, especially among
older voters for whom abortion rights are sacrosanct, made Aubertine seem "suspect."
If the New York
48th district race proves anything, it may be that Democratic party
affiliation is finally being freed of an outdated litmus test on choice. Amy
Sullivan probes this "god gap" willingly and thoughtfully in a new book and
also in a series
of op-eds
she's been writing for Time and
elsewhere. She details the massive failure of Democrats to reach out to people
of faith basically since the 1980s, ceding valuable political ground and
pigeonholing the party as one that "prized fealty to the pro-choice
position over even party affiliation." (Bill Clinton was a one-man-band of
religiosity, and the only exception to this rule.)
35 years out from Roe,
it's a ways to go before choice recedes from prominence in the political
discourse (with good reason).
But it's nice to see the monkey off one politician's back. There are also hints
of greater changes to come if Obama is the Democratic nominee, first broadcast here.
If the Democratic politicians do
overcome the fear of religion and the self-imposed God Gap, I'd be the first to say the progressive agenda is in great shape.
--Dayo Olopade