One Man's Humble Act Could Spell The End For Pedro Espada

One of the best institutional guards for incumbency is that multiple challengers can split the vote for change in a district. Even if more voters opt for someone else, an elected official can remain in office if they win a plurality. State Senator Pedro Espada thought he had that when four different candidates were running against him. Over the summer two of them dropped out, and now with one week to go, Dan Padernacht is nobly laying his banner down and joining forces with Gustavo Rivera, the strongest challenger to date to face the infamous Espada.

From The Daily Politics:

Dan Padernacht, a 34-year-old community board member, formally threw his backing to fellow challenger Gustavo Rivera, 34, saying he wanted to create “a united front” against Espada and restore credible representation to the district.

“I believe it’s the right thing to do,” Padernacht said at press conference outside the Municipal Building in Manhattan, where he was joined by a bevy of elected officials who are backing Rivera’s campaign, which has drawn endorsements from potent unions and many Democratic elected officials.

In return, all of Gustavo's endorsers in and around New York City are singing Padernacht's praises. Perhaps he can cull something out of this in the future for himself, but right now he gets that this race is bigger than him, and that taking out Espada is priority number one. Espada is low life criminal with a title that is too big for his britches.

The only downside is that he waited too long to get his name off the ballot and inevitably will probably get a few votes that he now does not want. Nevertheless, with a strong campaign and Get Out The Vote system that joins Rivera and Padernacht's forces, amazing things can happen, even up in the Bronx.

Gibbs States The Obvious Concerning Ministry's Quran-Burning

This really should be a no-brainer, but with the way things are going in American Conservatism a good old fashioned book burning isn't sadly not surprising. When people's fears and ignorance is stoked constantly by the media they consume, human rage knows no bounds. At least we have a White House that will speak to this and make the connection for these Nazi imitators that burning the Quran in effigy does our troops overseas no favors.