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With television screens and daily newspaper pages flashing the faces of candidates, charging and counter-charging semantics and quoting dollar figures the average voter can’t comprehend, the real major party quarterbacks seldom get any media play. Recently, Democratic Party county chair Mark English and his Republican counterpart Tom Dadey sat across the table from each other to reflect on the more philosophic underpinnings of the electoral process.
They know each other well, and share an obvious, but comfortable and respectful, sense of competition. They bantered about the locations of their party’s election night gatherings, the chances of their congressional candidates and prospects for next year’s mayoral race.
English, 65, of Westvale, is a lawyer focused on family law, a former union activist whose Crouse-Hinds job was outsourced when he was 36. He has performed on stage with Syracuse Civic Theater, and last year lost a race to Ryan McMahon for the County Legislature’s 15th District.
“Speaking nationally,” he said, “the Republican Party, with the Tea Party influence, and the massive influx of multinational corporate money, feels that government has no legitimate function other than to provide services to the multinational corporations. Their tax policy, fiscal policy and trade policy have all been geared to the multinational corporations, resulting in the outsourcing of American industry and commerce.
“The Democratic Party feels there is a legitimate role that government has to play,” he continued. “That role was acted out during the Depression, when a coalition of labor, business and government made us the most prosperous country in the world and gave us a vibrant and expansive middle class. Locally that’s played out on a smaller role as evidenced by Syracuse Mayor {Stephanie} Miner and {Onondaga County Executive} Joanie Mahoney. There are still opportunities for reasonable differences of opinion and reasonable compromises.”
Republican Dadey, 43, who lives in the city and owns and operates the Dadey Insurance Agency in Jamesville, lost a bid for state Senate in 2004 to Dave Valesky. “The Democratic Party right now believes that government should do more for people” he said. “The Republican Party fundamental is that the government should do less. There should be less regulation. There should be more individual freedom. There should be less taxation. There should be less government control of things. The Democratic Party saw, within the last couple of years, the largest takeover of almost 20 percent of our economy with the healthcare bill. Granted, there needs to be some changes in health care, but the Republican philosophy is, ‘Let’s leave that to the private sector to do.’
“Our country has thrived over the years from great individuals starting great companies, not the government,” he added. “The government doesn’t create companies. The government doesn’t create jobs. The government can have an impact on the environment so companies can grow, once they’re started. The difference is highlighted locally as we have one of the top five congressional races out of 435 going on right here in Onondaga County, and the Republican and Democratic candidates couldn’t be more different. Then there’s the third-party candidate.”
Dadey believes that Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum could end up costing Ann Marie Buerkle or Dan Maffei the election.
English sees the Greens and other minor parties as addressing the frustrations they feel with the inability of the major parties to cooperate and function as well as reflecting their own ideas. He sees their impact growing, but is more concerned with getting his own party members out to the polls.
“For the election of 2013,” he maintained. “Democrats are going to have to mobilize that numerical superiority they have gained {in county voter registration}, and do a better job of getting their supporters out. A majority isn’t helpful if they don’t vote.”
Dadey observed that the Obama campaign registered a lot of people in 2008. “Are those people even still here?” he wondered. “Will they come and vote. In this county traditionally we have 20,000 people who just vote for president and then leave. One of the things that has been lost over the years in getting people out is we haven’t had a message. My job is to get the message out.”
Noting the high number of officeholders running unopposed on the Tuesday, Nov. 6, ballot, both agreed that money is the real deal in finding candidates. ”It speaks to the absurd role money is playing in our elections,” English said. “It’s intimidating to run for local or regional office and have to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes of your own money.”
Dadey quipped that sometimes it feels like we’ve got a one-party system—with the power of the incumbency—adding that an incumbent with a half-million dollars in the bank can be just too formidable an obstacle for a challenger.
When offered magic wands to totally transform the electoral process, neither English nor Dadey, both well grounded in the basics and traditions of their trade, had any really radical propositions. “Public campaign financing has to have a distinct role,” English said, “and it has to be apportioned fairly. Donations from corporations and individuals should be limited.”
Concluded Dadey: “This is a sport. It’s a contact sport. Sometimes it draws blood. We need to get back to politics as a golf match and there’s respect. Somebody’s going to win and somebody’s going to lose, but we can still be friends afterward.”
