Ready for Change in the Polls?

Local delegates for Barack Obama hold event to draw attention to their candidate—and to assert that the senator from New York doesn’t have her home state in the bag

Albany Common Councilwoman Carolyn McLaughlin (Ward 2) had something exciting happen to her while visiting the bank the other day. “There was a lady; I don’t know her, I have never seen her before in my life. She saw my Barack Obama button, and she said, ‘He is going to be our next president.’ ”

McLaughlin is an Obama delegate, along with a number of Capital Region politicos including Common Councilman Corey Ellis (Ward 3) and Anton Konev, and they have been energized by Obama’s victory in the Iowa caucuses. Despite Obama’s second-place showing in New Hampshire, the shape of the Democratic primaries has shifted because of Obama’s newfound viability.

Ellis said that he has recently spoken to once-decided voters who are now more willing to consider voting for Obama. “We have literally been changing some people’s minds. They are taking a second look at Sen. Obama for president. We want people to look at the policies that people are running on, and if they do that they will be swept up by this movement.”

Pundits have asserted that Obama’s Iowa win has established him as a viable candidate and that voters who once backed away from him because they were unsure of his electibility have now reconsidered him as not only a viable candidate but their first choice.

Konev, Ellis and McLaughlin held a press conference this week to draw attention to their candidate and announce that they were Obama delegates; and while it may seem like a tame move, some see their early support for Obama as defying a longstanding Albany tradition. Instead of biding their time to see whom committees endorse, McLaughlin and Ellis have taken their own path.

Ellis sees this as a result of “candidates of change” being elected all over Albany. Candidates, he said, who are independent of old-school Albany politics.

McLaughlin said that her support, and what she sees as rising support for Obama in the community, is a price Clinton has to pay for her neglect of the area. “Mrs. Clinton has taken Albany County for granted, and by doing that she has opened the door for Obama to come in. I think what is going on, what took place Iowa and in New Hampshire, is only going to transcend to Albany County.”

McLaughlin feels that Clinton has all but ignored the areas of Albany that need the most help. “There are only certain areas of New York state she has played to. I know in the eight years she has been in office that whenever she has come to Albany, she has only been to one event in the community I represent. She came to the neighborhood to see what our needs are when No Child Left Behind was announced; other than that, I can’t get her in our backyard. We need somebody to listen to the people and help change things.”

McLaughlin thinks that Clinton will find herself in a battle to win her home state on Super Tuesday. “Traditionally you are supposed to win in your home state, but the way things are going she is going to have to fight for that. She can’t just assume she is going to win New York state. In your own state it is supposed to be no contest, but I don’t think it will happen here. It will be a contest because of the message he is sending.”

Ellis thinks Obama is the kind of candidate that will listen and will change things. Ellis sees Obama as cut from the same cloth as the slew of candidates in Albany who have been elected in the past few years—thanks to their community activism, and despite the will of entrenched politicians.

“We want to show people we are independent thinkers,” said McLaughlin, “that we know a good message when we hear it, one that is good for this county, good for this community. I was behind him when he first announced, and I am excited about being a delegate and going to the convention in Denver.”

—David King

dking@metroland.net