`Evil Elise’ is becoming more and more prominent and that should concern us
Stefanik dismisses fellow Republican Lochner and her concerns about tone
By Ken Tingley
In July 2013, 29-year-old Elise Stefanik told The Post-Star, “I’m concerned about the direction of this country.”
In recent weeks, Stefanik has promoted election conspiracy theories, questioned prosecutors intent on enforcing the rule of law and decided that Congress should be in charge of school curriculum.
I don’t know about you, but I’m much more concerned about the direction of our country today than I was 10 years ago.
So sitting here, I wonder which one of Elise Stefanik’s positions over the past year finally pushed Jill Lochner over the edge.
What made this 41-year-old mom with four kids from Greenfield in Saratoga County suddenly decide to go toe-to-toe with this tweeting maelstrom of hate that the North Country continues to love.
“I have witnessed our leadership lose their moral compass to their own political ambitions and partisanship,” Lochner wrote on her website. “As a lifelong Republican, it’s painfully clear our party needs to correct the course not only for the best of our great democracy but for our Nation.”
She says she is an old-fashioned moderate Republican.
She says she is a fiscal conservative.
She supports small government and local business.
She’s a strong proponent of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.
She supports stronger border policies.
She says she wants to see New York’s bail system repealed.
She wants increased funding for police and first responders.
She sounds like the type of Republican we used to have around here by the dozens.
In fact, she sounds a lot like Elise Stefanik did in 2014 before her Evil Twin appeared.
So here is the reality check.
Jill Lochner has no government or political experience.
She has no money, no political support, no campaign apparatus of any significance.
Heck, the Jill Lochner for Congress” Twitter feed has been active once February.
She is no threat to Rep. Elise Stefanik.
So how did the Stefanik people respond this week.
They dismissed Jill Lochner.
They tried to step on her like a pesky bug.
“This is yet another candidate who has zero ties to the district, will get zero support and will not even qualify for the ballot,” he said. “Elise has earned a landslide victory every election and has never had stronger support among both primary and general election voters in NY-21.”
This is how they treated a fellow Republican.
At least he didn’t tag her with a “Joker Jill” nickname. I supposed that will come later.
Why say anything?
Why not welcome her to the race and say you are looking forward to discussing the issues.
Maybe what Jill Lochner has going for her is that she is a real person, who know the issues that her friends and neighbors are facing who has a moral compass. You want to scare the hell out of a politician, it’s when their opponent makes more sense than they do.
Lochner says she is disappointed in the local Republican Party. Heck, those local folks won’t even take her phone calls. So much for democracy.
“The loudest, angriest voices get all the attention,” she said last week when announcing her run, “and it gives a bad impression.”
One of the loudest, angriest voices has been Rep. Stefanik and you don’t have to look much farther than her Tweets from this past week.
If you look at her weekly newsletter to constituents, she talks about it being her “greatest honor to represent” us in Congress.
She sprinkles in local issues that are important to us like how to combat invasive species.
There is an entirely different tone on her Twitter feed.
It’s as if she has an evil twin.
She warned us all this week that if the Manhattan district attorney can go after Trump, he can come after, well, all of us.
I just want to say up front to Mr. Bragg, I paid all those parking tickets in college.
She worries about the “radical” left and the “Biden crime family” while still talking about election conspiracies.
And then there was this: “This is unAmerican and the Far Left has reached a dangerous new low, aligning themselves with the actions of radical dictators.”
Oh my!
Why didn’t the nice Elise include any of this in her newsletter.
On Jan. 19, 2014, Elise told The Post-Star she was committed to running a positive campaign that is focused on regional issues.
Jill Lochner will be glad to hear that.
A must read
Diane Kennedy, the executive director of the New York News Publishers Association, co-wrote an op-ed for the Times-Union that explains the importance of local news and why it needs protecting.
If you are going to read anything this week, read this:
Elevate conversation
As the first speaker in the “Elevate the Conversation” series hosted by the St. Lawrence County Democratic Committee, I figured the bar was high.
But that’s where it should be.
The conversation about our politics and the divide in this country should be a high bar.
There were some 40 folks in attendance and several news outlets were represented as well. Unfortunately, I don’t think there were many Republicans. I hope that changes.
My goal was to restore some trust in community news and the media in general. I hope I got the conversation started.
Tom Graser of the Watertown Daily Times wrote this story about the event.
More bad news
We had more bad news about climate change this week and it’s sad that it hardly gets a mention. I don’t know what more to say about it, so I’ll let Gretta Thunberg speak for me.
Options open
By any measure, Joseph Girard III has had an outstanding college basketball career. He was a four-year starter at Syracuse and averaged over 16 points per game his senior year when he finally got to play the shooting guard position.
But for a player who won three state titles in high school - two football and one basketball - it had to be difficult sitting out during the post season the past two years.
So Girard is testing the waters. He announced in a Tweet - really Joe you couldn’t have called your hometown newspaper - that he was entering the transfer portal and considering the NBA draft. Girard also has the option of returning to Syracuse in what may be a rebuilding year for the Orange.
Adam Zagoria of Basketball Insider tweeted this weekend that 10 different schools have already reached out to Girard.
He says that Girard was scheduled to visit Butler on Sunday, Stanford on Monday and LSU on Tuesday.
She is as worthless as they come. Her generation and some of ours are completely destroying the Republican party. It is so unbelievable that people in this state won't admit that. I am so glad that I got away from that party! It's a disgrace and embarrassment to this country!
I think you pretty much said everything, Ken. She is strong on guns, it's true. And she is in pictures smiling with election deniers, and clearly wants to rise with Trump- corrupt, cruel, dangerous, someone who lies all the time and has, as his mission, to have power and overthrow our democracy. Her "mission" of greed and power is clear--what i cannot understand is how and why my neighbors and our district support someone who has no principles....., no honesty, no integrity.
Stefanik repeats the same insipid words about the "extreme left wing dangerous Biden and Democrats", policies which all democrat countries support and already have: health care, family leave, child care subsidies, workers rights to organize...Stefanik might have supported the suffragetes a long time ago but i do not think she supports the ERA, or rights of women, blacks, gays, poor, working people or the rights of our earth, or the rights of parents and teachers, or voting rights or truth and justice for all....o . As someone who has taught for over 30 years, who loves to see people grow into their deepest and richest selves, who loves diverse voices and biodiversity in nature,Ii am horrified by her notion of "parental rights" --her wanting to control and restrict, not educate and deepen curiosity, learning, exploration, understanding...truth.