Stefanik protests link with Young Republican far right ties
Gov. Hochul says she will sign the Death with Dignity bill into law
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This past weekend, Politico reported that the New York Young Republicans Club that honored Stefanik in August threw a swanky gala in lower Manhattan where a white supremacist leader and 19 members of the far right Alternative for Germany Party were present.
How far right?
Apparently, they like to chant Nazi slogans.
“It became clear on Saturday that the club was willing to welcome even the fringiest members of the far right when white nationalists and Nazi slogan–chanting far-right German leaders attended the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala,” Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling of The New Republic wrote in an article titled “Elise Stefanik Tries to Scrub Ties to Org That Invited Nazis to Party.”
After the news about the gala guests broke, Politico pointed out Stefanik joined the New York Young Republicans Club in 2022 and cited an online announcement from the club celebrating her membership.
“The New York Young Republican Club is proud to announce that Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (NY-21) has joined as the newest member of the Club! At 37 years young, Congresswoman Stefanik is the third-highest ranking member of the Republican Caucus in the House of Representatives as Conference Chair. She is the most powerful New York Republican in Congress since Congressman Jack Kemp, who served as Conference Chair over thirty years ago,” the announcement from Jan. 5, 2022 reads.
A day after Politico’s story, Stefanik’s campaign wrote on social media she was never a member and accused Politico of doing the work of the Democrats.
So Politico checked its reporting and found on Stefanik’s social media account a tweet from the Young Republicans’ then-president that said he was “proud to announce that @EliseStefanik has joined as the newest member of the Club!”
It showed Rep. Stefanik retweeted it.
So did one of her top aides.
Despite the evidence this week, Stefanik continued to deny she was ever a member. Houghtaling found Stefanik’s name on the club’s website in October, but noted it had disappeared.
Politico also found that Stefanik donated $500 to the club in 2021, and the club thanked her for being a “generous donor.”
The New Republic also reported that Stefanik’s senior adviser, Alex deGrasse, wrote on X in 2021 that he was “a proud member” of the club as well.
After all this, Stefanik’s campaign admitted that Stefanik was listed by the club in an “honorary capacity, but was never a dues-paying member of the club.”
Does that really matter?
Imagine what Stefanik’s people could do if they used the same amount of energy to solve the health care crisis.
The New Republic’s Houghtaling concluded that Stefanik has been trying to erase her history with the New York Young Republican Club “after they invited racists and German white supremacists to their annual party.”
Definitely a bad look for a gubernatorial candidate.
Actually, it is a bad look for any American.
Back in August, the New York Young Republicans Club - which held the gala last Saturday - honored her with their “Congresswoman of the Year Award.”
This was the “backbone” of Elise Stefanik’s party.
Stefanik rightly denounced the New York group, and it was later disbanded by the national chapter.
It’s another reminder that, after 10 years in Congress, we still don’t know what she stands for.
Why is she in public service?
What has she done to make the lives of constituents better?
The answers to those questions are elusive, because she rarely answers questions anymore, at least not in her own district.
Elise Stefanik’s legacy will not be about her public service but her political power and how she lost it.
After being passed over twice for a position in the Trump cabinet, she is taking the odd gamble of running for governor in a blue state as an ultra-MAGA Republican and is now being challenged by a Long Island Republican few know.
She appears desperate to find relevance.
She also recently got into a tiff with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
In a front page story in the New York Times on Dec. 5, reporter Annie Karni wrote in the first paragraph of the story, “Representative Elise Stefanik of New York called Speaker Mike Johnson a habitual liar.”
That would have been shocking 10 years ago, but after covering Stefanik since her first campaign for Congress, I figure it takes one to know one.
Hochul to sign
The Times Union reported on Wednesday that Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law in January after the Legislature passes an amended version of the bill.
She called it her most difficult decision as governor.
New York will become the 13th state in the nation to establish a process by which the terminally ill can take their own lives.
Support for ethics
The North Country Light Brigade was out in force to support the Queensbury Ethics Board’s ruling that Town Board members could not hold Town Board positions and leadership positions in political parties at the same time.
Town Board member Tim McNulty continues to ignore the ruling by the Ethics Board. The Ethics Board will meet Friday to fine-tune the language for the town’s ethics policy.
Missing the point
While cable news outlets relentlessly covered the the Vanity Fair interview with President Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, its real meaning seemed to elude most.
During the course of 11 interviews with the reporter, Wiles admitted that the president had used the Department of Justice and the FBI to resolve his own personal vendettas.
At any other time in our history, the president would be immediately impeached.
Then, came special prosecutor Jack Smith’s testimony to Congress that President Trump was guilty behind any shadow of a doubt in a scheme to overturn the election of President Biden in 2020.
That is an attempted coup.
That is treason.
It was an attempt to subvert democracy.
“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Smith said in his opening remarks, according to excerpts obtained by Democracy Docket.
Good advertising
The headline grabbed me. It was on Page B3 in the New York Times and it read “I’m giving away everything owned by the company.”
It was Tim Boyle, the CEO of Columbia Sportswear.
Apparently, Boyle was doing his part to combat conspiracy theories. In this case, the people who reject thousands of years of scientific evidence and still believe the Earth is flat.
“I’ve seen your manifestos, admired your diagrams, watched you stand proudly on your, well, flat earth. So here’s the deal: its time to put your map where your mouth is,” Boyle writes in the ad.
He challenged the group to find the edge of the earth and take a photo of it. He promised that if they took the photo while wearing Columbia clothing, he would give them the entire company.
“Good luck out there,” Boyle concluded in the ad. “I’ll be right here, keys in hand, waiting.”
The tongue-in-cheek message was part of a creative ad campaign.
“This is another example of Columbia’s mission to channel the bold, irreverent energy that has long defined the brand, while illustrating our legacy of durability and innovation — highlighting the extremes our gear can go through, even to the ends of the Earth,” Boyle said in describing the ad campaign. “Which don’t actually exist, but try telling Flat-Earthers that.”
Cell phone ban
The Glens Falls school district banned cell phones this school year, so North Country Public Radio took a closer look this past week to see how things were going.
Apparently, pretty well.
“One of the biggest things [we’ve noticed since the cell phone ban started is] our students are talking to each other,” Glens Falls Principal Kevin Warren told NCPR.
NCPR quotes a recent survey of 300 New York school districts with phone bans. It found the the phone ban was going smoothly and 80 percent reported an improvement in classroom environment and student engagement.
Military hunger
North County Public Radio reported tis week that more and more military families at Fort Drum are asking for food assistance.
NCPR cites a 2023 report from the Military Family Advisory Network that found one in five military and veteran families experience food insecurity.
It is one in four for active-duty military.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book “The Last American Newspaper” into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
"Elise Stefanik’s legacy will not be about her public service but her political power and how she lost it."
Stefanik is currently 19 points behind Hochul in the gubernatorial race, according to the latest Siena Research Institute poll. Perhaps one reason for this is that voters are looking at Stefanik and seeing who she really is.
Stefanik has a history of supporting and endorsing pedophiles, anti semites, racists and felons.
Trump, George Santos and Carl Palidino are just a few who come to mind.
Her calling Mike Johnson a habitual liar shows a supreme lack of self awareness.
I question her judgement, her morals and her ethics.
And I have always questioned her loyalty to the people she serves and to the US Constitution.