There is an old joke that goes, "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out!" Well, the Democrats and the Republicans decided to hold an election, and Democracy Broke Out!
Imagine the surprise of the National Democratic Party and the National Republican Party when they decided to put together an election in New York District-23 with Tweedledee and Tweedledum as their candidates -- only to discover that the people of District-23 had had enough of the Wonderland of Washington.
Now there is no question that Bill Owens and Dede Scozzafava would both fit comfortably into the status quo in Washington -- either one could become an insider faster than the Jabberwock could burble through the tulgey wood.
But the people of New York -- and their allies who believe in democracy throughout the country -- have taken their vorpal blade in hand, and put an end to the candidacy of Scozzafava. Come Tuesday next, they threaten to do the same to Owens. The jaws that bite and the claws that catch are not those of the Jabberwock, but of the voters this time and both parties need beware.
With the sudden rise in the polls of Doug Hoffman -- a Conservative Party candidate who has captured some of the top endorsements in the country, the mood of the voters is becoming clear -- and it is not more of the same.
A similar fairytale is shaping up in Michigan's MI-19 district, where the two major parties have nominated their own Lewis Carroll characters. Marty Griffin, Democrat and Mike Nofs, Moderate, are squaring off to decide who can bankrupt Michigan first. So far, based upon past history, it is a dead heat.
Fortunately for the voters of MI-19, like the voters of NY-23, there is a conservative alternative in Independent candidate Steven Mobley. Without mixing too many more metaphors Mobley is fighting a real David v Goliath battle -- with two Goliaths to his one David. Nofs, or rather the Republican Party on Nofs' behalf, has dropped over $400,000 into the campaign, while Griffin has added another $35,000 to bolster his candidacy. Mobley, on the other hand, has only spent about $20,000 -- most of it his own money.
Like Hoffman in NY, Mobley is not a career politician, but a private citizen who has seen too much government waste -- too little government accountability -- and believes it is time for the citizens of Michigan to take back their state.
Mobley has worked in the automotive industry for more than twenty years before retiring from his job to campaign full time for the MI-19 seat. He has been an active participant in the Tea Party movement in Southern Michigan.
The NY-23 race and the MI-19 contest will be two early tests of whether the Tea Party protests of the summer and the online activism seen this year will bear fruit. After all, last year the Ron Paul campaign ignited a lot of smoke, but very little fire.
Activism in July is a wonderful thing. Whether it will translate into activism at the ballot box is another matter. Looking through the looking glass darkly, it appears that Americans are ready for real change -- and not the change we are seeing coming from Washington, Albany and Lansing.
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