Left: Democratic candidate for D.A. Gene Keeler. Right: Incumbent D.A. Paul Czajka. Sources: Greenport Democratic Committee, Czajka for DA web page
EDITORIAL NOTE: This site has interviewed both District Attorney candidates at length, and will soon publish a short series examining the race. Some limited material from those upcoming articles is included below as it pertains to this breaking news.
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In politics, it’s typically the incumbent who dodges calls for a candidate debate. There’s often no upside for the front-runner to give a challenger an opportunity to catch up.
Such refusals can backfire, as when senior House member Joe Crowley sent a surrogate to debate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who then whupped him in the 2018 Bronx primary. But unless the race is very close, it’s usual for the incumbent to say no, and for the challenger to cry foul at the refusal.
Here in the upside-down world of Columbia County elections, the “usual” situation has been oddly reversed: Democratic Party chair Keith Kanaga has refused a request from GOP chair Greg Fingar for their District Attorney candidates to debate.
Keeler would appear to have every reason to want and need a debate. Keeler served a lone term as D.A. way back in the 1980s—but did not run for re-election after his failure to put away Wiley Gates for murdering four people, including three family members in Kinderhook. (Convicted instead on lesser charges of conspiracy, Gates today is a free man, reportedly living under a new name.)
Keeler has since tried but failed repeatedly to regain his old job, losing for example in 2007 to Beth Cozzolino, and to current D.A. Paul Czajka in 2011. Keeler and Czajka debated that year. And in theory, his campaign should want another debate. Keeler could use the opportunity to showcase what he claims is a change of message, from one of relentlessly attacking his opponents to what he calls a “positive campaign” centered on social justice and “reform.” With Czajka the presumptive front-runner, Keeler also appears to be badly in need of one of those “gotcha” moments which debates sometimes generate.
Nevertheless, in an October 11th email responding to the Republican call for debate, Kanaga said that “we see no reason to accept this invitation,” citing “personal attacks on Gene Keeler on Facebook and in his advertising.”
That reason seems doubly ironic, given that in the 2011 campaign, Czajka willingly debated Keeler despite the Dem’s publication of an outlandish faux-tabloid newspaper, which consisted almost entirely of vicious attacks on his opponent’s character. (Keeler had similarly attacked his previous opponent, Beth Cozzolino, keeping these up even after he lost the November 2007 election.)
Keeler’s tabloid mailer prompted even the normally mild-mannered Parry Teasdale of The Columbia Paper to endorse Czajka, denouncing Keeler’s tactics as “political trash talk” which left his campaign “with not a shred of credibility.”
That reason seems doubly ironic, given that in the 2011 campaign, Czajka willingly debated Keeler despite the Dem’s publication of an outlandish faux-tabloid newspaper, which consisted almost entirely of vicious attacks on his opponent’s character. (Keeler had similarly attacked his previous opponent, Beth Cozzolino, keeping these up even after he lost the November 2007 election.)
Keeler’s tabloid mailer prompted even the normally mild-mannered Parry Teasdale of The Columbia Paper to endorse Czajka, denouncing Keeler’s tactics as “political trash talk” which left his campaign “with not a shred of credibility.”
Prior to the debate decision, when asked via text message if he would participate, Keeler gave an evasive (and somewhat illiterate answer) about “waiting for a campaign decision fingar sent kanaga a request for a debate.” When this reporter suggested it would be fascinating to listen in on a back-and-forth between Fingar and Kanaga, Keeler misunderstood the suggestion and blew up: “Do you know they have ignored me for twenty years -now this race I am at the center of their attention? Asking me for a debate? What’s that about?”
Keeler then added a personal attack on the mental health of both Fingar and Czajka. In other direct messages, he likewise attempted to steer this reporter to negative information about Czajka.
Once Kanaga’s declination came to light, Keeler did not respond to a query about the public’s interest in having candidates debate. He also did not address a question about whether refusing to debate could be seen as undermining his campaign claims about public openness and collaborative justice. Instead, Keeler thundered that “This race is not about me or my career. That’s over. This is my last attempt to put the criminal justice system on the right path. Cedar Park has a spot for me next to my parents.”
Asked to respond to the Keeler camp’s refusal, Czajka replied that “Believing voters deserve the benefit of observing candidates debate so as to enable them to make informed decisions (and, not unselfishly, believing I excel in such settings), I have debated every one of my opponents in all 4 of my contested elections. Therefore, I am very disappointed we will have no debate this year.”
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So why would the underdog in an election go to such lengths to avoid debate? The decision (and the reasons given) are likely to send the message that the Keeler campaign does not think a debate would favor their guy.
The likely reason is that Kanaga and the County Dems are hoping Keeler might sneak back into office thanks to the continued wave of anti-Trump sentiment. Antonio Delgado managed to beat incumber John Faso for Congress, with a big assist from Democratic rage over the 2016 election.
Unlike Delgado, however, Keeler does not come across as cogently and compellingly as Delgado, especially against the more polished and experienced Czajka. In this scenario, the Democrats have every reason to keep their candidate under wraps, and hope he can succeed based on pure partisan turnout, rather than on the merits which debates are able to highlight.
Even more surprising after so many decades is that the Democrats are still running the same candidate who keeps losing. Perhaps voter registration has turned over enough to put Dem over the top, regardless of their local profile. However, several local Democratic candidates have expressed concern that fielding Keeler again will mainly hurt their chances in Town races, as the Czajka team turns out Republican voters who might otherwise stay home in a relatively quiet election year.
Whatever the reason, this decision may come back to haunt the Dems in some future election cycle, when they want one of their candidates to spar in a debate with a Republican. Now the GOP will have the perfect excuse to pick and choose when they make their own candidates available.
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