Maloney Wrote A Book Saying Her Best Is Not Good Enough

"You may have heard the rumors: The glass ceiling has been shattered. Gender discrimination has gone the way of the woolly mammoth. Violence against women is under control....."

Carolyn Maloney can not do better than she has already done. She has had 18 years in Congress. That was enough time to do what she needed to do, for herself and for others. There is a reason presidents get limited to eight years. Eight years are enough. If you can not do in eight years, you can not do in more than eight years. But 18? That is way more than enough.

Carolyn Maloney's time is up. It is time for fresh perspectives, a new leadership. The torch needs to be passed to a new generation.

Carolyn Maloney has been piloting the Apollo 13. Mission Not Accomplished.

It is time for a new pilot, it is time for a new mission. It is time to go to the moon.

Carolyn Maloney Recycles Hillary Clinton "Endorsement" On Campaign Website

The Upper East Side congresswoman's website shows an apparent endorsement from the former senator..... Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has proposed a spate of immigration and economic development bills that challenger Reshma Saujani said borrow from her own ideas. ........ As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton can't endorse political candidates. But that hasn't stopped Carolyn Maloney from recycling an old quote and using an image of Clinton to make it look like the former senator is backing the Upper East Side congresswoman's reelection bid.

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Reshma Laxmi Saujani: Third Bumper Quarter In A Row

Image of Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani has had three bumper quarters in a row. During Q4 of 2009 she raised twice as much as Maloney. Reshma has been raising money like she were an incumbent. The powers that be will have you believe she has raised her $1.2 million so far from maybe four or five Wall Street PACs. That is the lie that is being circulated over and over again. She has not taken a dime in PAC money, either from Wall Street or from any other industry. Maloney on the other hand has taken a ton of Wall Street PAC money, including through some fundraisers that might have been ethics violations. All of Reshma's money has come from individual contributions. Some people working on Wall Street might have given the legal max, and their spouses might have given the legal max, but mostly Reshma has been riding on the strength of small donors spread across the district.

(Laxmi, by the way, would be the Hindu goddess for wealth.)

She did work on Wall Street. But she did not invent it. I wish she had. We would not have had the meltdown we just had. Maloney, on the other hand, was in Congress when Congress passed all those deregulatory laws that brought about the meltdown. Maloney is responsible for the Great Recession.

Reshma has been for Wall Street reform from day one. She has stood with Barack Obama on this one. Carolyn Maloney voted for the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. She used to be a Bush Democrat. Now suddenly I am to think she has become an Obama Democrat? I have my suspicions. I was one of Obama's earliest supporters in New York City. I know an Obama Democrat when I see one. Maloney is not one.

Carolyn Maloney has not been for Wall Street reform. She might have voted with the herd, but she has been responsible for some of the watering down of the reform efforts that has been going on behind the scenes.

To reform Wall Street, you have to understand how it works. Maloney does not understand how it works. Reshma does.

What Reshma has been opposed to is a wholescale demonization of Wall Street. That she has opposed. That she opposes. Carolyn Maloney on the other hand has exhibited multiple personalities on the issue. She has participated in a wholescale demonization of the bread and butter industry of the city she claims to represent, she has claimed she has been in some kind of a leadership role for Wall Street reform, she has worked behind the scenes to water down the reform efforts in exchange for campaign cash from Wall Street PACs. These conflicting tendencies come from political dishonesty, desperation in the face of a serious political challenge, and a fundamental lack of knowledge of an industry she does not really know what to make of. Heck, I don't know a whole lot about nano tech either. It's not just her.

Politico.com: Maggie Haberman On New York: Saujani's Quarter Haul

raised nearly $400,000 in the last quarter, for the third straight period. ..... $373,333 is money for the primary, which is the strongest quarter she's had so far in terms of money for the pre-general matchup. She raised $394,000 overall this quarter, and $1.2 million for the race. ....... 7,250 signatures ..... only 25 percent of her donors are affiliated with the banking industry. ...... Sixty-eight percent of donations this quarter were $250 or less. .....the first time in 18 years that Maloney will have a challenger on the primary ballot, and Saujani did it with volunteers, and no political clubs. .... Saujani's cash-on-hand is $426,000

Washington Post Video: Reshma Saujani On Bloomberg TV

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Chris Matthews Repeated The Lie That Reshma Is Wall Street's Candidate

Image via Wikipedia

Getting on Hardball is the next best thing to getting Maloney to debate you for all the exposure, but I lost a little respect for Chris Matthews when I watched the clip when he had Reshma on his show.

Basically he was saying to Reshma, you are Wall Street's candidate. And he read from a list of her donors. Many of them were people working for the various banks in New York City. Well, Chris, have you heard of the Upper East Side? There is a reason Democrats across the country come to the Upper East Side of New York City to raise money. There is a reason Obama and Pelosi had a fundraiser on the Upper East Side a few months back. There are a lot of moneyed people living on the Upper East Side. And that Upper East Side is part of District 14, the district Reshma is seeking to represent in Congress. If people in your district are making individual contributions to you, where is the mud in the picture?

Reshma Saujani And The Chris Matthews Band

The real story is as to how she has managed to raise all this money. During the last quarter of 2009, Reshma outraised Maloney two to one. She is obviously tapping into a hunger for leadership that a lot of Upper East Siders feel. Maloney comes across as vacuous to many of them.

Reshma Is Better At Raising Money, Way Better

Maloney on the other hand has been taking PAC money from Wall Street. T-h-a-t is Wall Street's candidate. Reshma has not taken a dime in PAC money. She has had hundreds of people who have given the legal max. But she also has hundreds of people donating to her small sums of 20 dollars and 60 dollars and 200 dollars. This has been a very grassroots effort. And if a house party in Astoria is grassroots, so is a house party on the Upper East Side.

Maloney has not only taken gobs of PAC money from Wall Street, she just might have crossed the line recently when she out and out organized a fundraiser among Wall Street people when at the same time she was supposed to be shaping Wall Street reform. There might have been an ethics violation. Where is the outrage? Where is the investigation?

And then there is the policy part. Reshma has been for reform for Wall Street from the very beginning. She stands with Obama on this one. And she feels like she is also standing for her constituents who work on Wall Street. Because only a reformed Wall Street has a bright future.

Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post

And then there is the issue of just knowing what you are talking about. Having worked on Wall Street for a few years after having earned degrees from three of the fanciest schools in the country - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Harvard, Yale Law - when Reshma talks Wall Street reform, that is like a doctor talking medical issues. I trust Reshma on Wall Street reform like I trust Dr. Howard Dean on health care reform. Dean actually is a medical doctor. He would know a thing or two about health care. Don't you think? Maloney has none of the expertise but all the hot air on the topic. All of a sudden I am supposed to think Maloney is a woman of the people? Give me a break.

Reshma's Wall Street experience is a plus. That makes her informed.

She is the national leader to the tech sector. There her appeal is bi-coastal. Her appeal is national.

Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech

Maloney takes Wall Street PAC money, and Reshma does not, and she is the Wall Street's candidate? If we are going to blame Reshma for the Great Recession, we might as well blame her for the earthquake in Haiti. That is so misplaced that I am going to call it demonization. Maloney, on the other hand, can partly be blamed for the Gulf Oil Spill. She owns oil stocks. Don't tell me that did not shape her motivations when she voted the way she voted on oil over the past decade. Follow the damn money.

There is a term in Hindi: safed jhooth. Or, white lie. When someone looks straight in the eye, and says something utterly untrue, that is a white lie. Calling Reshma Wall Street's puppet candidate is a white lie.

And then there are people who make it sound like her having gone to Harvard and Yale is a bad thing. Obama went to Harvard. Clinton went to Yale. Reshma went to both. Look at it that way, because that is the only right way to look at it.

Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016

So stop demonizing Reshma Saujani and start instead asking as to why Maloney refuses to debate her. Debating is the essence of democracy. The people deserve an open discussion. The two candidates need to tell the people in the district as to where they stand on all the issues.

Debating Is "Stunt" In A Maloney Democracy
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney

Reshma is not Wall Street's candidate. Reshma is a candidate for a district that a lot of Wall Street workers live in. Reshma is a candidate for Wall Street reform. Reshma is the only candidate in this race who has not taken PAC money. Stop spreading the white lie that Reshma is Wall Streets' candidate.

It is a sorry day for democracy when a reputed journalist like Chris Matthews repeats a white lie.

And you want me to tell you how Reshma Saujani and Carolyn Maloney are different from each other? Where do you want me to begin? I'd like to start with the brains part.

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An Afternoon At The Reshma 2010 Headquarters

I was at the Reshma 2010 headquarters for a few hours this afternoon: 833 Broadway. The highlight was I made 70 phone calls, and made 10 contacts with voters. It did not feel like a Buzzd office shared with Reshma 2010. It felt the other way round. There were many more Reshma 2010 staffers and interns. (Buzzd)

In my mind I have been toying with the idea of going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. But that might or might not be the best fit for me and/or Reshma 2010. We will have to see about that. (My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14) If I end up with a formal role, it is likely going to be amorphous.

The campaign is not in top shape right now. If the elections were held today, we would lose. Two words: name recognition. But the campaign is promising. I see victory possible. September 14 could be ours. But there has to be a willingness to try out new things, to push the envelope. But we can not be worrying about poll numbers right now, this is why: February To September: Little Change.

If we emerge victorious, September 14 is going to be the second most glowing item on Kevin Lawler's resume, the first being the Obama victory in Iowa in January 2008. Kevin was there. (My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010) He told me some of the war stories. I hope to ask him more about that experience. Without that Iowa victory, Hillary might have been president.

The first debate is going to be our Iowa. We really, really have to win that first debate with Maloney.

We have to hold mock debates. A few different people could step in for Maloney.

I asked Aaron why we don't canvass the East Side the way we canvass Astoria and Long Island City. He said it is because on the East Side we have these huge buildings that we can't get into. And at that moment an idea struck me. Take a look at this site called NYC Bloggers. It lists about 7,000 bloggers by subway stop. People on the East Side have to be digitally savvy. We should perhaps create a blogroll of all the bloggers in our district, and we have to engage them. We read their blog posts, leave comments for them, engage them, and gently guide them over to the Reshma 2010 website. This might work better than reaching out to the community newspapers, or working the subway stops. If there are 1,000 bloggers listed in our district, and each such blogger has at least 10 readers in the district, that is 10,000 people!

This NYC Bloggers idea is no argument against community newspapers, community leaders, and community events though.

There are three types of campaigning.

1. Targeted Campaigning. And we seem to spend a lot of our time and resources on this one. We know who the potential voters for September 14 are. And we try our best to reach out to them, to identify them, to target them. 
2. Broadcast Campaigning. This is when you put out an ad in the New York Times (Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website) or when we work a subway stop. Or when our candidate gets media coverage. Not everyone who reads a newspaper article about Reshma Saujani is a potential voter. But getting that buzz is still important. If a potential voter has already heard of her through broadcast campaigning, it becomes easier to reach out to them through target campaigning. Right now most voters are not even paying attention. Primaries tend to be low turnout events in the first place. But the real mad dash to the finish line will begin with the debates. 
3. Getting First Time Voters. This is key. The Maloney campaign might match us in the first two categories, and we have to make up for that by reaching out to people who might otherwise not even bother voting on September 14. We have to appeal to the New Woman on the East Side. 

Talking about the New Woman and the East Side, I spent my first 15 minutes at the Reshma 2010 offices staring at the three huge maps of the district, the district split into three. That was revealing to me. The backbone of the district is the East Side. Unless we can compete with Maloney on the East Side, we can't win. And there is no reason why we can't. Reshma had a lot of early donors on the Upper East Side. You compete on the East Side, and you beat with the votes in Astoria and Long Island City. But the big chunk of the votes are on Manhattan's East Side.

• Manhattan
• Queens

Within a week, the Reshma 2010 headquarters will be moving to a bigger space in Midtown. The office could use a few netbooks - $300 each - and a few Metro PCS family plan phones: unlimited talk. 

My best phone call of the day was with a voter with whom I deviated from the script. So would you say you are very political? I asked. The guy got flattered. He took over the conversation. He told me how strongly he felt about the various issues. He said he had been voting a long, long time. He said he thought Obama was a "weak president" for not having passed immigration reform already. Finally he said, don't waste your time on me, I am already committed to voting for Reshma, go talk to someone else.

So I am working the phone, and a Buzzd staffer walks by. He points at me and exclaims, "Barackface!" And walks away. That's right, I say.

"How do you know him?" Aaron asks me.

"I don't."

Aaron gets impressed. 

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010
My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney
My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010
Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India
Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website
Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt
Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016
Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech
Reshma Saujani: Innovation, Ethnic Pride, Thought Leadership

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