Letter: endorsement for Jamie Cheney for Congress

To my neighbors:

I seldom say things as others do. I’ll make no exception here. I’ve agonized over my choice for the Democrat to best represent us in Congress. We’ve been blessed with not one, but two exceedingly-qualified, closely-matched candidates to face Republican Marc Molinaro in November: Josh Riley and Jamie Cheney. I’m endorsing Jamie Cheney. Here’s why.

Last March, I secured from my Enfield constituents 119 petition signatures to put Josh Riley onto our Primary ballot. I said I believed Josh was the best of seven candidates to lead us. But the district was different then than it is now, and so was the candidate field. A judge redrew the lines. Tompkins County now gazes east, not north. For us, Josh Riley remains the only link between past and present.

Both Josh Riley and Jamie Cheney are bright, articulate, and personable. Either will serve us well in Congress. But neither will get there without first beating Marc Molinaro in November. And it is the winnability factor, I believe, that now gives Jamie Cheney the edge.

My choice came only in recent days after watching — and then re-watching — the WSKG August 11th debate. The question of an assault weapons ban drew the evening’s starkest contrast. Josh Riley evaded a straight-up answer; he hedged as if trying to sidestep some lethal Republican land mine. The calculating policy wonk, Riley said he’d only commit to support “H.R. 1808” (whatever that is).

Jamie Cheney spoke differently. She talked of her young son asking on his ride to school whether he should hide in the bathroom or climb out the window if a school shooter came that day. “I absolutely support a ban on assault weapons,” Cheney said without qualification. “We are traumatizing a generation of children in real time.”

There, friends, lies the difference. Josh Riley spoke from a briefing book. Jamie Cheney spoke from her heart.

May 29th, on “Meet the Press,” Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher termed this “The Year of the Angry Mom.” Who will better draw those Angry Moms to our side? We need Independent and Republican crossover women voters to win in this competitive, deep-purple district.

And one thing more: I’ll call it the “authenticity edge.” You can never hide who you really are. Josh Riley, despite his working class Endicott roots, speaks and acts as the slickly-polished, beltway-drawn, Harvard-educated lawyer that he is: a touch-too-smart-by-half at times. By contrast, Jamie Cheney, though an accomplished professional in her own right, stands foremost in my mind as partner on a 70-head beef farm. She knows the smell of the barn. Jamie Cheney is genuine.

If she had the time, I’m sure Jamie Cheney would travel to each of the hundreds of Enfield households I’ve visited during each of my two campaigns, selling herself to you, one-on-one. I’m not sure Josh Riley would do that.

Please join me August 23rd in electing Jamie Cheney as our Democratic nominee for Congress. You’ll make the right choice.

Robert Lynch
Councilperson
Town of Enfield