September 12th was the Democratic Primary. Most registered Democrats who voted in our district got to their voting location, signed their name in the big book with all the signatures, went behind the heavy curtain, pulled the big crank from right to left, scanned all the names in front of them, and when they got to the area for congressperson, they wondered, “who the hell is Jessica Flagg?” Since they didn’t recognize the name, they probably voted for Jessica Flagg’s opponent, Eliot Engel. Mr. Engel has been the Congressman for the 17th District for the last 18 years and he supports the Iraq war.
I was one of the lucky people who knew who Jessica Flagg was when I got to the voting machine. This is how I found out about her. I have a mile walk to the train station from my apartment. I left my building on the morning of September 12th and a quarter of a mile into the walk I passed the first voting location at PS 141. There were two people handing out flyers for the Spitzer/Clinton/Green/Engel slate. There was a third person handing out flyers on green paper for Jessica Flagg. I took both flyers and continued my walk. As I walked I quickly read both flyers. Jessica Flagg was against the war in Iraq, she wanted to impeach both Bush and Cheney and she was calling for universal health insurance. A half mile later I noticed a woman stapling a green advertisement to a telephone pole. She looked familiar. I looked at the flyer I was given at PS 141 and confirmed that the woman doing the stapling was Jessica Flagg. I walked up to her and engaged her in conversation. We spoke briefly about the issues. I confirmed that she was an environmentalist. I assured her that I would vote for her after work. She asked if I would volunteer for her campaign. I told her that I might be able to dedicate a few hours after I got home from work. She gave me her card then I left to catch my train.
After work I was walking home from the train station and I saw the district’s congressman, Eliot Engel, campaigning in front of the PS 141 voting location. He was with two other veteran politicians from the area; Councilman Oliver Koppel and Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz. I called Jessica Flagg and arranged to meet one of her volunteers at PS 141. The volunteer gave me some flyers and receded to a far street corner to hand them out. I positioned myself ten feet away from Eliot Engel. Every time someone approached the voting station to vote, one of the two lesser politicians said, “This is your congressman, Eliot Engel.” The voters would then shake his hand and have a brief conversation with him. When they broke off to go and vote, it was my turn to accost them. I would offer them a Jessica Flagg flyer and say, “Jessica Flagg is running for congress against Eliot Engel. She’s against the Iraq war.” This interchange took place over and over again for about an hour and a half. Most people took the flyer. Some people looked at me as if I were crazy. Some people wanted clarification and thanked me for the information.
After a while I said to Mr. Engel, “No offense, but I believe that we need more turnover of our Congressmen and Congresswomen, and you’ve already been in office 18 years.” He assured me that I had every right to be there and campaign against him, then he added, “I think we should have more turnover in Congress too, but I don’t think we should be turning Democratic seats into Republican ones.” I didn’t answer him and the conversation stopped at that point, but I wanted to respond, “That is a rationalization Mr. Engel because the redrawing of the district’s boundaries that you oversaw in the late 1990’s ensured that no Republican would ever win in this district.”
The reason most people don’t know about Jessica Flagg is because she was not able to get any big donors to contribute to her campaign; she raised less than $5,000. Eliot Engel, on the other hand, raised approximately $631,976 (according to www.campaignmoney.com) for his campaign which gave him an insurmountable advantage in this race. That's an order of magnitude of 100 to 1 to spend on marketing and public relations. Ms. Flagg didn’t stand a chance. The receipt of these monies from large corporate donors renders Mr. Engel ineffectual in his oversight duties related to Congress’s responsibility to regulate industry.
I didn’t agree with everything Jessica Flagg wanted to do if she had won the election, but I felt she was a much stronger candidate than Mr. Engel. Some of here stances that I agreed with were 1) Campaign finance reform to end corporate “ pay to play” influence, 2) Close Guantanamo prison camp and stop all torture, 3) Commit to clean, safe, renewable energies such as geothermal, solar, wind and biomass, 4) Close Indian Point (the nuclear power plant on the Hudson), 5) Cut fossil fuel usage. Increase fuel efficiency in vehicles, buildings and appliances and slow global warming, 6) Fight terrorism by waging war on poverty, disease, and militarism, 7) Make clean water, air and food safety a global right, 8) Tax polluters, and 9) Protect separation of church and state.
I do disagree with Ms. Flagg about impeaching Bush and Cheney (this would be too disruptive to the country), and although I am against the war, I don’t think that the immediate withdrawal of troops is a prudent solution. Iraq is sliding towards civil war and an immediate American withdrawal would result in increased violence and bloodshed. I believe a gradual withdrawal is the best solution. However, it’s almost impossible to find a candidate that you agree with on 100% of the issues, and in my opinion Ms. Flagg was a far better alternative to Mr. Engel.