"If I can make it there. . ."

John Legend and The Roots headlined a concert in order to raise $100,000.00 toward campaign funding for Democrat, Reshma Saujami, who is running for a seat in Congress. Ms. Saujami says that she is an activist. She is a hedge funds attorney from Wall Street. After studying public policy at Harvard, she went on to attend law school at Yale. She is the child of political refugees who were ousted from Uganda by Idi Amin. That last biographical fact may be why, after finishing her education, she went to South Africa to work alongside of anti-Apartheid groups establishing a democratic government under the leadership of Joseph Mandela.
The New York press has designated Ms. Saujami as a bright young outsider eager to reform immigration and education.
Carolyn Maloney is the incumbent Congress woman who now represents the 14th District. She regards her district as being an exciting place; geographically it includes the east side of Manhattan, the western part of the Borough of Queens, Roosevelt Island, and parts of Long Island City. As a more personal note, it should be pointed out that she recently lost her husband of 33 years.
Congress woman Maloney shows a map on her web site with various locations that mark out what she has accomplished on behalf of New York City. She left the New York City Council in 1992 to run for Congress. She says she has been trying to improve the New York Subway system ever since she was on the city council. She is urging people to continue to shop and frequent Second Avenue despite the chaos and mess of the subway construction. She points out that the city will be in many ways renewed by improved transportation.
If one is a true New Yorker, you should be able to not only stand up on the subway without holding onto anything between the lurches, stops, and starts. You should be able to read while standing up on the New York Subway and not block the aisle way for boarding and departing passengers.
Congress woman Maloney will soon attend a hospital reception in Manhattan which appreciates the federal funds that they will be able to use thanks to her work on their behalf.
However, the fact that Maloney mentions her endorsements including Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, but not her voting record in Congress, is not voter attractive.
Maloney has not deviated from the standard Democrat opinions to account for even so much as 1% of the votes she has cast. Even Barrack Obama realizes that fiscal issues must be addressed in order to sustain this country. There is obviously a reason the CEO from Honeywell sits on his Fiscal Commission among other business people. Congress is out of control.
Maloney also has not addressed immigration. Granted her constituents are by and large Caucasian or Jewish. New York City, though, is the immigration crises manager of the world. Health Department Issues and language barrier problems are just the beginning. Rangel, a democrat over in the 15th District, may not lose his bid for reelection due to age, due to unethical practices, or due to the fact that partisan politics has multiplied this country’s debt. He may lose his seat in Congress because the only question you are apt to be ask in Harlem is “Do you speak Spanish?”
According to the web page published by candidate Reshma Saujami, she compares Carolyn Maloney to herself by stating that “She is 64, I am not. I am Yale, she is Greensboro College (located in North Carolina where Mrs. Maloney was born) I am global, she is country.”
Someone would do well to explain to Ms. Saujami that dazzling with an Ivy League degree hits the streets of New York on a regular basis. New Yorkers take those lyrics “if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere” very seriously. Survivorship in New York is a highly regarded function key on the computer.
In fairness to Ms. Saujami, however, branding her as an obscure accomplice to the worst disaster in Wall Street history, does not quite work either as the obvious measurement of her six figure salary. She can explain and discuss Wall Street issues. She says that the country is demonizing Wall Street, and that she would like to get into government because the government is at the root of the problems. The country would probably do well to have more people who can bring down a six figure salary enter into public service.
Wall Street is not exactly being scapegoat-ed. Politicians may be successful in excusing their economy in Washington, D.C., Texas, and Kansas, but not on the streets of New York.
Saujami says that Maloney took corporate PAC money from banking institutions during the subprime frenzy establishing her management as part of the problems not the answers. Some people might have been a little harder on the Congresswoman and called it a conflict of interest.
Maloney is ninth on the list of investors in oil companies. Other than mass transporation, she is not an advocate of alternative sources of energy.
Carolyn Maloney is rated as the 114th most liberal voter in the House of Representatives. Saujami says that she would cast her vote identically to Maloney 80 or 90 per cent of the time. She has asked to be allowed to debate Maloney, and been ignored.
Pollsters say that Maloney will crush Saujami in the September Primary with 75% of the votes. Reshma Saujami says that she will initiate a grass roots campaign in the streets of New York right up until the Election Day. It is doubtful that she will be crushed in any case.