Rasiej: A Victory for Ideas

Well, as expected, the longshot bid by Andrew Rasiej ended early on election night, with a 4th place finish at a hair over 5% in the NYC Democratic Primary. And yet, as Andrew summed up in his post-election wrapup speech:

"I don?t consider this to be anything other than a victory speech?We changed the whole notion of what the Public Advocate?s office could be?It doesn?t matter what the percentages are, we created a real debate about what the Public Advocate?s office could be and we raised a lot of important ideas ... In case you didn?t hear, today the New York Parks Department announced that they will be giving free Wi-Fi in most of the city?s parks today."

Of course, in addition to that, NYC's MTA somehow saw it important to speed up the installation of cell phone transmitters in the subway system so that, over 4 years after 9/11, one could finally make a cellphone call from a subway terminal if they saw something worth reporting to 911.

In taking on an incumbent in a field with a relatively popular perpetual candidate also against him, Rasiej may have had the deck stacked against him in terms of electoral success. But it's clear that ideas won out this time. That alone is refreshing to see. Policy is more important than politics, after all.

That said, I'd still bookmark Andrew Rasiej's name in the memory banks. We may not have heard the last of him.