JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

I had no idea

Was just reading a CNN.com article about New York’s political races. It talked about Andrew Cuomo, then mentioned that our two senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, hold comfortable leads in their races.

Uh, their races?

I consider myself politically well-informed. I follow the races closely; can tell you more than most normal Americans about Joe Miller or Harry Reid or Marco Rubio. And yet, I honestly had zero idea that Schumer and Gillibrand were up for re-election. Guess I hadn’t thought about it, which is weird. More to the point, I hadn’t heard about it. The races are invisible, because both Dems are predicted to win by romp. Gillibrand is running against someone named Joseph DioGuardi, whose stated goal was to raise $51,000. Schumer’s opponent is Jay Townsend.

Jay Townsend? Here’s what I just learned. Jay is from upstate New York. Jay has a website. Jay, amazingly, has 411 followers on Twitter. He had 410, but I felt sorry for the dude and signed up. By comparison, I have 1,895 followers. Which isn’t especially good. But 411? Wow. Tragic.