A long Vanity Fair feature by Sarah Ellison entitled "The Complex Power Coupledom of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge" has a lot of detail about their backgrounds, how Hughes became a Facebook demi-billionaire, their over-the-top wedding and reception, and, most of all, the NYC/DC media village firestorm about Hughes and The New Republic.
From the subhead:
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and political activist Sean Eldridge were once the ultimate team, but Hughes’s controversial purchase of The New Republic and Eldridge’s failed run for Congress made the once-heroes villains.
Eldridge's ill-fated bid to unseat two-term Rep. Chris Gibson is actually barely mentioned -- about a quarter as many inches as for
The New Republic brouhaha.
And it hardly shows him to be a villain. Politically naive, perhaps, but not a bad person.
Eldridge stepped up and challenged a popular Republican incumbent in a Republican year, and anyone who does that deserves our respect.
Too bad for him he chose to run against Gibson, who is a very formidable politician.
FWIW, I don't consider Hughes a villain, either.
More, below.
The weird thing about the NY-19 part of the story is that Gibson is not mentioned by name, merely described in one sentence:
His Republican opponent was an army veteran who had served four tours in Iraq and had grown up in the town of Kinderhook.
Well, Gibson is that, and a lot more -- a hometown sports hero, Siena College ROTC to Army colonel in the 82nd Airborne, some serious medals (four Bronze Stars, two Legions of Merit, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman's Badge, etc.), a Ph.D. from Cornell, a modest, soft-spoken affect, and a diligent, effective political worker.
Earlier this year, Gibson announced that he would not run for re-election in 2016, and is currently planning to run for governor in 2018. He is considered the leading GOP candidate, supported by the establishment, tea party types, veterans, and all but the fringiest of the Republican base.
Had Eldridge been a little more patient, and prescient, he could have run in 2016 against some little-known wingnut assemblyman like Steve McLaughlin in an open-seat election.
With another two years to become less of a "carpetbagger," he would probably have won in a Democratic year with fellow NY "carpetbagger" Hillary atop the ticket.
Eldridge did not lose in 2014 because he was a "carpetbagger," because he was a rich gay guy, because he spent too much money on consultants, whatever.
He lost because he ran against Chris Gibson in a Republican year, when the Democratic incumbent governor atop the ticket did not carry any of the counties in NY-19.
For such a long magazine piece, I expected a little more detail about NY-19, Gibson's name at least, a more astute analysis of why this was always a very difficult challenge at best.
I met Eldridge several times during the campaign and was impressed. He gave a good speech to simpaticos, was solid on all the issues we care about, and was also good one-on-one.
But it was just not his year.