That smell? Next Tuesday's Democratic Primary.

Did you hear about the Democratic primary fight for the 25th State Senate District between incumbent Martin Connor and challenger Daniel Squadron? I happen to live in the district, and today I got four pieces of mail from the Conner camp and three from the Squadron, so I can hardly escape hearing about it. In these mailings, both claim to be the “progressive,” the word that replaced “liberal” when the lunatic fringe made that a no-no. All told, I think Squadron is leading the mailing race, because there was a week or two when not a word was heard from Connor. One normally never hears from Connor anyway, since after three decades in the State Senate he’s ossified into the bedrock of Albany. About the only thing he’s known for is ballot law acumen, and he’s used his skills to game a corruptly bipartisan system to keep people off the ballot for decades. His crimes against democracy are reason enough to vote against him.

Actually, it’s surprising he has a challenger at all. But evidently he once dissed Chuck Schumer, the US Senator for the Financial Services Industry, and the ol’ warmonger has a long memory (but you know he’d like you to forget his support for Bush’s war in Iraq). Squadron is one of Schumer’s made men. The editorial voice of the enlightened real estate/developer class, the New York Times has thusly anointed him with an endorsement. Squadron’s mailings don’t quote the Times’ sentence about their wishing he was more forthcoming about his financial holdings, however. Mike Bloomberg, the largest donor to the Republican trolls in Albany, supports him too. Huh?

Squadron’s only 28, so his experience is thinner than Sarah Palin’s, but he has one very important qualification in the moneyocracy the ruling oligarchies like to dupe us with. He’s a (rather secretive) trust-fund kid whose daddy made pots of money as a corporate lawyer (with clients like noted progressive Rupert Murdoch). With his Schumer connections, Squadron is also raising a pile of cash from the moneybags who keep Chuck batting for them at the expense of the vast majority of the rest of us.

Yeeech! What is that smell? A really shitty choice is what it is.