Published Monday, June 7, 2004
Classmate Finishes Final Papers, Wins Democratic Nomination
A commentary by David Meadow

Jimmy Dahroug is taking an unusual approach to job-hunting after graduate school: he’s running for office.

Our classmate is mounting an audacious, principled campaign against a Republican incumbent, and he’s not stealing votes from the lesser evil!

The 2004 masters student in Administration, Planning and Social Policy has journeyed far and wide in the last several years.  Just at Columbia University, where he received his bachelor’s degree, Jimmy was a major political figure – president of his class for two years, head of the student John Edwards for President campaign, and active in a number of campus groups. 

 He was even an intern in Senator Hillary Clinton’s New York office in fall 2001. 

 Most importantly, though, he just learned that he has officially tied up the Democratic nomination in the race for 3^rd State Senate District in New York State.  The district takes up part of Long Island.  It’s a dark-horse candidacy; incumbent Caesar Trunzo has been in office for over a third of his 72-year life and has much greater financial resources than Dahroug.

 That’s not stopping the young challenger from taking a shot at the seat.  Though he does not hold the usual M.P.P. or J.D. at this point, Dahroug is banking on his extensive knowledge of school finance to engage voters on the education issues.  Greater equality in education is one of his three major platforms, living wage and Medicaid finance reform being the others.

Besides the obvious financial inequities, Dahroug notes that some districts simply have very entrenched, well-connected representatives who can get more done, in large part, by virtue of the sheer length of time they have served.  “I really don’t think you should get a [lower] quality of schooling just because your legislator hasn’t been there that long,” he says.    At the same time, he knows that there are moments when voters get good and tired of the incumbent and will settle for just about anyone new -- let alone a really engaging candidate with plenty of years and ideas left in him.

 This 24 year-old is running as a good-government, populist Democrat and disparages the “wheeling and dealing” that goes on between elected officials, because he feels that it is what ultimately kills initiatives for greater equity, and that citizens need a more transparent process.  He does strike one as the kind of person who will actually listen to the voter’s concerns, rather than nod and respond with Talking Point #34; the man sat through all of my dopey Robert De Niro impressions, which takes special patience.

Right now he is listening to the heated debate in the State House over how comply with a court mandate to provide a “sound basic education” to the state’s children. The order came down after Citizens for Financial Equity, a nonprofit concerned with education financing, sued the state over its dismal public schooling.  Dahroug touts Sheldon Silver, Democrat Speaker of the Assembly, as having put forth the best proposal.  Here is an excerpt from our communication by email:

“The Assembly Speaker’s plan seems to be the only one proposed which calls for a sufficient increase in funding to ensure a sound basic education,” he writes.  “The plan outlines substantial increases in state funding for high needs districts throughout New York State, not just New York City…. The plan puts forth a new "foundation" formula to help stabilize education funding from year to year. This provides for a more transparent operating aid formula that reflects regional costs, student need, enrollment and a local community's fiscal capacity.”

Dahroug only crosses his fingers that the usual intrigue does not water down the final result too much.  Hoping for some juicy anecdotes about this famous “wheeling and dealing,” I asked whose book Jimmy might want to take a page out of.  He said simply, “I’m running as a good government reformer…I do know what you mean, but I’m just going to be a straight shooter, so I don’t know if that question applies to me.”

I pressed further and asked if he might give me a sense of precisely where good government goes bad.  By way of example, Jimmy mentioned the infinitely corruptible lobbying process.  “There’s nothing wrong with lobbying if you’ve got information in one hand.  But if you’ve got information in one hand, and you’ve got money in the other,” that turns it into a business transaction.

To give the reader some idea of how much Dahroug cares about campaign finance reform, I should mention that he once turned down an offer for a White House internship to work for Common Cause New York, a nonprofit devoted to campaign finance reform.  He would learn that there is a loophole in New York law that allows politicians accused of graft to spend their contributions on trial lawyers.  In skilled and cynical hands, the legal and court fees might simply become a cost of doing business.

When I asked about whether finance reform hurts the usually worse-funded Democrats, Dahroug acknowledged that this might hold true for the short run, but felt that, in the long run, it puts ideas above dollars.  That is what citizens really want.

During the interview, I mentioned my own neighbor, who ran for a State Assembly seat in California, and the extensive canvassing for votes.  Dahroug confirmed that he will be taking a similar approach.  “I want to take this door to door.  I’ve got a district that’s 300,000 people, I’ve got a whole summer, I’ve got a fall, and I’m just going to go door to door.”

Albany, you’ve been warned.

David Meadow is a staff writer of The Appian.