In the 24th congressional district of New York State, there is now only one Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives: Michael Arcuri. All the other Democratic candidates have quit long before the September primary.

Some political insiders see this situation as a victory for the Democratic Party. There are many indications, however, that the lack of competition for Mike Arcuri is having negative effects. Without any competitors, the Arcuri for Congress campaign seems to have slowed down to a virtual standstill. There are no items on Michael Arcuri’s campaign calendar for the next two months. There have been no press releases from the Arcuri campaign for eleven days, and Arcuri’s latest “breaking” news is 13 days old.

More than that, it seems that Michael Arcuri is not even bothering to meet with Democratic committee members around his district. The lazy, ambling pace of Arcuri’s campaign is causing such concern among local Democrats that at the Tompkins County Democratic Committee meeting last week, Arcuri almost did not get the endorsement in spite of the fact that he is the only Democrat running.

A member of the Dryden Democratic Committee reports that, when the vote to endorse Arcuri came up, fourteen Democrats abstained, and many others raised strong concerns “because, tho’ he spoke once in Lansing, most of us haven’t had a chance to meet or hear him.”

This is not the kind of news we should be hearing about the Arcuri for Congress campaign. New York’s 24th District has a slight edge for the Republicans in voter registration. Michael Arcuri should be running hard from now through to November.

Many warned, when Michael Arcuri first announced he would be running for Congress, that his refusal to give up his day job as District Attorney would be a crippling handicap. It appears that those predictions are bearing true.