Category: New York

‘A Road Man for the Lords of Karma’

Posted on Comments

DeWITT, N.Y. — I’m blogging tonight from the home of The Lonely Conservative and her lucky husband, Dave. We just left a meet-and-greet with Ann Marie Buerkle in the village of Clyde.

While I had planned to be on the road to Pennsylvania already, but Buerkle’s having a Monday morning press conference near Syracuse, and I figured I needed to stay for that. I’ve got a deadline tonight for The American Spectator and there was no time to check into a hotel, so Mr. and Mrs. Lonely Conservative declared that Pete Da Tech Guy and I should enjoy their hospitality.

There are three key congressional races in this part of New York, and all of these candidates need your help:

I’ve got photos and video and notes and stuff, but deadline is looming, so I’ll try to update after midnight. The title quote is courtesy of Bob Belvedere at the Camp of the Saints.

Karma’s gonna come down heavy here Nov. 2. Do all you can.

UPDATE: Professor William Jacobson wonders how long the MSM will ignore Rep. Maurice Hinchey’s assault on a reporter. Speaking of assaults . . .

The shape of the 22nd District is an assault on common sense. Matt Hudson, campaign manager for Hinchey’s Republican opponent George Phillips, with the map of the 22nd District, which stretches nearly 200 miles, from Ithaca on the west to Poughkeepsie on the east. Hudson is pointing to Broome County, which is Phillips’s stronghold of support.

The sign in front of Phillips HQ in Endicott. The slogan — “Had Enough?” — pretty much sums up the attitude of 22nd District residents fed up with 18-year incumbent Hinchey.

UPDATE II: “Man on the street” interview in NY-25:

NY-25 Prediction: Ann Marie Buerkle Will Score Landslide Victory Over Dan Maffei

Posted on Comments

HANCOCK, N.Y. — Pete Da Tech Guy and I were driving up Highway 17 toward Binghamton when we got the call from the Lonely Conservative, informing us that Ann Marie Buerkle’s victory is now a near-certainty. However, that’s not the headline in the Syracuse Post Standard:

Dan Maffei leads Anne Marie Buerkle
by 12 points in new poll

Why is this poll such a certain indicator of a Buerkle victory Nov. 2? Because the poll was conducted by Sienna College.

On Sept. 23 — the day before the New York primary — a Sienna poll showed Rick Lazio was leading Carl Paladino by a 57%-24% margin. The very next day, Paladino stomped Lazio 62%-38%. (SEE CORRECTION BELOW)

So the Sienna poll had a margin of error of . . . oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of umpteen gazillion. You could better predict an election by drawing numbers out of a hat.

Less than two weeks ago, a GOP-commissioned poll showed a dead heat in the 25th District, and if Sienna says Maffei’s leading, that can only mean Maffei’s going to be squished flat on Election Day.

Go give Buerkle $20. Pete and I just ate at McDonald’s and now we’re ready to get back on the road again.

UPDATE: The Lonely Conservative notes some suspicious anomalies in the Sienna poll. We have no demographic breakdown of the sample, and the same poll shows Mario Cuomo leading Paladino by 34 points in this district, which was represented by Republicans until 2008.

UPDATE II: Just realized I completely misread the Sienna poll of Sept. 23. But the point about Sienna’s inaccuracy is only slightly weaker. In August, Sienna had shown Lazio leading Paladino by 13 points — 37 points off the September result, where Paladino won by 24 points.

ANN MARIE BUERKLE for U.S. CONGRESS

At Bielat HQ, Ready for the Road Trip

Posted on Comments

NEWTON, Mass. — Here at Sean Bielat campaign headquarters on a Saturday afternoon, Ace of Spades and several of his readers are running the phone banks: “Hey, my name’s Ace. Would you like Sean Bielat to build you a robot?”

The big news today is that Sean Bielat is the top fundraiser in Massachusetts:

In a sign that he has caught the attention of Republicans in Massachusetts and beyond, GOP congressional hopeful Sean Bielat outraised every congressional candidate in the state in the latest reporting period — including his opponent, longtime US Representative Barney Frank — according to newly released campaign finance filings in most races.
Buoyed by repeated appearances on national television and conservative talk radio, Bielat, of Brookline, raised $379,000 between Aug. 25 and the end of September, exceeding the $317,000 raised by Frank, a 15-term incumbent, Federal Election Commission records show. . . .

Which goes to show the power of conservative New Media. It wasn’t the GOP Establishment or “secret foreign donors” who turned the Bielat campaign into a nationwide crusade. It was bloggers and their readers who struck the spark, and the excitement is now a wildfire.

Now it’s time to spread the fire. Pete Da Tech Guy and I are leaving this evening for a road trip across New York state and Pennsylvania down to Maryland. We’ll be stopping along the way to cover several congressional campaigns. Pete’s still about $250 short of his fundraising goal for the trip, so please go hit Da Tip Jar.

Pete was just downtown for President Obama’s rally with Deval Patrick, and I just got word that the streets of downtown Newton have been blocked off by police, which means Obama is coming here.

UPDATE: Obama is having a private fundraiser at the West Newton home of Ralph de la Torre. Da Tech Guy tells me Obama drew about 8,000 in downtown Boston, which is substantially less than the average crowd for Sarah Palin.

UPDATE II: There was a rally for Sean Bielat with Howie Carr today in Foxboro:

UPDATE III: OK, I’ve mapped out the first day of our trip. We’ll be in NY-22 Sunday morning for a pancake breakfast with George Phillips, then swing by Phillips HQ near Binghamton before making a trip up to the vicinity of Syracuse for an evening event with NY-25 candidate Ann Marie Buerkle. After that, we’ll hit the road three hours south to Pennsylvania.

Now we’re about to hit the road. Pete insists we must stop by his house in Fitchburg to enjoy some traditional Sicilian cuisine. Good-bye from Boston. If you can’t hit Pete’s tip-jar, feel free to hit mine.

UPDATE IV: Last update from Boston, where Obama spoke today:

“The reason I came today isn’t just because Deval has been there for me as a friend, but because he continues to inspire me as a leader at a time when too many folks bow to the politics of the moment,” Obama said at a campaign rally for Patrick in Boston. “He represents the politics of conscience and conviction in an age of too much cynicism.”
Obama admitted that he’s sometimes on his Blackberry backstage when he attends events for candidates, but “when Deval speaks, I listen.”

Obviously, Deval has been telling Obama to destroy the American Dream — and Obama listened!

Do Interns Fret Around You, Billy? Of Course Conservatives Want A Restrained Federal Government

Posted on Comments

by Smitty

Clinton, lurking about and supporting Rep. Dan Maffei (D-NY25), accidentally sneaks up on the obvious.

Clinton said the tea partiers and the Republicans want to break the power of the federal government.

Also, humidors are stocked with things that, sometimes, are just cigars.

Be sure to check out Dan Maffei’s GOP challenger Ann Marie Buerkle.

No, not you, Mr. Clinton.

NY-25: Ann Marie Buerkle

Posted on Comments

Several friends have been urging me to support the Republican challenger in New York’s 25th District. She’s awesome:

The 25th District around Syracuse has sent Republicans to Congress since the 1970s. In 2008, eight-term Republican Rep. Jim Walsh retired and, in that year’s Obama-led surge, Democrat Dan Maffei got elected. Now the latest poll shows the district is swinging back to the GOP, and Ann Marie Buerkle is a fine candidate. Go give her $20.

Democrats are pretending to be worried that there won’t be as many women in the next Congress. Yeah, ask some of those Hillary supporters how much Democrats care about electing women. When it suits their purpose, Democrats are atrociously sexist. How about some of you PUMAs go give Ann Marie Buerkle $50?

Pete Da Tech Guy and I are planning a r0ad trip together and hope to visit the 25th District next week. The Cook Political Report just downgraded Maffei’s seat from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat,” and if you’ll go support Ann Marie Buerkle, it might be rated a “toss-up” by the time we get there.

ANN MARIE BUERKLE for U.S. CONGRESS

BREAKING: Doug Hoffman Ends NY-23 Campaign, Endorses GOP’s Doheny

Posted on Comments

Adirondack Daily Enterprise via Maggie Haberman of Politico:

SARANAC LAKE — Doug Hoffman has dropped out of the race to represent New York’s 23rd Congressional District. Hoffman’s name will still appear on the ballot on the Conservative line; however, Hoffman said Tuesday morning that he wants his supporters to vote for Republican Matt Doheny.
“Our nation is at a crossroads, and it is imperative that on Election Day we wrest control of Congress from Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat majority,” Hoffman said in a prepared statement. . . .

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Now a Memeorandum thread, and Ed Morrissey at Hot Air writes:

The split on the Right last November allowed Bill Owens to win the race  . . .

The was no “split on the Right,” because Dede Scozzafava was never “Right.” Dede was, as Michelle Malkin famously said, “An ACORN-Friendly, Big Labor-Backing, Tax-and-Spend Radical in GOP Clothing.” Ed is closer to the mark here:

Hoffman . . . has proven himself much more of a team player and class act. . . .

Indeed, considering the dishonest smear campaign by which Doheny eked out a 700-vote win in this year’s GOP primary, Hoffman’s endorsement is one of the most generous and noble acts of recent political memory.

GOP Shocked as Sex Scandal Strikes Christine O’Donnell Carl Paladino?

Posted on Comments

Two words you never want to hear about your candidate: “Baby mama.” Unfortunately, we’re also going to hear some words from the woman done wrong by the Republican Party’s answer to John Edwards:

BUFFALO — It was just about a year ago, hours after the death of her son in a car crash, that Cathy Paladino’s husband told her he was the father of a 10-year-old girl with another woman — and that all their children and most of their friends already knew. . . .
Still, she was gamely following the dictate her husband’s campaign staff had issued . . .
“They had three words for me: ‘Get over it,’ ” she told The Post.

So the married New York GOP gubernatorial nominee fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a woman 17 years his junior. All you smart pundit guys, please tell me again why Christine O’Donnell can’t win in Delaware because she told MTV in 1996 that masturbation is sinful.

Democrats Unveil 2010 Message: ‘Hope, Change and a Buttload of Attack Ads’

Posted on Comments

Remember when Democrats didn’t want to talk about Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and ACORN? Remember when they kept saying how we need to focus on the important issues that matter to working American families? My, how times have changed:

Democratic candidates across the country are opening a fierce offensive of negative advertisements against Republicans, using lawsuits, tax filings, reports from the Better Business Bureau and even divorce proceedings to try to discredit their opponents and save their Congressional majority. . . .
In Ohio, Representative Betty Sutton calls her Republican rival, Tom Ganley, a “dishonest used-car salesman” who has been sued more than 400 times for fraud, discrimination, lying to customers about repairs, overcharging them and endangering their safety. She warns voters, “You’ve heard the old saying, buyer beware!”
In Arizona, Representative Harry E. Mitchell accused his opponent David Schweikert of being “a predatory real estate speculator who snatched up nearly 300 foreclosed homes, been cited for neglect and evicted a homeowner on the verge of saving his house, just to make a buck.”
In New York, Representative Michael Arcuri introduces his Republican challenger, Richard Hanna, as a millionaire who “got rich while his construction company overcharged taxpayers thousands, was sued three times for injuries caused by faulty construction and was cited 12 times for health and safety violations.” . . .

Read the rest. It’s disgusting. But then again, they’re Democrats. You can help these Republican candidates fight back against the smears:

AZ-5: DAVID SCHWEIKERT for U.S. CONGRESS

OH-13: TOM GANLEY for U.S. CONGRESS

NY-24: RICHARD HANNA for U.S. CONGRESS