Phillips blasts NYC 9/11 Trials

Phillips Criticizes NYC 9/11 Trials
Trials will Give Terrorist Suspects the Stage, Put America at Risk

For Immediate Release

Binghamton, NY --- George Phillips, Candidate for US Congress against Maurice Hinchey, sharply criticized the Justice Department decision to give alleged terrorists civilian trials in New York City.

"The suspects being charged in the 9/11 terror attacks were involved with acts of war. They don't deserve a civilian trial," Phillips said. "Imagine if those who attacked Pearl Harbor had been given civilian trials. The idea is absolutely preposterous."


"I worry this trial will give terrorist suspects the stage and enable them to incite more violence and attacks on America with inflammatory rhetoric. Unfortunately this could turn into a circus-like atmosphere that these alleged terrorists will take full advantage of" Phillips warned.

Phillips noted that military tribunals and courts could offer the suspects a chance to have their cases heard without giving them the profile and that war crimes such as the 9/11 attacks should be considered in such courts.

"The decision by Attorney General Holder puts America at risk. I hope the New York delegation and the Congress will urge him to reconsider his decision," Phillips added.


Contact: Phillips for Congress (607) 341-8866

Health Care Debate Op-Ed

Weighing in on the Health Care Debate

By George K. Phillips

The health care debate has captivated the nation this summer as members of Congress travel to “town hall” meetings across the country to explain and discuss a complex health-care reform bill that is more than 1,000 pages long.

At the heart of the debate is an effort to provide health insurance to the millions of Americans who currently lack it while improving, or at the very least not diminishing, the current-health care system. While “shouters” at the meetings have garnered much of the media attention, I would like to offer a few of what I hope are “reason-minded” critiques of the current bill and suggestions for improving the overall system.

To assess the long-term implications of the legislation before Congress that could create a new, large government bureaucracy, we must consider the state of our national government and economy.

The federal government has racked up an astounding $11 trillion national debt and will run an estimated $1.8 trillion budget deficit this year. The Social Security and Medicare trustees report for 2009 estimates the Social Security program will start running deficits in 2016 and states that the Medicare program is already running deficits.

With these staggering deficits and baby boomers soon moving into retirement and raising Social Security and Medicare costs even more, does it make sense to add another large government entitlement program? Even if the proponents do not intend for this new program to ration health care, wouldn’t health-care rationing result if the government simply can’t afford to pay the bills?

The plan relies on penalties and taxes on small businesses to enforce implementation at a time when unemployment is hovering near 10 percent. In 2005, the most recent year it has data available for, the Small Business Administration estimated small businesses were responsible for creating nearly 80 percent of new jobs. How can we pull out of this recession and grow the economy if we are placing additional restrictions on already overburdened small businesses?

I believe the plan should take the opposite approach: instead of taxes and penalties, give small businesses and their employees tax credits to purchase health insurance. Current estimates show small businesses pay an estimated 18 percent more for health-care benefits than larger firms. Small businesses should be allowed to partner together, amassing a larger group of employees together to compete for better plans that would enable them to lower their costs and expand benefits.

Helping small businesses pay for help insurance would help cover a large number of the uninsured. Efforts could be made to get the remaining uninsured into Medicaid rather than creating an entirely new program.

A key part of the health care-reform debate that is not even being considered in the current legislation is medical malpractice reform. Frivolous lawsuits impose billions on the U.S. economy each year. These lawsuits dramatically raise medical malpractice insurance as well as health-care costs for all Americans and cause doctors to practice defensive medicine.

Capping these suits and reforming a broken part of the health-care system that currently allows OB-GYNs to be sued up to 21 years after they have delivered a baby would greatly reduce costs for all Americans.

Health care can be reformed without creating a new big-government program. Empowering small businesses to better provide health insurance and lowering overall costs through medical malpractice reform should be part of the solution.

Stop Obama Care

Nancy Pelosi has unveilved a $900 billion, budget busting, government controlled health care bill that she plans to bring to the House floor this week.

This bill will put additional tax burdens on Americans in an econmy understrain and set up a government run health care program that millions of Americans will likely be forced into, dimishing and even leading to the rationing of care.

My opponent Congressman Maurice Hinchey has long supported big government health care and socialized medicine. He has stated that he strongly supports “the establishment of a national health care system.”

I have been fighting Obama Care for months — hosting a Town Hall Meeting after my opponent refused and writing an Op Ed to local newspapers on the topic.

I need you to keep fighting too. Your donation to our campaign will send a strong message to a liberal Democrat in small town America and Nancy Pelosi that Americans won’t stand for her bill and give up control of our future to Obama Care.

Our liberty and the future of our nation are at stake. Please act today by sending a donation.

Health Care Reform: What’s Needed

With out of control costs and millions of Americans struggling to afford health insurance, health care reform legislation is needed. However, Obama Care will simply make matters worse.

In Congress, these are the principles I’ll fight for to help improve our health care system:

1) Health Care Partnership - enable Small Businesses to form together in coaltions for group buying power so they can have rates that are competitive with corporate plans.

2) Tort Reform - frivolous lawsuites are driving up medical malpractice insurance and costs for everyday Americans and should be capped.

3) Health Savings Accounts -Americans should be allowed to save for their own medical needs through tax free health savings accounts

4) Keeping Your Insurance & Increasing Choices - Americans should be allowed to keep their insurance plan when they lose or change jobs and be allowed to select from a greater pool of insurance providers. Competition will lower costs

5) Tax Credits - Both Small Businesses and invididual Americans struggling to pay for health insurance should be given tax credits to help afford these costs

Time for a change

Here is another news article about NY Congressman Maurice Hinchey trying to get land protected in Utah. I'm not against protecting the environment but here in the 22nd district of New York we have our own problems going on. We need a representative that is going to be focused on our needs in our district. It's time for a change.


Lawmakers urge Salazar to protect Utah wild lands
By JOAN LOWY (AP) – 9 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Eighty-nine House members sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to protect 9.4 million acres of red rocks lands in Utah while Congress works on legislation.
The letter sent Tuesday also asks Salazar to rescind an agreement reached between the Bush administration and the state of Utah that prevents the Bureau of Land Management from designating new wilderness study areas. The wilderness study designation discourages uses of the land that might alter its natural character.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat sponsoring the Utah wilderness bill, said that a consensus has developed that millions of acres within the state should be protected even if there remains disagreement on how to do that.
"It makes sense for the Interior Department to step in and temporarily protect these lands while Congress and state officials sort out the best way to protect these precious acres for this and future generations of Americans to enjoy and admire," Hinchey said in a statement. "These are the very scenic lands that the previous administration hoped to turn into off-road vehicle playgrounds and oil and gas fields.
Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Salazar, said the department is reviewing the letter.
The bill has 151 co-sponsors, but only seven are Republicans. It is opposed by the Utah congressional delegation, who say decisions on which lands should receive the protective wilderness designation are best made locally.
"Since they can't achieve their goal of locking up millions of acres of western land through an open and transparent democratic process, they're now trying to use back door, undemocratic rules and regulations to lock up public lands," Rep Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said in a statement. "If Congressman Hinchey was serious about protecting lands in Utah, he should try to work with Utahans instead of trying to go around us."
At a hearing before a House Natural Resources Committee subcommittee last month, some witnesses from Utah said the bill would prevent development of the lands, hurting the state's economy. However, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and a Utah outdoors equipment maker told the subcommittee that protecting the lands will draw more visitors to the state, boosting the economy.
The red rocks wilderness bill, as the legislation is known, was first introduced in 1989 by the late Wayne Owens, a former Democratic congressman from Utah. Hinchey has been reintroducing the bill every two years since Owen left Congress in 1993.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j08imnWBr9ZvGiTvxOYgxVxHV6PQD9BTDI383

Hinchey should be focused on NY not Utah

million acres in Utah

By Thomas Burr
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 11/10/2009 02:50:35 PM MST

Related
• Wilderness bill
• Oct 1:
• Red Rock hearing: Agreement on wilderness, but not on how or how much
• Sep 30:
• Some worry wilderness measure could hurt schools
• Sep 29:
• Rocky Anderson to champion Red Rock bill
• Sep 28:
• Advocates: Support growing for wilderness bill
• Utah political elite to fight 'Red Rock bill' in Congress
• Sep 17:
• After 20 years, Red Rock bill gets first hearing in Congress
Washington » Nearly 90 members of Congress want the Interior Department to protect 9.4 million acres of Utah public lands from development while lawmakers consider a measure to set aside the areas as wilderness.
Led by New York Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey, the members of Congress wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday asking him to use his "considerable authorities" to protect the millions of acres until Congress can act.
"While there are some differences of opinion on how to protect Utah's remarkably beautiful landscape, there is a consensus that millions of acres within the state warrant wilderness protection," Hinchey said in a statement.
"Given the common belief that much of this land should be safeguarded, it makes sense for the Interior Department to step in and temporarily protect these lands while Congress and state officials sort out the best way to protect these precious acres for this and future generations of Americans to enjoy and admire."
A House Natural Resources subcommittee last month held a hearing on the legislation, which has not come up for a vote in the 20 years it has been introduced. The bill, called America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, would designate 9.4 million acres of public land in Utah as Wilderness, effectively barring new roads, mining or off-road vehicle use.
None of Utah's members of Congress support the legislation, which was first introduced


by late Rep. Wayne Owens. Utah officials who testified said they preferred more smaller scale, local-level solutions to preserving public lands.
Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who says the Red Rock bill is an attempted land grab by outsiders, said Tuesday's letter is evidence that supporters of the legislation realize they can't push their "massive one-size-fits-all wilderness" bill through Congress.
"Since they can't achieve their goal of locking up millions of acres of Western land through an open and transparent democratic process, they're now trying to use backdoor, undemocratic rules and regulations to lock up our state," Bishop said. "If Congressman Hinchey was serious about protecting lands in Utah, he should try to work with Utahns instead of trying to go around us."
Hinchey previously joined with more than 70 members of Congress earlier this year in asking Salazar to halt any more oil and gas leases after Salazar delayed 77 such leases in Utah.
The Interior Department did not comment on Hinchey's letter.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13755686

Doomed to fail

Very interesting Pelosi compared the passage of this legislation against two other Government run programs both which are failing. Is this going to be indicative of this program in the future?

A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled House has narrowly passed landmark health care reform legislation, handing President Barack Obama a hard won victory on his signature domestic priority.
Republicans were nearly unanimous in opposing the plan that would expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry.
The 220-215 vote late Saturday cleared the way for the Senate to begin a long-delayed debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress.
A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later.
Obama, who went to Capitol Hill earlier on Saturday to lobby wavering Democrats, said in a statement after the vote, "I look forward to signing it into law by the end of the year."
"It provides coverage for 96 percent of Americans. It offers everyone, regardless of health or income, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will have access to affordable health care when they need it," said Rep. John Dingell, the 83-year-old Michigan lawmaker who has introduced national health insurance in every Congress since succeeding his father in 1955.
But minority Republicans cataloged their objections across hours of debate on the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation.
"We are going to have a complete government takeover of our health care system faster than you can say, 'this is making me sick,'" said Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich.
In the run-up to a final vote, conservatives from the two political parties joined forces to impose tough new restrictions on abortion coverage in insurance policies to be sold to many individuals and small groups.
The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates.
Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. The industry would also lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price fixing and market allocation.
At its core, the measure would create a federally regulated marketplace where consumers could shop for coverage. In the bill's most controversial provision, the government would sell insurance, although the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that premiums for it would be more expensive than for policies sold by private companies.
The bill drew the votes of 219 Democrats and Rep. Joseph Cao, a first-term Republican who holds an overwhelmingly Democratic seat in New Orleans. Opposed were 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats.
From the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a statement saying, "We realize the strong will for reform that exists, and we are energized that we stand closer than ever to reforming our broken health insurance system."
To pay for the expansion of coverage, the bill cuts Medicare's projected spending by more than $400 billion over a decade. It also imposes a tax surcharge of 5.4 percent on income over $500,000 in the case of individuals and $1 million for families.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091108/D9BREBKG1.html

Phillips set to take on Hinchey

BINGHAMTON – Republican George Phillips, who lost to Congressman Maurice Hinchey a year ago, says he plans on taking on the popular Democrat in next year’s election.

The political climate was different last year, said Phillips. “If you look back to a year ago, we had a nation of voters frustrated,” he said. “They wanted change, they wanted reform, and unfortunately I think as this off-year election showed, voters are still feeling that same discontent, and I know those who took office, including new President Obama, ere promising change, but I think it’s too much of business as usual, the economy is struggling, government is still growing out of control and Americans are upset with the mess in government from the federal level to the state level to local government and property taxes.”

Phillips said he up to the challenge of running against Hinchey again and he is confident he can defeat him this time around.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2009/November09/07/Phillips_run-07Nov09.html

GOP looking stong already

Democrats hoped to stave off a Republican sweep Tuesday of three off-year elections that could signal an early wave of discontent with the governing party's performance in Washington.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. in Virginia, where a hotly contested governor's race was too close to call at the top of the hour. Republican former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell was leading Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds in exit polling, according to television networks, and has been ahead in every public poll of the race since early summer.
The Virginia governor's race was only one of three elections that placed Republicans within striking distance of victory Tuesday night. The gubernatorial election in New Jersey and a special congressional election in upstateNew York also gave the GOP an opportunity to show strength at the polls an opportunity after President Obama's election last November.
The White House played down the importance of all three contests Tuesday, with spokesman Robert Gibbs urging reporters not to read the evening's returns as a referendum on the president and his party.
"I don't think, looking at the two gubernatorial races, you can draw with any great insight what's going to happen a year from now," Gibbs said.
Early exit polling reported by CNN Tuesday evening suggested voters were not intentionally trying to send message to the White House with their ballots: 55 percent of voters in Virginia and 60 percent of voters in New Jersey said their feelings toward the president did not weigh on their decision.
Among the remaining respondents, there was a close to even split between voters who said they were trying to support the president with their vote and those who were trying to rebuke him. In Virginia, 18 percent said they were trying to send the Obama administration a positive message, compared with 24 percent who said the opposite. In New Jersey, those numbers were 19 and 20 percent, respectively.
But if voters sounded ambivalent about the national implications of the race, national Democratic and Republican leaders were not. Leading figures from both parties have hit the campaign trail in recent days in all three key elections, including Vice President Biden, who stumped in New York 23rd congressional district for Democrat Bill Owens on Monday, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who appeared later in the day for Owens's opponent, Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.
Thompson predicted Monday evening that a Hoffman win would "shake the foundations of Washington D.C." And speaking with POLITICO Tuesday, Hoffman painted his bid for Congress as the first stage of a national campaign to return Congress to conservative hands.
"Hopefully the Republican party, of which I’m a lifelong member, utilizes this energy and excitement of people coming to my support because we’ll need it in 2010," he said. "We’re just standing up for the core values that made America strong – less government, less taxes, less spending."
Hoffman has led in the most recent polling, with leads ranging from between five and 17 points, but Republican Dede Scozzafava's withdrawal from the election last weekend and subsequent endorsement of Owens has left the race a question mark.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama made the latest in a series of visits to New Jersey in support of incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine, whose contest with Republican prosecutor Chris Christie has been within the margin of error for weeks. Christie, meanwhile, has called in high-profile Republicans including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
During his last campaign stop in Morris County Tuesday, Christie predicted a victory for his party in the Garden State and told volunteers at his local headquarters: "We're winning this thing."
In a nod to the tightness of his matchup with Corzine, Christie emphasized the importance of turnout and told supporters participation was "very good" across "areas of the state that we're going to do well in.
A third candidate, Chris Daggett, has injected a level of uncertainty into the New Jersey race by drawing off a number of disaffected independent voters, though his polling numbers have fallen from the teens into the mid-to-high single digits. Whether Daggett can hold on to his voters – or whether they break for either of the major party candidates – could decide the election.
CNN's early exit poll reported that the New Jersey race reflected a higher level of concern with local issue than the campaign in Virginia, with 26 percent of voters saying property taxes were the main issue on their minds and 20 percent expressing the gravest concern with the state's chronic political corruption.

National issues played a role in both contests, however. A plurality of voters in both states - 46 percent in Virginia and 31 percent in New Jersey - said the economy was the most important issue to them. And for voters in both gubernatorial contests, health care ranked high among the list of issues voters said they were thinking about, with 25 percent in Virginia and 18 percent in New Jersey calling it their top concern.
Republicans are watching Virginia not only for the governor's race, but also down-ballot statewide elections for lieutenant governor and attorney general that offer the GOP a credible opportunity to capture all the top offices in a state that has recently trended toward the Democrats – and which Obama won just one year ago.Republican attorney general candidate Ken Cuccinelli and incumbent Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling have consistently led their Democratic rivals, Steve Shannon and Jody Wagner.
Both Deeds and McDonnell were headed to the state capital in Richmond for election-night rallies with their supporters after a final day of campaigning. Virginia's polls close first tonight, at 7 p.m., with New Jersey following an hour later and New York an hour after that.
In a sign of Democratic anxiety going into today's vote, both Corzine and Deeds told television interviewers to disregard recent surveys that placed them behind their opponents.
"The only poll that counts is the one that's going on right now," Corzine said, deploying a familiar line Deeds also used.
Corzine voted Tuesday morning in Hoboken before heading out on a last swing that ends in East Brunswick for an election-night rally. Christie is gathering his supporters at the Parsippany Hilton to await the voters' decision.
In New York, Owens and Hoffman held competing events in Plattsburgh, one of the largely rural district's few population centers. Hoffman stopped at Plattsburgh City Hall for an event with Mayor Donald Kasprzak while Owens met with workers at the Clinton County Correctional facility and visited volunteers in the Plattsburgh field office.
"I certainly am confident in the election today. I think our message has gotten out, is resonating with people and we believe we are going to move forward," Owens told POLITICO after voting Tuesday morning.
Democratic officials in Owens's home base of Clinton County expressed concern Tuesday afternoon that turnout may not be keeping pace in the Democratic candidate's strongest areas.
Owens will spend the evening in Plattsburgh, addressing supporters at the American Legion there. Hoffman heads to Saranac Lake for an rally at the Hotel Saranac.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29081.html

Two time B.C. Open winner Joey Sindelar hospitalized with pulmonary embolism

Champions Tour rallies around an ailing Sindelar
11.01.09 | 5:53 AM
SONOMA, Ca. -- The visitors filed into Joey Sindelar's room at Sonoma Valley Hospital on Saturday night, guys he'd known for thirty years: Andy Bean. Jeff Sluman. Brad Bryant. Mike Stevens, president of the Champions Tour, was there along with Lonnie Nielsen, one of the guys who played through his group on the front nine that day in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. "We're getting to that age when guys will start to go down," said a stunned John Cook, the third-round leader in the press room at Sonoma GC.

Sindelar, 51, was that man on Saturday, being taken from the course to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot to his lung, that was potentially fatal. In the intensive care unit, and on blood thinners, he didn't expect to fly home to Horseheads, N.Y. for upwards of a week. His wife, Sue, was flying out to be with him. "He could have dropped dead, but he was smart enough to quit," said John Buchna, his caddie for the past 26 years. "The doctor said you quit at the right time."

Short of breath, Sindelar asked Buchna on the back nine during Friday's second round if they were playing above sea level. But Saturday, the shortness of breath, the dizziness, was pronounced from the second hole. That was when Sindelar, his second shot in the greenside bunker on the par-5, said to playing partner Gil Morgan, "I'm not feeling good. Do you mind playing first?"

A paramedic and doctor arrived by the third hole, which is where Nielsen and playing partner Tom Jenkins played through. Sindelar hit a good shot into the par-3 fourth, but needed a cart ride up to the fifth tee. That's when he said to Buchna, "Johnny, I can't do it."

In a cart halfway up the fifth fairway, Sindelar pulled off his oxygen mask to say, "How is it that when I get my swing in a groove, does this happen?" One under for the day with three pars and a birdie at the second, where he asked Morgan to play first, Sindelar WDed and was taken to the locker room and eventually Sonoma Valley.

"They said if he had stayed out there much longer it could have been bad," said Bean later that night from his hotel room. "They think they have it under control, but he won be able to fly for 4-5 days and obviously this is something he's going to have to watch. All of us obviously want him to have a speedy recovery and get better."

-- Tim Rosaforte

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorses Democrat Bill Owens

Republican Dede Scozzafava urges friends to vote for Democrat Bill Owens after exiting NY-23 House race
By Mike McAndrew / The Post-Standard
November 01, 2009, 3:07PM
John Berry / The Post-StandardRepublican Dede Scozzafava, who suspended her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District on Saturday, urged her supporters today in a private e-mail to vote for Democrat Bill Owens instead of Conservative Doug Hoffman.Canton, NY - One day after suspending her campaign, Republican Dede Scozzafava urged her supporters this afternoon in a private e-mail to vote for Democrat Bill Owens instead of Conservative Doug Hoffman for the 23rd Congressional District seat.
"...I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," Scozzafava wrote. "It’s not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress."
"In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first," she wrote.
Contacted in Canton, where she and her husband were meeting with Owens, Scozzafava confirmed the e-mail was authentic.
"For me, my whole participation in the race has been about what I feel is best for the district. It hasn’t been about the battles other people want to make this race about. It’s about the issues right here in the 23rd district," she said. "To me it came down to the person I thought would best represent this area. Not Washington. Here."
Scozzafava's decision was welcomed by Owens and blasted by Hoffman's campaign and Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long.
“This afternoon Dede Scozzafava betrayed the GOP," said Hoffman spokesman Rob Ryan said in a statement issued by the campaign. "She endorsed a Pelosi Democrat who will spend more, tax more, and push the liberal agenda that is dragging down this nation. Doug Hoffman represents the revolution that is taking place against high taxes."
“I am honored to have Assemblywoman Scozzafava’s endorsement," John Berry / The Post-StandardDemocrat congressional candidate Bill OwensDennis Nett / The Post-StandardConservative congressional candidate Doug HoffmanOwens said in a prepared statement. "Over the course of her career, Dede has always committed to serving the people of Upstate New York before serving a partisan agenda. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what she's accomplished. We share a commitment to finding common sense solutions to address the challenges we’re facing here in Upstate New York."
Long said Scozzafava's move "is really no surprise. We always said Assemblywoman Scozzafava and Bill Owens were a pair of liberals. Doug Hoffman remains the only alternative to giving Nancy Pelosi another vote for her liberal agenda in Congress.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee responded to Scozzafava's note by urging voters to support Hoffman.
“The candidate best positioned and suited to protect Fort Drum and continue the legacy of John McHugh is Doug Hoffman, and the pledge from Republican leadership to secure support for him on the House Armed Services Committee affirms that," said Ken Spain, NRCC communications director. "...Only Doug Hoffman is willing to stand up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and put the brakes on her agenda of massive government takeovers and less jobs.”
Earlier Sunday, the Jefferson County Republican Party announced it would back Hoffman in Tuesday's election.
Matt Burns, who was Scozzafava's campaign spokesman until she suspended her campaign, said he thought Scozzafava was making a mistake in supporting Owens.
"Dede is entitled to her own opinion, as is everyone, but I obviously disagree with her decision. I am supporting Doug Hoffman, because denying Nancy Pelosi another foot soldier is vital to restoring fiscal responsibility and common sense in Washington," Burns said in an e-mail.
A number of prominent Democrats and White House officials reached out to Scozzafava in the past 24 hours, asking her to endorse Owens.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., had several phone conversations with Scozzafava, an aide confirmed Sunday. Schumer also asked White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to help lobby Scozzafava for her support.
Scozzafava said that she did not know if Republican Party leaders - many of whom are now endorsing Hoffman - will hold her support for Owens against her. Scozzafava said that she sent the email from her private computer, not through her campaign. She said she did not know how many people received her e-mail. She said she does not plan to appear at Owens' campaign events.
Scozzafava said that the tone of Hoffman's campaign ads attacking her record bothered her, but said that Hoffman's pledge to try to eliminate federal earmarks bothered her more. She said Fort Drum and the surrounding communities benefited from earmarks that Rep. McHugh secured.
"I have to say, the tone of his campaign bothers me. But that’s campaigns. That’s the way elections go. I think they were filled with lots of misinformation and lies. But the tone was one that encouraged people to be divisive instead of uniting the best things we have. The tone of his campaign did bother me,“ she said.

Future of GOP and moderate Republicans uncertain

ALBANY, N.Y. – In a Republican Party struggling to find its identity, the surprise withdrawal of the chosen GOP candidate for a New York congressional race amid a rising conservative upstart renews a lingering national debate: Are moderates welcome in today's Grand Old Party?
The question became even more relevant Sunday when the ex-candidate, state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava, threw her support behind the Democrat in the race rather than the Conservative Party candidate favored by fellow Republicans.
The GOP leadership insisted on Sunday political TV talk shows the party is strong and inclusive while Democrats described a Republican party out of touch with the people.
"We accept moderates in our party, and we want moderates in our party. We cover a wide range of Americans," said Republican House Leader John Boehner in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union."
But in New York's 23rd Congressional District, the message was clear early: Scozzafava was too moderate; some even used the dreaded "L" word — liberal. Her endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens over Conservative Doug Hoffman only reinforced that perception.
During the campaign she failed to connect with voters, party officials or, perhaps most important, campaign donors, largely because of her support for abortion rights, same-sex marriage and union rights. That opened the door for Hoffman, who took every opportunity to remind people that Scozzafava was not the kind of Republican they wanted representing their interests in a Democrat-led Congress.
Even before Scozzafava's fall, Republicans looking to broaden the base by attracting more centrist candidates worried that the harsh tone in the 23rd spelled trouble for the future, particularly the 2010 midterm elections.
"If we don't get some adult supervision, basically the party could explode and split itself up," said former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, chief executive of the Republican Main Street Partnership, just days before Scozzafava withdrew.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had the same concern, and that's why he endorsed Scozzafava early in the race. As other Republicans threw their support behind Hoffman's momentum, Gingrich argued that the party needed to be more inclusive of moderates if it had a hope of retaking the majority.
He told The Associated Press he was disappointed, and "deeply upset" that Scozzafava endorsed Owens.
"How could she have accepted all that support?" he said, adding later: "I'm very, very let down because she told everybody she was a Republican, and she said she was a loyal Republican."
Gingrich now backs Hoffman.
Scozzafava's support of Owens is angering Republicans back home as well. State Republican chairman Ed Cox said her endorsement is a "betrayal" of the people in the district and the party.
A recent Siena College poll showed her finishing a distant third behind Owens and Hoffman. And in this rural New York district, Republicans never finish third. In its different configurations over the years, a Republican has represented this part of the upstate New York since 1852.
Scozzafava did not return calls Sunday. Her husband, local labor leader Ron McDougall, said he's supporting Owens because of his union positions. He said his wife had been treated "harshly."
During the weekend, New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer and the White House reached out to Scozzafava urging her to back Owens.
Big-name Republicans including Sarah Palin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson weighed in early in the race, giving their support to Hoffman. Money poured into his campaign from all over the country. In the process, Scozzafava was left behind in fundraising.
Democrats are seizing on the race as evidence that Republicans won't be able to retake the majority with a far right agenda.
On CBS' Face The Nation, White House senior adviser David Axelrod addressed whether he believes conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh truly represents the direction the GOP is going.
"That's for the Republican Party to decide," Axelrod said. "I think we've seen an interesting development over this weekend in a special election in upstate New York in a congressional district. The Republican candidate withdrew because of the strong third-party movement behind a very right wing conservative. And certainly Mr. Limbaugh and others were behind that. And I think it sends a clear message to moderates within that party that there's no room at the inn for them. That's why you see Republican identification in polls at a historic low."
And Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said Republican leadership is "becoming more and more extreme and more and more marginalized."
John Brabender, a veteran Republican consultant, said it's dangerous to lump people together by label and suggest there's no room for moderates.
"I think it's about how moderate, and how likely are they to be voting with Republicans," he said. "I think it would be too grand of a statement to say moderates have a target on their back."
Brabender said the outcome of Tuesday's race will be key as Democrats and Republicans fight for what will be perceived as message-sending wins in this and other off-year races. Democrats will try to scoop up any disenfranchised moderate Republicans, while Republicans will argue that this is the year the political pendulum swings back to the right.
"There's a renewed belief that the Republican Party has a number of principles and people are going to look at the candidates running and look at the consistency of their principles rather than if they have an 'R' after their name," Brabender said.
A Republican loss in the 23rd would leave the party with just two seats in the 29-member state congressional delegation.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_ny_special_election

Joe Biden gets involved with New York politics

The White House is sending Vice President Joe Biden to upstate New York to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens in a last-minute push to help Democrats pick up the longtime Republican House seat.

The Biden rally will be taking place next Monday morning in Watertown.

“I’m honored to have the President and Vice President’s support," Owens said in a statement announcing the vice-presidential visit. "I am excited to welcome the Vice President to Watertown where we’ll discuss my plans to create jobs Upstate and my commitment to helping turn the page on the George Bush economic agenda.”

The Biden event comes the day before the special election, which has turned into a two-way contest between Owens and a third-party Conservative challenger, Doug Hoffman, who has captured the momentum in the race in the last several days.

It’s the second time Biden has campaigned for Owens – he went up to Syracuse in September to fundraise for him. And Obama headlined a New York City fundraiser for Owens last week.

For Owens to win, he needs to gin up the Democratic base in the upstate New York district to show up at the polls -- voters who don’t normally turn out for off-year elections.

The visit by Biden underlines how badly national Democrats want to snatch this seat, Republican-held since before the Civil War, from the GOP. But it also reflects Democrats' 11th-hour efforts to avoid a clean sweep Tuesday of the three mostly closely-watched races.

With Republicans almost certainly winning the Virginia gubernatorial contest and the New Jersey governor's race very much up in the air, the upstate New York congressional race may represent the party's best chance for victory.

Biden has become the go-to man in the administration for House Democrats, regularly headlining fundraisers for vulnerable incumbents. He also weighed in in the last special congressional race, taping a radio ad for Rep. Scott Murphy's campaign this past spring.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/1009/Biden_campaigning_for_Owens_in_NY_23.html#

Republicans must get it together

By ALEXANDER BURNS | 11/1/09 7:18 AM EST


Another election, another debacle for New YorkRepublicans.
While GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava's abrupt withdrawal Saturday from the Nov. 3 House election in upstate New York came as a surprise, it shouldn't have — over the past decade or so the New York Republican Party has emerged as the political gang that couldn't shoot straight, an operation so inept that it's sometimes hard to believe it exists in the nation's third-largest state.
The collapse of Scozzafava's campaign—and the quick rise of the national conservative revolt sparked by her nomination—is simply the latest calamity to befall the New York GOP and an illustration of the utter ruin into which the state party has fallen. In just a few short years, the party's presence in state politics has dwindled to the point of extinction-or irrelevance.
Little more than a decade ago, Republicans controlled the governor's mansion, the state Senate, one of two U.S. Senate seats, 13 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the New York City mayor's office.
Since then, though, the GOP has declined at a steady and accelerating pace. Today, the party has virtually no presence in the congressional delegation-it controls just two of the state's 29 House seats at the moment. It lacks a single statewide elected officer and represents only a minority in both chambers of the state Legislature-the first time since the New Deal that New York has had a Democratic governor and legislature. In 2006, in an open governor's race, the Republican nominee failed to win even 30 percent of the vote.
Last April, Republicans botched another upstate House special election despite starting with a 70,000 Republican voter registration advantage. In that contest, a high-ranking state Republican, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, cemented the GOP's Keystone Kops reputation by blowing a lead against an unknown businessman with no experience running for office, despite benefiting from heavy national Republican spending that far outpaced Democratic spending.
"I think the state of the New York Republican Party is at its lowest ebb we've seen and I've been watching this since the early '70s," said former Rep. Tom Reynolds, a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee who also served as the GOP leader in the state Assembly during the 1990s. "When we look at 2010, it's hard to imagine us going any lower than we are."
Making matters worse, Reynolds said, there's little sign Republicans are prepared to start clawing their way back in 2010 with a strong statewide slate. While Republicans are hopeful that former Gov. George Pataki or former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will run statewide, neither has made serious moves toward launching a campaign and the GOP bench is painfully thin.
"We have six statewide offices and one announced candidate, and that is [former Long Island Congressman] Rick Lazio, who has announced for governor," Reynolds said. "Many believe and want to believe that there's an opportunity. And I think that remains to be seen."
For a party less battered and demoralized, 2010 would seem to be the mother of all opportunities. Though New York Democrats have dominated at the polls two cycles in a row, they have also suffered from a series of scandals and missteps that have permanently tarnished some of their most powerful figures.
The first scandal came barely a month after the 2006 elections, when state Comptroller Alan Hevesi resigned amid an investigation into financial corruption. Then, Gov. Eliot Spitzer was implicated in a prostitution scandal that ended his term in office.
Spitzer handed off his post to his running mate, David Paterson, who promptly admitted a history of extramarital affairs and drug use. Paterson then fumbled the process of filling a vacant U.S. Senate seat in early 2009. Paterson's approval ratings are so low and his prospects for re-election are so grim that the White House has intervened in the hopes of convincing him not to seek a second term. Yet in polling matchups with Lazio, the only announced GOP candidate, the beleaguered governor remains competitive.
Republicans point out that the state party is a victim of political forces beyond its will, located in a region of the country that has recoiled from the conservative national party and from George W. Bush. They note that Democrats also have a daunting, built-in advantage which includes a voter registration edge that's grown to nearly 3 million--a 50 percent increase since 2000.
"It's not like they [New York Democrats] have some well oiled functioning machine," said John Faso, a former Republican leader in the state Assembly and 2006 gubernatorial candidate. "They just have a great institutional advantage in terms of the number of voters in the state."
Democratic Rep. Steve Israel witnessed the state's turn to the left firsthand, as a local officeholder and congressional candidate in the formerly Republican strongholds of Suffolk and Nassau counties. Centrist and conservative New Yorkers who might have once voted for Giuliani or Pataki, he argued, have been brought inside the Democratic fold.
"We have, as Democrats, we have learned how to appeal to moderate, suburban voters throughout New York State-not just on Long Island," said Israel, who serves as a recruiter for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "We've proved it in moderate areas with [second-term Rep.] Mike Arcuri, [freshman Rep.] Eric Massa. We've just, we have learned how to win those quintessentially moderate, suburban, soccer-mom districts."
Even if voters are frustrated with the state of New York politics, Democrats say, Republicans are in no position to capitalize since the GOP has matched Democrats nearly scandal for scandal, from the hasty retirement of Rep. Vito Fossella following a drunk driving arrest and the subsequent revelation that he'd fathered a child out of wedlock, to the defeat of Rep. John Sweeney amid reports of spousal abuse to former state Senate President Joe Bruno's indictment on multiple corruption charges earlier this year.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat who has repeatedly endorsed Republican candidates in state and federal elections, predicted that Republicans are unlikely to be the beneficiaries of widespread voter disgust with the political class.
"The Republicans they perceive to be just as bad and out of touch with reality in terms of what people want today, politically," he said.
Some Republicans worry that the centrist Scozzafava's special election collapse amid tremendous conservative opposition could send a bad signal to the broader New York electorate.
Former Rep. Sherry Boehlert, an upstate centrist who saw his seat flip to the Democratic column after he retired in 2006, sounded a bleak note earlier this week when asked about the special election.
"It probably says to a lot of people who are registered Republicans, maybe I should reconsider my registration," Boehlert said. "I think, from a Republican standpoint, it would provide further evidence for some that there doesn't appear to be any room in the Republican Party for people who are moderate in their thinking."


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/28977.html