News From My Former Home Town District

[Bob Forsythe]

I cannot believe the NY 23^rd Congressional District is in this sort of fight. It has been rock solid, New England Republican since the 1850s. But maybe that's the problem - folks up there don't much care for what the whackos from the South have to tell them. This website tells the story if you read enough of the articles:

www.newzjunky.com/

Simply put, the Southern controlled Republican Party has no understanding of those of us who were born and raised in the Northeast. When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote.

=Bob

[AlwaysAnAztec]

Just amazing. The guy doesn't live in the district and knows, or cares, nothing about important local issues. But he does march in lock step with Rush and Glenn.

This was the best of he articles.

From Time Magazine.

My home Congressional district, New York's 23rd, may cover 14,000 square miles of what's known as the North Country, but in many ways, it's really one big small town. With a population of just over 650,000 — most of whom are white and working- or middle-class — the key issues in the rural district that sprawls across the northeast part of the state are typically things like the future of the local Army base, falling milk prices and whether anyone can ever lure enough jobs back to the area to replace those lost when the region's manufacturing sector dried up in the 1980s and 1990s.

The current campaign to represent the place where I grew up and also worked as a beat newspaper reporter, however, is anything but typical — or local. For starters, there are three unorthodox candidates: A pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage, pro-union Republican; a registered independent running on the Democratic ticket; and a Conservative who doesn't live in the district and may well win — or play the part of GOP spoiler and help elect a Democrat to a seat occupied by Republicans since the 1800s — despite skipping most chances to appear publicly with his opponents. But even these three personalities aren't what make the campaign to replace former Republican Rep. John McHugh — tapped to be President Obama's Secretary of the Army — downright weird. What's making it weird — at least from the perspective of many of my former neighbors and colleagues — is all the attention focused on an area usually perceived by outsiders as merely remote. (The Wall Street Journal recently described the 23rd as "a part of New York so far north it actually abuts Canada." Actually!)
(See pictures of Republican memorabilia.)


"It's surreal," says Scott Atkinson, news director at WWNY, the main television station in the district's largest city of Watertown. "From where we are, there are all these local issues to contend with. But then we turn on the tube and we're watching this weird parallel universe of the talking heads talking about this as the future of the Republican Party."

So how did this happen? After McHugh — a moderate, environmentally friendly Republican re-elected to the seat eight times — accepted Obama's nomination, local Democratic and Republican leaders chose their respective candidates. Bill Owens, an attorney with left of center views, was the choice of the Democrats, while Dede Scozzafava, a moderate state assemblywoman from the district, was the pick of the local GOP. Doug Hoffman, an accountant living over the district line in Lake Placid, then declared his own candidacy with the backing of the state's Conservative Party leaders, who had opted not to endorse Scozzafava. Now, Scozzafava has the support of the official GOP party establishment — including House Minority Leader John Boehner and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele — while Hoffman has garnered endorsements from other prominent Republicans (and probable 2012 GOP presidential candidates) like Sarah Palin and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, as well as conservative former U.S. senators like Rick Santorum and Fred Thompson. Hoffman is also a favorite of talk-show host Glenn Beck and tea-party activists across the country.

Jeff Graham, the mayor of Watertown and a member of the Independence Party, says Hoffman is "a meek, soft-spoken guy who is mad as hell and just decided to go ahead and do this 2009 version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. And it seems to be working." Upstate political observers say Hoffman has struck a chord with voters based on his deficit reduction message and pro-life stance. He also supports a flat tax and lists four other "issues" on his campaign website's homepage: "Gay Marriage," "Bank Bailout," "No Pork Pledge" and "ACORN." "I'm fighting for the heart and soul of the Republican Party," says Hoffman, who helped manage the finances of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.

What's not clear is how much he knows about my district. He showed up for just one debate, citing scheduling conflicts on other occasions. In an interview with the editorial board of my old employer, the Watertown Daily Times, Hoffman was asked about a new super-highway that had been proposed years ago for the district but needs federal funding. No opinion. Where did he stand on the controversial idea of dredging the St. Lawrence River, which forms the district's border with Canada? No comment. A subsequent editorial in the Times described Hoffman as "flustered and ill-at-ease" and said he "showed no grasp of the bread-and-butter issues pertinent to district residents." It didn't help that Hoffman brought along former House Majority Leader (and staunch conservative) Dick Armey with him to the editorial board meeting — Armey called the local issues "parochial" and said the editorial board ambushed his candidate. Hoffman also says he opposes pork-barrel spending, the kind of federal cash infusions a rural, economically depressed, military-heavy area like the North Country depends on.

But then, the race in the 23rd is no longer about local issues. It's about a Republican Party with little current power inside the Beltway searching for a way out of the wilderness. And it's about conservative Republicans sending a message — the future of the party is the conservative base. (It's also, incidentally, about money; according to the Federal Election Commission, more than $650,000 has flowed to the candidates from independent groups just since Oct. 24.) "The 23rd has as little significance as Gettysburg. It's just where the Armies met," says Bob Gorman, managing editor of the Times and my old boss. "Everybody was looking for a fight and that's where they found each other."

The money flowing to Hoffman's campaign from conservative interest groups has been used to paint Scozzafava as a leftist. True, Scozzafava supports abortion rights, gay marriage and the pro-union legislation known as Card Check. But she's also endorsed by the National Rifle Association, supported the Bush tax cuts, and opposes to much of Obama's health care plan. "Whether you agree with Scozzafava or not or whether you like her politics or not, there's this real cognitive dissonance between the woman that we know and this bizarre caricature of her that's being described out there," says Atkinson, of WWNY. "Now she's like a stand-in for Mao and it's just bizarre."

Scozzafava hasn't exactly helped herself. At one point she called 911 after a Weekly Standard reporter followed her to her car asking her questions about taxes. The gaffe soon became fodder for a Hoffman radio ad. Then Scozzafava, hoping to chide Hoffman into participating in more debates, appeared in front of his headquarters as a one-woman protest - an image that would make any political handler cringe.

Based on the most recent polls, it seems Scozzafava has little chance of winning; her support is trending downward, while Hoffman is gaining ground, putting him in a tight race with Owens — with only four days left until voters go to the polls. The newest television ad on Hoffman's campaign website attacks Owens, now perceived as a bigger rival than Scozzafava. And on Thursday, Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Politico Hoffman would be welcomed "with open arms" into the GOP caucus, no doubt to the dismay of the party's official candidate in the race.

[cx4]

"When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote."

I'm a conservative leaning independent and I just can't fathom why all the fuss about Palin? We all know that she isn't the sharpest tack in the pile, but why all the wide eyes and foaming at the mouth? She just needs to be ignored and maybe she will go away, she really doesn't have much support. There are as many idiots on the liberal side, but who cares about the fringe element?

BTW, I'm very proud of my Southern ancestors who fought in the Civil War, the foot soldiers were just as capable as the soldiers of the North.

[aztecwin]

Oct 29, 2009 18:45:14 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

I cannot believe the NY 23^rd Congressional District is in this sort of fight. It has been rock solid, New England Republican since the 1850s. But maybe that's the problem - folks up there don't much care for what the whackos from the South have to tell them. This website tells the story if you read enough of the articles:

www.newzjunky.com/

Simply put, the Southern controlled Republican Party has no understanding of those of us who were born and raised in the Northeast. When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote.

=Bob

Your comments show that you clearly do not understand the dynamics of this race and further your choice of words shows a lack of class.

[Bob Forsythe]

Oct 30, 2009 11:26:20 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Oct 29, 2009 18:45:14 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

I cannot believe the NY 23^rd Congressional District is in this sort of fight. It has been rock solid, New England Republican since the 1850s. But maybe that's the problem - folks up there don't much care for what the whackos from the South have to tell them. This website tells the story if you read enough of the articles:

www.newzjunky.com/

Simply put, the Southern controlled Republican Party has no understanding of those of us who were born and raised in the Northeast. When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote.

=Bob

Your comments show that you clearly do not understand the dynamics of this race and further your choice of words shows a lack of class.

I lived there for the first 17 years of my life and read the news from there every day on-line so I know the dynamics of the race a heck of a lot better than you do. There will be people voting for Owens simply because they don't like to be told what to do. There will also be people voting for him because Hoffman doesn't live in the district and showed up for an interview with the editorial board of the Watertown Daily Times, which is about on par with the UT in its editorial content, and he showed he doesn't have a clue about the local issues, to the point that the WDT endorsed Owens.

Hoffman may win, it's always possible, but there are a lot of districts in this country like that one and outsiders are not appreciated.

=Bob

[William L. Rupp]

Oct 29, 2009 18:45:14 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

I cannot believe the NY 23^rd . When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote.

=Bob

This post puts me, as administrator, in a difficult position. I am exceedingly reluctant to banish a poster, especially one who has made numerous worthwhile contributions.

On the other hand, I tried to make clear some time ago that the kind of name calling you exhibit in this post is really not welcome on this board. One can completely disagree with Sarah Palin and every position she holds without resorting to this kind of crude and totally unwarranted language.

As for the South, Bob, you have in a few words disrespected and libelled an entire region of the country. As one who has studied the American Civil War fairly closely for decades, I can tell you that if it were not for two or three factors early in the war, the South likely would have prevailed.

Let's see if we can't all use better judgment when describing people (or regions, or ethnic groups, or races. . . ) with whom we have major disagreements. Pretty please, says the board admnistrator!

Bill Rupp

[aztecwin]

Nov 1, 2009 10:33:49 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

Oct 30, 2009 11:26:20 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Your comments show that you clearly do not understand the dynamics of this race and further your choice of words shows a lack of class.

I lived there for the first 17 years of my life and read the news from there every day on-line so I know the dynamics of the race a heck of a lot better than you do. There will be people voting for Owens simply because they don't like to be told what to do. There will also be people voting for him because Hoffman doesn't live in the district and showed up for an interview with the editorial board of the Watertown Daily Times, which is about on par with the UT in its editorial content, and he showed he doesn't have a clue about the local issues, to the point that the WDT endorsed Owens.

Hoffman may win, it's always possible, but there are a lot of districts in this country like that one and outsiders are not appreciated.

=Bob

The new developments show that your lack of knowledge and understanding of the race have been exposed. You must remember that this is about a Conservative and not a Republican. A Republican who quit at the last minute and tried to throw her support to a Democrat. You still have not said anything about your crude language and lack of basic respect for another good hearted Americian trying to make a difference by keeping a pair of liberals out of office.

[aztecwin]

Well worth the effort. I have to wonder what Newt was thinking about to endorse the liberal Republican. This guy had only thirty days or so to get a campaign in place and did pretty well.
spectator.org/archives/2009/11/04/worth-the-fight

[Bob Forsythe]

Nov 1, 2009 12:19:52 GMT -8 William L. Rupp said:

Oct 29, 2009 18:45:14 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

I cannot believe the NY 23^rd . When assholes like Palin and Rove try to tell us how we will vote, we will suggest which short pier they should take a long walk on. We don't like the South, we have never liked the South. we kicked Southern ass in the Civil War and we certainly aren't willing to allow the South to tell us how we should vote.

=Bob

This post puts me, as administrator, in a difficult position. I am exceedingly reluctant to banish a poster, especially one who has made numerous worthwhile contributions.

On the other hand, I tried to make clear some time ago that the kind of name calling you exhibit in this post is really not welcome on this board. One can completely disagree with Sarah Palin and every position she holds without resorting to this kind of crude and totally unwarranted language.

As for the South, Bob, you have in a few words disrespected and libelled an entire region of the country. As one who has studied the American Civil War fairly closely for decades, I can tell you that if it were not for two or three factors early in the war, the South likely would have prevailed.

Let's see if we can't all use better judgment when describing people (or regions, or ethnic groups, or races. . . ) with whom we have major disagreements. Pretty please, says the board admnistrator!

Bill Rupp

Oh alright. Insulting posts just tend to get more attention, but I'll back off on them to the extent of using foul language. But I do like to stick in a dig toward the South since I know some of the more hard-core conservatives on here are from that region. And besides, Will, you cannot argue that the Republicans aren't marginalizing their party to a certain extent by allowing it to be controlled by the South.

The 23rd is considered the most conservative district in New York State. A Democrat hasn't won a Congressional election there since 1852 and it's most likely that Scozzafava would have won if the right-wingnuts had simply shut up, as Newt told them they should.

It was quite ridiculous - analysis of her voting record in Albany showed that she's actually a bit to the right of other New York Republicans on fiscal issues and the people in her Assembly district like her. And that's the problem with outsiders coming into races like this - they don't understand the district and they back candidates that don't understand the district.

Hoffman was a terrible choice. He doesn't reside in the district and although he resides in the neighboring district, it's in the Adirondacks and the 23rd covers 11 counties, most of which are not in the mountains. He interviewed with the largest circulation paper in the district, the Watertown Daily Times, and didn't know the answer to most of the questions they asked him, in particular about Fort Drum, which is the largest employer by far.

=Bob

[Bob Forsythe]

Nov 1, 2009 17:33:06 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Nov 1, 2009 10:33:49 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

I lived there for the first 17 years of my life and read the news from there every day on-line so I know the dynamics of the race a heck of a lot better than you do. There will be people voting for Owens simply because they don't like to be told what to do. There will also be people voting for him because Hoffman doesn't live in the district and showed up for an interview with the editorial board of the Watertown Daily Times, which is about on par with the UT in its editorial content, and he showed he doesn't have a clue about the local issues, to the point that the WDT endorsed Owens.

Hoffman may win, it's always possible, but there are a lot of districts in this country like that one and outsiders are not appreciated.

=Bob

The new developments show that your lack of knowledge and understanding of the race have been exposed. You must remember that this is about a Conservative and not a Republican. A Republican who quit at the last minute and tried to throw her support to a Democrat. You still have not said anything about your crude language and lack of basic respect for another good hearted Americian trying to make a difference by keeping a pair of liberals out of office.

Pooh, I don't apologize to you for anything, given your tendency to use you "virgin eyes" as an excuse to change the discussion. You simply do not understand a thing about that district. First, you cannot claim it's not about a Republican since he tried to get the nomination as a Republican and when he didn't, went with the Conservative Party - that's local politics.

Second, Scozzafava would have been reined in by the House leadership if she'd been elected and I will guarantee you she will continue to be elected to the Assembly because she understands the issues in the district.

Third, Hoffman is from Lake Placid, outside the district, and showed a total lack of understanding of the district's issues when he was interviewed by the Watertown Daily Times editorial board.

Forth, you can offer such comments as good hearted Americian (what's an Americian?) all you want, but surely, coming from Montana, you should be able to appreciate the lack of trust toward those "from away" who attempt to tell rural people what to do.

And lastly, as I wrote my original post, the people up there are rock-solid New England Republicans. They believe in low taxes and the right to bear arms but they want to elect people who know the local landscape and who offer solutions to economic issues in a region that suffers from chronic unemployment. What they don't want is a candidate who is running on ideology rather than on the issues most important to them. They are, in short, the "moderates" that the right-wingnuts continue to drive out of the Republican Party. Next up will be Charlie Crist and most likely the Club For Growth candidate will also lose.

And again, you should know this because of where you grew up, but apparently you've either forgotten it or you grew up in one of Montana's "big cities". The 23^rd may be the most conservative district in New York, but it is New York we're discussing here and given that, like Limbaugh, you've never spent any time there, you really don't know what you're writing about. Your comments are equal to me trying to comment on local Montana politics; something I would never do.

Most of the people up there have a very long tradition of what's called "Rockefeller Republicanism", but that's a misnomer because it goes back to the origins of the Republican Party. Hell, it goes back beyond the origins of the Republican Party given that this is the first time a Democrat has been elected there since 1852.

But hey; continue to believe that all politics are not local and are driven by ideology. That belief is what's destroying your party.

=Bob

[Bob Forsythe]

Nov 4, 2009 17:01:42 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Well worth the effort. I have to wonder what Newt was thinking about to endorse the liberal Republican. This guy had only thirty days or so to get a campaign in place and did pretty well.
spectator.org/archives/2009/11/04/worth-the-fight

Wasn't worth the fight at all because the crazies with no understanding of the district came there in droves and still lost despite dumping upwards of 3 million into Huffman's campaign. Scozzafave would have been moved to the right by the House leadership and Gingrich was quite correct in his assessment that the Club For Growth and other far-right organizations should have stayed the Hell out of it.

The pundits are claiming that a lot of people revolted against the 11 county Republican chairpersons giving the nod to Scozzafava, but I'm not buying that. They know the district best and they gave the nod to the person they thought had the best chance to win. But idiots like Beck, Limbaugh and Palin, who have never been there and don't know a thing about the district decided to turn it into an ideological fight and that was bound to be a loser.

There is damn little industry left up there. The only major employer in the district is Fort Drum and Hoffman couldn't answer much of anything when it came to Drum or employment in general. He mostly talked about social issues to a populace that is pretty moderate on social issues.

But feel free to continue to argue in favor of ideological candidates who don't understand local issues. I am of the opinion that Owens may well not win next year's election because the district is rock-solid Republican territory, but if they put up another candidate who doesn't know the district and attempts to run on ideology, they'll get another beat down.

=Bob

[ptsdthor]

The culprit for the GOP in this case is not Palin or Pawlenty (the two Southerners I guess ), but the 11 or so idiots that appointed the ultra-liberal Republican to be the standard bearer in the first place, especially in this current political environment. They are absolutely out of touch. Its as if they purposefully invited the challenge with her selection. The liberal Republican had just recently threatened to go to the Democrat party when she was passed over to be the candidate for another NY state office! What were they thinking?

The independent challenge was doomed to fail because some GOPers are loyal to he GOP regardless and will not vote for another party and sure, the small amount of her loyalists and the few loyalists associated with the stupid a$$ GOP steering committee probably made up the majority of her votes.

And spare me the crap that the loss is about hating Conservative social vales. You are going to have a hard time telling me how different up state New Yorkers are from the people in Maine who rejected a Same Sex Marriage law that very same night. Are they so different animals?

[AlwaysAnAztec]

The wing-nuts have control of the national Republican Party and won't stand for any moderates in 'their' party. Well guess what. The Republican party is now, and maybe forever, a minor regional player.

I foresee a national third party for those moderates and progressives who are being thrown out or leaving the GOP. See ya later wing-nuts .

[AztecWilliam]

The official Republican candidate in NY's 23rd District, as I understand it, holds positions to the left of the Democrat who won. Surely those who chose her could have found someone more moderate. She is for card-check, abortion, the bailouts, Obamacare, etc., etc., etc.

Hoffman may not have been a very good candidate, but I can easily understand why so many Rep. voters in that district simply could not vote for the woman (I won't even try to spell her name). As it was, Hoffman did pretty well when you consider his shortcomings.

Let's imagine that in a very liberal district the party had chosen a candidate who was against abortion, opposed Obama's health care proposal, declared that card-check was an abomination, etc. Do you not think that, just maybe, some more liberal Dem. would have stepped forward to oppose the official "Democrat?" (I guess such a conservative Dem. would be called a DINO, "Dem. in name only!)

I can see that picking a pretty moderate Rep. would have made sense, but choosing someone so unlike Republicans generally was a terrible mistake from the perspective of the GOP.

As for the Republican Party being controlled by wingnuts, what do you think some of us not smitten with "The One" think of the Lefties now controlling the Democratic Party?

AzWm

[aztecwin]

Nov 4, 2009 17:01:42 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Well worth the effort. I have to wonder what Newt was thinking about to endorse the liberal Republican. This guy had only thirty days or so to get a campaign in place and did pretty well.
spectator.org/archives/2009/11/04/worth-the-fight

I saw last night where Newt admitted that he made a huge mistake. He at least will admit when he is wrong.

[aztecwin]

Nov 4, 2009 19:03:55 GMT -8 Bob Forsythe said:

Nov 4, 2009 17:01:42 GMT -8 aztecwin said:

Well worth the effort. I have to wonder what Newt was thinking about to endorse the liberal Republican. This guy had only thirty days or so to get a campaign in place and did pretty well.
spectator.org/archives/2009/11/04/worth-the-fight

Wasn't worth the fight at all because the crazies with no understanding of the district came there in droves and still lost despite dumping upwards of 3 million into Huffman's campaign. Scozzafave would have been moved to the right by the House leadership and Gingrich was quite correct in his assessment that the Club For Growth and other far-right organizations should have stayed the Hell out of it.

The pundits are claiming that a lot of people revolted against the 11 county Republican chairpersons giving the nod to Scozzafava, but I'm not buying that. They know the district best and they gave the nod to the person they thought had the best chance to win. But idiots like Beck, Limbaugh and Palin, who have never been there and don't know a thing about the district decided to turn it into an ideological fight and that was bound to be a loser.

There is damn little industry left up there. The only major employer in the district is Fort Drum and Hoffman couldn't answer much of anything when it came to Drum or employment in general. He mostly talked about social issues to a populace that is pretty moderate on social issues.

But feel free to continue to argue in favor of ideological candidates who don't understand local issues. I am of the opinion that Owens may well not win next year's election because the district is rock-solid Republican territory, but if they put up another candidate who doesn't know the district and attempts to run on ideology, they'll get another beat down.

=Bob

Your comments show that you have no idea of what she stood for or what happened to get her on the ballet. Politics are local, of course, but you just do not understand what happened in this case just as Newt admitted that he misread what was going on and how it should have been handled. She was left of the Dem that was running and just to show you her bent, she endorsed the Democrat.

[davdesid]

The Dem who won is rated "A" by the NRA. That's a good endorsement, as far as I'm concerned.

[aztecwin]

Nov 5, 2009 15:46:04 GMT -8 davdesid said:

The Dem who won is rated "A" by the NRA. That's a good endorsement, as far as I'm concerned.

I agree that an NRA endorsement is positive. I am not just a one issue voter. I would have voted for him before Snozerknocker or whatever her name is, but the Conservative would have gotten my vote in this one. This whole deal was a clusterhug.

[Bob Forsythe]

Nov 4, 2009 21:48:53 GMT -8 ptsdthor said:

The culprit for the GOP in this case is not Palin or Pawlenty (the two Southerners I guess ), but the 11 or so idiots that appointed the ultra-liberal Republican to be the standard bearer in the first place, especially in this current political environment. They are absolutely out of touch.

See, this is what you don't understand because you don't know the district (or the northeast at all, for that matter). She was selected by the party chairs in the 11 counties that make up the 23rd. Something tells me they know the territory one Hell of a lot better than you do. It's quite possible that if a primary had taken place, a more conservative candidate would have won, but I wouldn't advise you to count on it.

The 23^rd is probably the most conservative district in New York, but it's in New York and folks like you, who have never lived there, really don't understand how people up there think.

The reason I started this thread with an insulting rant about the South was because I know that virtually nobody on here understands Northern New York politics and I knew I'd get the responses that I did. Scozzafava is very well liked in her district. Owens carried Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties and those counties have the majority of population in the district (the rest of the district is rural and most of it is in the Adirondacks).

the mistake the right-wingnuts made was assuming that the people there are stupid. Bringing in a ton of right-wing people like Palin, Beck and Limbaugh (yeah, like any of them understand the political dynamics there) was incredibly stupid. And on top of that, they supported a candidate who was barely able to answer any question put to him by the Watertown Daily Times editorial board.

What do Palin, Limbaugh, Beck and others know about the concerns of the district? Do they know anything about Ft. Drum? Do they know anything about the St. Lawrence Seaway and plans to expand it? Do they know anything about the proposed highway running east to west from Lake Ontario to the border with Vermont? Do they know anything about the chronic unemployment there and the importance of Ft. Drum?

It came down to this - stay the Hell out of local races when you don't know the territory. The idiots from the South decided that because it's a rural district it would fall into line with their religious "values". Big mistake. This was a local race with local issues and the right-wingnuts decided to back someone who apparently didn't have a clue about the issues.

And it doesn't bode well for the Republicans if they continue to eat their young. You and they have never lived there and you don't understand the district.

=Bob

[aztecwin]

She was not a Republican!