The Democratic Challengers, where are they?

Upstate!

There are six Republican held Congressional seats in New York state. Thus far three have declared candidates with websites and ground games up and running 18 months prior to the election. Here in the thirteenth we have possibly three great challengers but no declarations and zero ground game. Is this going to be a repeat of the disasterous effects of '06 where candidates sat around and played games before clearing the way for Harrison to run on a very condensed schedule?

NY-03, held by Rep. Peter King (R), no candidates
NY-13, held by Rep. Vito Fossella (R), no candidates
NY-23, held by Rep. McHugh (R), no candidates
NY-25, held by Rep. James Walsh (R), Dan Maffei Democratic Challenger
NY-26, held by Rep. Tom Reynolds (R), Jon Powers Democratic Challenger
NY-29, held by Rep. Randy Kuhl (R), Eric Massa Democratic Challenger

A while back we looked in the PVI, Party Voter Index system that Cook Reports uses to judge the political leanings of Congressional Districts. Rep. Fossella by their measure is in the 12th most Democratic district held by a Republican. He is the third most vulnerable member of Congress in terms of PVI from NY State, behind on Rep. King (NY-03) and Rep. Walsh (NY-25) [who has a challenger]. So you can see that in less Democratic friendly districts we already have optimistic candidates working hard on winning and here we sit idly by without anyone to keep on the offensive against Fossella.

So my question is when are we going to have a candidate running and a ground game in operation? When are we going to start building off the work of challengers like Manny Innamorato and bring our message to the South Shore? When do we start working with Mike Ryan, Democratic Candidate for DA this fall and go door to door offering solutions and possibly more important an interest to listen to the residents of Staten Island (and all of the 13th).

It is June already.