Recchia's fund raiser?

October 24th was Domenic Recchia's first fund raiser, as Azi first reported. Since then I have heard nothing. In the first reporting of the fund raiser Azi commented, maybe profoundly to my question;

The turnout here should function, in part, as a measure of the Democratic institutional [spelling corrected] support he'll have against Steve Harrison.

Anyone have any information on Recchia's fund raising results? Feel free to email me if you don't want to leave a comment ny13blog@gmail.com (this is always available on the right column).

Fossella for Mayor?

And I hear you saying but he can't represent his own district why does he think he can do any better with 8 million constituents? But alas there inevitably is talk about running for something and lately it has been mayor, not of Vail, New York City.

So why would he run? New York City is one of the few places where running for mayor is a promotion from Congress. Rep. Anthony Weiner tried in 2005. So it is not uncommon. Should Fossella run for Mayor he would not have to give up his seat (see Weiner in 2005) unless he won. If he decided to run it would raise many questions about his faith in being able to retain his Congressional seat and/or foretelling his long term status in a minority party in the House. Of course these scenarios would probably come more into play for the 2013 race (if he were still around) where the thirteenth district will more than likely look different after a census and redistricting.

So why is he not going to run? Well for starters he won't win.

1. The Bloomberg model requires Fossella to first be socially liberal, which he is not, and wealthy enough to influence the election, which he clearly is not as evidenced by his inability to even raise funds for his own re-election campaign.

2. Likely Republican candidate for mayor, John Catsimatidis, owner of Gristedes, is donating to Fossella's re-election campaign. Both him and his wife have maxed out their primary donations at $2,300 each. via the NY Times;

"John A. Catsimatidis, the supermarket mogul, has taken a page from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's playbook, switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican -- in anticipation of a mayoral bid in 2009."

3. The inevitable loss (see 1 and 2) would only hurt his chances for carrying the party torch in state wide races where he could actually break 30% before getting some lobbying job. How many Republican nominees for Senate or Governor were given more than one shot? Rep. Lazio, anyone? Should Sen. Clinton vacate her Senate seat, Governor Spitzer would appoint someone to fill it until the end of the term in 2012, where there would be a highly contested primary. With the thinning of the Republican Congressional ranks in the state he is becoming an endangered species; the sacrificial Republican.

I see no benefit to him whatsoever to run for mayor, with the publicity generated from questions like these only raising his name recognition and perception that he is widely liked by voters. Don't carry his water for him by giving these stories any validity.

update: for a good perspective on all of this talk see Dan Rivoli's piece Will Fossella be the Elephant in the Room?

Recchia for Borough President!?

Well this quote in an article about the Brooklyn Borough President race is out of left field, via the NY Times;

"Councilman Domenic M. Recchia Jr. has said he is also considering entering the [BP] race."

editing note my own

Harrison announces $50k

from a campaign email I got earlier in the week;

With the help of hundreds we've raised over $50,000 in just 3-weeks!

That puts us ahead in fundraising, with our opponent saddled by a negative cash balance.

So far we've multiplied the rate of last year's fundraising by several times over. Imagine what we can do by January!

This support has enabled us to hire full-time staff, commission a state-of-the-art website and gear-up this campaign for the road ahead.

Stephen Harrison for Congress

March against Iraq War, Oct 27 (today)

Daily Gotham has the details;

Brooklyn March for Peace
10am at Brooklyn Borough Hall

Events going on on Manhattan all afternoon

Cook Political Report changes NY-13 ratings

The Cook Political Report has changed their rating for NY-13 from 'solid safe republican' to 'likely republican'. An early indication that this seat may be more competative than it was in the past. Possibly a result of horrible fund raising by Fossella or that he may have to fend off two Democratic opponents.

Cook Report has already listed Fossella as the 12th most competitive seat based on PVI.

h/t DavidNYC

update: phillip gave us some front page love over at the Albany Project

Editing post

editors note: I have temporarily taken down the latest post. My apologies as this is not standard practice. The post will return in full with updates as soon as possible.

Fossella in "shockingly bad shape"

via Open Left;

However, one quarter of the House has under $250,000 in the bank (61 Democrats and 55 Republicans). Here's a look at the 55 Republicans who are short on cash.

snip

Many of the remaining members come from relatively safe districts but more than a few are in shockingly bad shape. Here's some of the names in trouble.

snip

Vito Fossella polled 57% against a weak opponent in a New York City district with a Democratic PVI. That's bad. To make matters worse, Fossella burned through most of his $106,000 stash of June 30 to leave the third quarter with $50,286.

Daily Politics coverage of Fossella's 3Q fundraising

via Elizabeth at Daily Politics;

- Rep. Vito Fossella, 13th CD, ranks 234th. He spent almost as much as he raised, $358,629 and $396,514, respectively, and has $50,286 on hand plus $73,582 worth of debt. His 2006 Democratic opponent, Steve Harrison, who is running again next fall, raised $37,618, spent $6,849 and has $37,367 on hand plus $1,595 worth of debt.

The article gathers year to date financial numbers which probably casts Fossella's finances in too good of a light. We already have covered that the third quarter was bad for Fossella where he spent more money than he brought in $152k to $98 and his cash on hand more than likely is entirely only general election funds.

Fossella can't rely on NRCC for support

Following on Fossella's 3Q filings and his sub-par fund raising abilities comes more bad news. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), counter part to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is yet again struggling to raise any money and lagging incredibly far behind the DCCC. In fact just like Vito Fossella the NRCC is in operating debt. via the Wall Street Journal;

The Republican congressional campaign committee is in debt, while the Democrats' committee said Wednesday it has raised $28 million.

The article goes on to list many more agonies for the NRCC such as not having the money to recruit challengers to take on incumbent Democrats, having to defend many more seats to retirement than the Democrats (12 R's to 2 D's) and that independents have been breaking towards the Democrats because of opposition to the War, aka Fossella's War in Iraq.

If this doesn't spell bad news for Fossella, it most certainly does not help him sleep at night. His party must start to decide if they spend money defending incumbents, defending open seats or going after Democratic freshmen (typically the easiest incumbents to challenge). Chances are there will be no money coming from the party to help Fossella or in terms of opposition spending (going after the Democratic challenger). Fossella's fund raising is hurting and not likely to get any better as his party already is getting ready for at least another two years in the minority.

If that wasn't bad enough having Independents, the real kind not the kind Fossella claims to be, break for Democrats makes running in a district with a Democratic voter registration advantage that much harder. And then there are the conservatives within his own party frustrated at unheard of spending on this war and the chance Fossella could lose the Conservative Party ballot line.

Vito, just retire and then you can take trips to Vail all you want without worrying about those nagging ethics problems.

h/t to Brandon English over at The Stakeholder once again for drawing attention to this WSJ article.

Recchia's FEC page?

Tom Wrobleski is reporting that Domenic Recchia's campaign committee is up on the FEC's website, indicating movement on Recchia's part. The site, image below, does make clear that this is not necessarily an official filing by a candidate but could be filing by a committee on behalf of a candidate, such as a Draft movement, i.e. Draft Gore or Draft Clark from '04.

Vito Fossella no longer over looked

via Stuart Rothenberg at Roll Call;

While Republicans no longer control Congress, Democrats are still likely to benefit from the electorate’s desire for change. For many Americans, Bush is still in charge, and voting Democratic up and down the ballot is the surest way to change the country’s direction.

snip

Presumably strong Democratic recruits against a number of GOP incumbents who were overlooked last time — Reps. Jim Saxton in New Jersey, Sam Graves in Missouri and Vito Fossella in New York, among them — could give Democrats a number of new opportunities.

h/t to Brandon English at the DCCC's blog, The Stakeholder for publishing the article

3Q Analysis

Stephen Harrison (D)
• Only 3 donors are maxed out for the primary which leaves lot's of potentially untapped funds
• He has a modest showing on ActBlue, 23 donors yet only Mole333 at DailyGotham is really pushing this so I am curious where those donors came from


Vito Fossella (R)
• $14,100 from my count of his contributions are for the General Election, meaning of his $50k Cash on Hand, only $36k of that is usable before the September 2008 primary, putting him that much further in the hole. After seeing that I went back to his 2Q numbers and he has $36k from that filing that is General Election only, so he is carrying $50k in funds that he can't use before the primary, equal to his current Cash on Hand. (I have to double check some of the finer details of this I am no expert in FEC laws)
• He continues to get Union support, although minimal (Carpenters, Operating Engineers, Painters IUPAT, Laborers)
• The only notable local party elected to contribution this quarter was former Assembly Candidate Anthony Xanthakis, updated; he was only a candidate
• Wal-Mart once again is contributing to Fossella's campaign (this was the same donation from 2Q)

Harrison's 3Q numbers

Stephen Harrison's FEC filings are up as well, although his campaign was great about letting us know his numbers before the Monday filing deadline.

Net Contributions: $37,618
Net Disbursements: $6,849
Cash on Hand: $37,267
Debt: $1,595

more analysis on Harrison and Fossella's numbers later...

Vito Fossella's Q3 numbers

Monday was the filing deadline for congressional candidates for their third quarter (July-Sept 2007) finances. Here are Fossella's Q3 numbers (caution links to a PDF):

Net Contributions: $98,735
Net Expenditures: $152,910
Cash on Hand: $50,286
DEBT: $73,582

For comparison here are his Q2 numbers;

Net Contributions: 151,275.00
Net Expenditures: 124,783.82
Cash on Hand: 106,751.87
DEBT: 117,771.01

And Q1 2007

Net Contributions: 133,150.00
Net Expenditures: 62,167.12
Cash on Hand: 82,885.69
DEBT: 173,750.46

In all, his third quarter numbers show is lowest fund raising numbers of 2007, $50k less than Q2, a rather sizable drop off. He for the first time in 2007 has spent well more than he brought in, truly showing his 'fiscal conservatism' and once again increasing his net expenditures. And again he ends the quarter with more debt than cash on hand. It is going to take him well into the Q2 of 2008 just to break even and pay off all the debt he has carried while Stephen Harrison and Domenic Recchia have positive net cash flows and both are already ahead in the money game, even with Recchia raising nothing to date for this race.

Stephen Harrison supporting the NYPD

Matthew Lysiak writing for the Brooklyn Paper covers a story about Stephen Harrison's recent participation and speech at an anti-war rally. I covered the story in two posts, here and here, but Matthew focuses on a different aspect, Harrison's praise of the local police;

But when one of the organizers of the protest berated two police officers, Harrison couldn't hold his tongue.

"Those police officers, I know them personally, and I don't want this group to alienate them," said a visibly angry Harrison. "Everything they have ever done in this community is appropriate and what they deserve is a thank you."

Matthew goes on to compare this to a Bill Clinton moment.

But it was Harrison's "Sister Souljah moment" that stood out. A reach? Perhaps, but unlike Clinton's attack on the rapper, at least Harrison's "moment" wasn't pre-scripted. And that made it even more effective, because it showed that Harrison is a stand-up guy.

I find it to be a good strategy to reach out to these groups of constituents. Vito Fossella continues to try and own them through his tough rhetoric and fear car, yet it is Democrats who are leading efforts to support them. We saw that Rep. Jerry Nadler has long led the fight for treatment of illnesses related to September 11th while Fossella postured in the publicity. We know that Fossella is backing a presidential candidate who is reviled by our own Fire Fighters. Time and time again Fossella terrorism and fear as a means to have photo ops yet it is the Democrats who are fighting for the unions these men and women belong to, for the pensions, health care and public education systems they come to rely on for them and their families.

Fossella, SCHIP and Giuliani

Tomorrow the House will vote to override President Bush's veto on the state sponsored children's health care program SCHIP. The bill which passed both the House and Senate with majorities would expand health care coverage to 10 million uninsured children. President Bush has said that is too much in an effort to deny coverage so as to not compete with private insurance company profits at the cost of this nation's most vulnerable.

Rep. Vito Fossella has come out in support of SCHIP and did vote for it unfortunately however after voting against it on the House floor. So he is making progress in the right direction. The problem that remains is that the bill is a handful of votes short of achieving a veto-proof override in the House, something the Senate does have. While Fossella has sent his staffers and PR managers out to write op-ed pieces and letters to the editor to suddenly champion this cause, he has done little in terms of working to get this bill past the President's veto. To my knowledge he has not managed to convince any of his fellow Republicans who voted no to change their vote. He has not gone on Sunday morning talk shows to debate and speak against those denying this bill's chances of passage.

But to really look at his 'support' for SCHIP you need to take a step back and look at some other indicators, such as his endorsement of Giuliani for President. Rudy has stated that he supports President Bush's veto, via AFL-CIO;

NBC News quoted Giuliani as supporting Bush’s veto, saying the SCHIP bill expanded coverage too broadly.

"We’re going to take people off private insurance and put them on government insurance—that’s a disaster."

When you look at this issue in its totality, Fossella has voted once against this bill, Fossella has done nothing to work aggressively towards its passage and Fossella continues to support a Presidential candidate who given the chance would also veto this bill once he is in the White House. So how can Fossella really support SCHIP if all he does is show up once to vote for it after knowing the bill would pass with or without him. If Fossella actually supported SCHIP he would be doing more than defending his first no vote, like defending our children and their need for healthcare access.

Vito Fossella and the Nobel Prize

Certainly this is not a lead in to say Vito Fossella has been nominated. No, he recently made waves when he appeared on Hannity and Colmes on Fox News deriding Al Gore's Nobel Prize announcement. Via Newshounds;

“What calls to me is this notion of, I think, diluting what the Nobel Peace Prize is.” Fossella reiterated Hannity’s complaint that Gorbachev and Arafat had won and then named what he thought were obviously better candidates. “I would think people like the United States Air Force or the Marine Corps that brings about peace in this world or Ronald Reagan who was denied it. I think it dilutes what it all means and it calls into question what it’s all about. Are there legitimate issues that the vice president has raised over time? Yes, but I do think the American people deserve more truth.”

While he does get points for managing to throw Ronald Reagan's name in there, there are a few flaws in his attack. First, Ghandi never received the peace prize which seemingly is a far larger oversight than Reagan. Second the award can not go to more than three individuals which would eliminate our armed forces, the wonderfully brave men and women who protect our country. That said maybe a better suggestion for Fossella could have been UN Peace keepers but let's not keep down his rant. Finally my question to Rep. Fossella is did he even bother to nominate anyone or like the rest of his congressional duties and allowances does he ignore those and barely get by putting in minimal effort. After all the organization clearly states that nominations can be submitted by;

Members of national assemblies and governments of states;

My guess is he has no clue and just wanted to complain while doing nothing to change the situation, exactly what you want out of a member of Congress. I imagine most of his bills, resolutions and votes are prepared with the same amount of vigor and research.

Rep. Jerry Lewis and Vito Fossella

Another Republican member of congress is under intense scrutiny and
investigation, and no surprise here, he is also a major donor to Rep.
Fossella.

via Politico;

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has issued a subpoena for a House
Appropriations Committee staffer as part of the ongoing probe of Rep.
Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the powerful panel.

Greg Lankler, a staffer on the House Appropriations Committee's
Defense subcommittee, was recently subpoenaed by a federal grand jury
looking into Lewis, according to House insiders.

Rep. Fossella has taken $5,000 from Rep. Jerry Lewis and his
Future Leaders PAC during the last election. Let's add this $5,000 that
Fossella has taken from Rep. Lewis to his list of horribly corrupt
donors who were or are also Congressmen;

• $10,000 from former Rep. Tom DeLay and his PAC
• $2,000 Rep. Doolittle, FBI raided his house and office
• $1,000 former Rep. Mark Foley, resigned after an underage page scandal
• $500 former Rep. Bob Ney

UPDATE:
Rep. Jerry Lewis has been added to the right hand column of this site to better keep track of his donations to Fossella.

Recchia starts fund raising

Azi has information on a Recchia fund raiser for a Congressional run.

I'm tired tonight, I might have more to add to this later.

Advice to the challengers and what the blogosphere is worth

Dailykos linked to Jerome Armstrong piece in the New Politics Institute about political campaigns engaging blogs and it wraps up some loose ends for me somewhat cohesively;

Progressives need to recognize the importance of forming bonds with local blogs – those blogs that are within a state, region, congressional district or city. Reaching out to these local blogs can be akin to making connections with the special interest groups and constituency groups of the past that have traditionally dominated the progressive movement. The difference is that whereas interest groups traditionally care about only a small range of topics, such as the environment or women’s choice, local bloggers are much more likely to be movement-based and focused on changing the status quo.

I often criticize the lack of coverage this race gets only to then be critical of the coverage if any, and usually in my mind for good reason.

Seriously Recchia is meeting with Nancy Pelosi?
Lanza is leaking stories critical of Recchia and we don't ask questions?
Fossella supports SCHIP despite voting against it?

Here is where I think this medium is effective. My movement-based interest is replacing Rep. Fossella for so many reasons, many of which I truly think can appeal to conservative voters. Fossella is not currently running a re-election campaign he is running a campaign of turning voters off of his opponents. After a decade in Congress he can not stand on his accomplishments and has to hide from reporters, has to send his staffers to debate or answer media questions. This race needs to be about whether the person you have sent to DC to represent you for ten years has done enough or even anything worthy of your vote to send him back.

Fossella is scared, no doubt there. So when reporters come asking about whether one challenger did this or that ask them why they are concerned about residency when we are still engulfed in a civil war that Fossella absolutely supports. When there are questions about fund raising potential point out that 60%+ of this country wants us out of Iraq and with no money and 60% of the vote you can win any election. So don't let the limited media cover be sloppy coverage as they dust off how to ask real questions and take the fight to Fossella. Every day we should make him wake up to stories not of inter party squables but of his unwaivering support of President Bush and his commitment to a never ending war in Iraq.

via One Voice PAC;

A majority of voters reject giving President Bush additional funds for Iraq with no strings attached. When presented with several options for how to respond to President Bush's request for an additional $200 billion to support his Iraq war strategy, nearly half of all respondents (46 percent) say that Congress should approve the funding request, but specify that it can only be used to protect the troops and bring them home.

Take the fight to Fossella. Make him own his war in Iraq.

Vito Fossella hates the poor, nothing new

And yet again Vito Fossella votes to cut off funding from improving the lives of Americans other than his own. H.R. 3246: Regional Economic and Infrastructure Development Act of 2007 passed the House by a vote of 264-154. Vito voted NO, while the rest of the New York state Republicans with just the exception of Peter King voted in favor of the bill.

Fossella has already voted NO on housing assistance bill for Native Americans, one of only 75 no votes (333 yes votes). He has voted against extending housing assistance to low income families still recovering from hurricane Katrina.

Fossella consistently opposes any help for needy Americans. Fossella continues to have the option to reach out and help raise someone else up and turns his backs on them. It is one thing to spout fiscal conservatism as an excuse for this action, but when a majority of your own party is working with the Democrats to pass some of these, there simply is no excuse other than Fossella hates the poor and needy. If only he wasn't short sighted enough to look into the NYC harbor and see that statue and what it stands for.

Domenic Recchia responds

via the Observer (i know);

“I was not involved with the Barbaro campaign,” he said, referring to Frank Barbaro, the Democrat who narrowly lost to Fossella in 2004. “I had no idea what was going on in the Barbaro campaign. I was not involved whatsoever. I had no information.”

Recchia says the story was put out there in order to undermine him, because “the Republicans and Vito Fossella are afraid of Domenic Recchia because the internal research is showing Domenic Recchia is going to win. And this is their way to send a message to me not to run.”

Domenic Recchia and Fossella's 2004 campaign

Over at the SI Advance Tom is reporting something quite surprising;

The Advance has learned that Brooklyn City Councilman Domenic Recchia leaked back-channel intelligence on Democrat Frank Barbaro to GOP Rep. Vito Fossella's campaign during the 2004 congressional race.

snip

Recchia, sources said, gave Fossella "a steady stream of information" about Barbaro's fund-raising, street-campaign tactics and advertising plans, and passed along the topics of at least two Barbaro press conferences before they occurred.

The article claims that Recchia communicated with then councilman Lanza, Fossella's water boy and psuedo appointed state senator. Lanza is not high on my list of reputable sources regarding Democratic candidates, but I do want to see how this unfolds. Some thoughts;

* Clearly Rep. Fossella is being aggressive in going after candidates this time around and this is a good position for challengers to be in

* Strategically why not wait until he was an announced candidate before making these claims. It could put the challengers in the news for a few cycles and effect fund raising.

* This may be more for Tom, and something he probably is looking into, how does one further prove or disprove any of these statements?

I am still trying to wrap my head around the article and the timing of all of this. For now all that I know is that Fossella has taken all attention off of him. While there is still a war dragging him down, this week's conversation is about someone not in Congress, not even a declared candidate yet.

Foucs on Fossella.

Fossella must face voters dissatisfied with Republicans

via Rasmussen polling;

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if the Congressional Election were held today, 48% of American voters say they would vote for the Democrat in their district and 36% would opt for the Republican.

This is a national poll, and not specific to this district, but it does make things difficult to Rep. Fossella.

LTE: Fossella needs to do more for SCHIP

In a recent 'Letter to the Editor' in the SI Advance the writer comments on the work Fossella needs to do to help the bill overcome President Bush's veto;

We urge Congressman Vito Fossella to work with his colleagues in Congress, and especially his friends in the New York delegation, to pass legislation which will renew and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), [which was vetoed by President Bush].

snip

The Bush administration has chosen a direction which is anti-children, anti-family and anti-New York. The hard-working families of Staten Island need Congressman Fossella's help now.

Don't let Vito Fossella claim to support SCHIP and do no work to get this past the President's veto. Fossella needs to do more than that. This is a question of whether we provide health care to our most vulnerable constituents, our children, and voting in favor of it and walking away is not good enough.

see also:
House passes SCHIP bill, yet much work ahead for Fossella

Fossella scared of Recchia candidacy?

Early robo-calling from the Republican party in the district seem to indicate that the party and even Rep. Fossella himself are concerned over a Domenic Recchia candidacy. Via Tom;

Democrats, of course, crowed that the GOP's shot across the bow proved that Republicans are truly worried about Recchia. Insiders couldn't recall anything like this being done so early in a congressional cycle here before.

Democrat Steve Harrison, for example, has already launched his rematch bid against Fossella, and nobody on the GOP side has seen fit to take him down a peg.

Any early Republican efforts against Democrats are a good sign for those running against Fossella. That is effort and money spent now months out, that isn't being invested in re-elect efforts for Fossella. With a contested DA's race coming up this November, I gladly welcome any misguided expenses towards protecting a Congressional seat still a year off.

Finally, it seems curious the angle taken in regards to Harrison. While his third quarter numbers may not have any coverage in traditional media yet, we know he is expected to announce nearly $50k, still three months before he even announced last time around. While the perceived logic says Fossella is attacking Recchia, what are the chances his campaign wants to mitigate Harrion's filing and change to conversation to focus on an untested Recchia. Either way, this is good news for our Democratic candidate and potential candidates.

Disclaimer, my new job with the Democratic Party

As of October 1, I am now working for the Democratic Party. I think it is important for those of you who do read this for information on the thirteenth and Rep. Fossella to know so that you can take that into consideration when reading any of our articles.

My job will not have any direct impact on this Congressional race, nor will the party on the national level be getting involved in the Democratic primary on a candidate's behalf. I plan on continuing to cover this race and district in my free time and I have never nor do I plan on blogging this race for any financial gain on my part. Should that change I intend to be open about it.

Vito Fossella's Giuliani problem: Fire Fighters

Vito Fossella has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President. And that is where the problems start.

How do you endorse a guy who puts political gain before the safety and needs of our city's first responders. Simply put the International Association of Fire Fighters, not just from NYC but across the country has come out in major opposition to Giuliani, the man Fossella wants to be President;



Rudy Giuliani, Fossella's top choice for President!



This makes it rather difficult for one to support the city's bravest and at the same time vote for Vito Fossella. Voting for this man enables him to promote Giuliani and his egregious decisions that we don't need expanded to the whole country. Demand Fossella support our fire fighters and dump Giuliani.

Blog Roundup

Fossella still has no comment on whether he thinks American soldier deaths are a "small price to pay." No surprise.

Mole333 is asking readers to kick in $10 to Stephen Harrison's campaign.

The Daily Politics, wait for it, covers a story on the race! It follows a few non-New York stories but it is better than the rest of the year when they don't cover it. (It is kinda near the bottom)

And the Post is saying that Speaker Pelosi herself is wooing Recchia? Somehow I have doubts, and nothing against Domenic or anyone else, but I find it hard to believe. If this was a top 5 pickup potential maybe, even then a stretch, but with the amount of pickups out there, this among them I can't see the Speaker doing the job of the DCCC chair.

Morning Video: Harrison on supporting our troops

My RSS reader is full of posts I haven't had time to read through, one of the ones I missed until today was this video from the constituent march to Fossella's office and Stephen Harrison's speech which we covered two weeks ago, take a look;



hat tip to BlueSpot Blog for their always outstanding coverage.

Recchia to file candidacy papers in early October

According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Recchia is filing to run;

Recchia confirmed to the Eagle that he will be filing papers with the election commission in early October.

Fossella opposes flood insurance program

So Vito Fossella voted against another bill, what else is new. It is as if the guy is annoyed with having to be in DC and do work so he just votes against anything and everything he can. This week's cause he is opposing, the flood victims of his own district.

On September 27, Vito voted NO on HR 3121: Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007. Despite his attempts the bill passed 263-146, with a healthy number of Republicans supporting this legislation. Aside from the slate of bills he outright opposes (here, here, here, here, here, here, here) his arrogance shows absolutely no limits considering just this spring a major Nor'easter wreaked havoc on the city and caused tremendous amount of flood damage to his own district. Via the Advance and Fossella's own words;

"Many Staten Islanders suffered damage from the storm and are in need of federal assistance," Fossella said. "I've heard many stories of flooded homes and small businesses as well as other damage to properties from the 8 inches of rain and 40 mph winds during the Nor'easter.

Vito is a hypocrite in many senses (on the war, more on the war, on lobbying gifts, gas prices, and minimum wage). But the worst of it all is when he puts out minimal efforts on constituent services, giving families help after disasters in front of a tv camera or reporter only to then a few months later completely turn his back on their situation. His voting NO will not stop floods from happening and it will not stop future floods from causing damage to his district. Yet as long as no one speaks up he can look at the bottom line, money, vote NO and never have any recourse.

Daily Gotham on Stephen Harrison

via the Daily Gotham;

A Progressive Democratic like Steve will be an asset for all of us in Congress but the only way that we can get him there is if the money to fight Fossella is there. Fossella has continued to vote with the Bush Administration and continues to support Bush on the War In Iraq. We need Steve Harrison in Congress so please make a donation to his campaign. Thank you.

Fossella's friend Rep. Doolittle (R) in trouble (again)

Vito Fossella's friend and donor Rep. Doolittle is moving more and more into the realm of deep trouble and Fossella looks the other way. Fossella has taken $2,000 from Rep. Doolittle and returned none despite Doolittle's house being raided by the FBI. Now Doolittle has been served with a subpeona from a grand jury in DC. Rep. Fossella it has long been time for you to return that money. FBI raid, check. Subpeona, check. Of course you have exerpience with these scenarios after all of your donors Rep. Ney is serving jail time, Rep. DeLay has a pending court date, Rep. Foley will not see a jail because of statutes of limitations. I await adding Doolittle to that list and seeing you quietly rid yourself of his corrupt money (or not).