Hochul pick shows Western New York’s got clout

The selection Wednesday of Kathy Hochul as Andrew Cuomo’s running mate for his gubernatorial re-election bid it somewhat telling.

Despite what some will tell you, Cuomo’s re-election is pretty much already in the bag. Rob Astorino might be a nice guy, but he’s not going to be governor unless Cuomo somehow implodes in the next few months.

That’s not to say that Cuomo hasn’t made his share of gaffes. And it’s not to say that he doesn’t have his detractors. But the race is his to lose and he knows it. He also knows he could have chosen just about anyone other than Vladimir Putin as a running mate and gotten re-elected. I have it on good authority that Putin was on Cuomo’s short list, but got scratched when he got banned recently from Mighty Taco, by the way.

I digress — as usual.

Moral of this story is that Cuomo didn’t select Kathy Hochul out of political need or expediency. He was either genuinely interested in Hochul or genuinely interested in Western New York. Maybe both.

Making Hochul’s selection all the more interesting is the potential that Cuomo is eyeing higher office. While it hasn’t been discussed recently, he was rumored to be interested in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Whether that’s true, I have no idea. Personally, I don’t see a Democrat from New York winning the presidency, but I also didn’t envision a black man from Chicago doing it, either, so all bets are off.

If Cuomo were to leave office for any reason, be it a White House win, to have time to campaign for the spot, or a good old fashioned Albany scandal, Hochul would step in and be the new governor or New York. Understand, the governor of New York would be from the Buffalo area. It would also be a woman. How it is that New York hasn’t had a female governor yet, I have no idea, but we haven’t.

Obviously a Gov. Hochul would shift some state priorities to our part of the state. Heck, even a Lt. Gov. Hochul would do the same. That’s not to say, mind you, that Robert Duffy hasn’t taken an active role in Western New York. The former Rochester mayor has done more than simply pay lip service to the region. And it’s been nice to see. But I feel Hochul would do even more.

So to sum it all up, Cuomo didn’t have to pick a Western New Yorker, but he did anyway. He knows that there’s a possibility he might not serve a full term and is willing to hand over Albany’s primary position of power to someone from this end of the state. And the rest of the Democrats in the state don’t seem to have a problem with it.

Yeah, the selection of Kathy Hochul says something. And it’s good for Western New York.

Scott Leffler likes corn. He likes cornflakes, corndogs, corn bread and cornstarch. He likes the band Korn and popcorn. He likes all kinds of corn. All kinds of corn! He’s also corny on Twitter sometimes @scottleffler.

Clinton brings his best for rally

Sitting in Nick Tahou’s on West Main Street in Rochester Friday night, I looked up at Heather and said, “If Bill Clinton had asked those people to jump off a cliff, a lot of them would have.”

She and I had just covered a rally at the Main Street Armory where the former president had stumped for Congresswoman Kathy Hochul and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter.

Congresswoman Slaughter referred to Clinton as a “national treasure.” Hochul, meanwhile, alluded to Clinton’s widely regarded stature as a “rock star.”

Whether he’s a national treasure, a rock star or just a former president, people love Bill Clinton. And really, what’s not to love? He comes across as both intelligent and compassionate. He is incredibly energetic. And somehow he manages to transfer that energy to anyone he’s talking to.

Almost everyone has seen or heard Clinton speak on television. And some of that charm comes across through the boob tube. But being there in person, I imagine, is similar to the difference between watching an NFL/NHL/NBA game on TV and watching it in the flesh. There’s something about the experience of “being there.”

For his part, Clinton mostly served in the role of an Obama surrogate. He spent the largest portion of his nearly one-hour speech talking about why people need to vote for President Obama’s re-election, trotting out facts and figures as well as personal stories and accounts.

Bill Clinton knows he’s popular. Not just in liberal Democrat circles either. Many independents look back on the 42nd president in a way that some guys look back on their high school sweetheart. There’s a feeling of longing for a bygone era and a disbelief that we ever let that era slip away.

“I hope I have some credibility with you on what’s good for the economy,” the former president said to the crowd, breaking into the portion of the speech where he derided what he referred to as Mitt Romney’s “hide-and-seek” budget.

“Nobody who ever served as president … could have brought this economy back in four year,” he said, solidifying any doubt of those in the crowd that they had to not only vote for Obama but convince others to do the same.

On Hochul, Clinton said she “has proved that she will vote with Republicans to cut spending,” — an odd thing to say to a crowd of Democrat partisans. But not so odd when you consider that Hochul’s district is overwhelmingly Republican. And for a second everyone in the crowd loved Republicans and even the concept of cutting spending. It was amazing to watch.

I was only half joking when I told Heather that people would jump off a cliff if he asked them to.
Although we had a good time covering the event, it was not all sunshine and lollipops. The disorganization was readily apparent.

I had gotten an email from the Hochul campaign about the event on Tuesday, three days ahead of the rally. I put in for press passes on Wednesday. I called the same day to no avail.

Thursday I got an email from the Slaughter campaign that they would be handling press credentials. And that they would only issue one credential per newspaper. So I re-applied, altering our credentials so that Heather would represent the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal and I would be there on behalf of the Medina Journal-Register.

I knew that this was gaming the system to a degree but I figured with a newsgroup of four papers, all of whom would run the story and photos, I was well within my rights. Plus I do work for both the Lockport and Medina papers. And the Tonawanda News. And the Niagara Gazette, too. So really, I wasn’t lying.

And to top it all off, I said if it was still possible to get only one press credential I wanted to photo credit for Heather. I have been to enough political rallies that I could cover it from the crowd with my eyes closed.

Thursday evening I had still not had a response. So I started calling people. I finally got a call from someone with the Hochul campaign saying that they got our application for credentials and that Heather’s was approved but they’d be making a decision on mine later.

Friday afternoon we show up at the rally. We have one credential. But they don’t want to allow Heather to bring her camera in. “All photos are coming from the pool,” they tell us. We wouldn’t have even gone if we had known that. The photos were the point of the trip and I had specifically stated (numerous times, in fact) that if only one credit was possible, I needed it to be Heather’s.

After much complaining and wrangling (and with some help from the AP photographer) we both got in. Thank God.

We were astonished, however, that they didn’t check our IDs. They didn’t search Heather’s camera bags. And they didn’t pat us down. Security was - in a word - lacking, especially considering President Clinton was in the house.

Once inside there were more issues of organization: No power for people with laptops; No wi-fi; and there were big honkin’ speakers where WBEN’s Dave Debo was supposed to be set up. That wouldn’t possibly affect his audio, could it?

I realize that hosting the president is a daunting task. But if these two congresswomen have any hope of doing it again in two years, they better hope their campaigns are better organized than Friday’s rally was.

Scott Leffler mostly abhors politicians but is an unapologetic Bill Clinton fan. Follow his fawning and fanning on Twitter @scottleffler.

GOP can’t get out of own way in NY27

It seems the election for the 27th Congressional District is heating up. The newly created district will feature a Republican primary between former Erie County executive Chris Collins and war veteran David Bellavia with the winner going on to compete against “incumbent” Kathy Hochul.

I use the quotation marks because with redistricting, Hochul’s district is largely new to her and the power of her incumbency is somewhat diminished. In fact, many GOP think-tank types would have you believe that this race is theirs for the taking since the voter registration favors Republicans so greatly.

Of course, that’s what they thought before Hochul won the special election in the 26th Congressional District against Republican Jane Corwin, Independent Jack Davis and Green Ian Murphy. But never put it past politicians to screw up a sure thing.

Hochul’s victory in that special election was the first sign of life for the Democrats nationally. They had been adrift in “Obamacare” and economic woes. Say what you will, if Barack Obama wins re-election, the Hochul victory last May will have helped to spark it.

I’m just rehashing old news here, but it could be said that Hochul didn’t win so much as Corwin — and the GOP as a whole — lost, choosing insider bickering and party politics over process. Had Republicans gone through the normal process of picking a candidate, Davis (and Bellavia through endorsing Davis) would not have been the nuisance he was and Corwin wouldn’t have had to resort to stupid stunts. She should have won NY26 easily, but her “handlers” screwed it up bad for her.

I bring that up because it looks like the Republican wagons in Erie County are circling again, this time around Collins, who had been circling in his own right (the drain) following a whomping by Mark Poloncarz. But fresh off defeat, Collins decided he still had the political capital to run for Congress.

From my point of view, though, it looks like Collins is only running for Congress in Erie County, a strategy that makes little sense to me.

Of course, he did get the statewide Conservative Party endorsement, something I found out about through Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy, who was apparently told directly by State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long. Why Nick Langworthy and Michael Long talk on the phone is anybody’s guess but it reinforces my personal belief that the Conservative Party is nothing but another line for GOP candidates to run on.

The majority of the party leaders in the 27th District, though, have backed Bellavia, including State Sen. George Maziarz. The weight of that endorsement has got to help in Niagara and Orleans counties where Maziarz could probably be emperor-for-life if only he asked nicely.

So what we really have here, it seems, is a battle over the GOP between Erie County and everyone else in Western New York. And while they’re bickering, look for Hochul to make solid gains in a district she should have no business winning.

It all sounds so familiar.

••••••••••••

Speaking of familiar, for the second year in a row, I’m stepping out of character and donning ladies wear for charity. Yep. If you missed it last year, on Saturday you get a second chance to see Scott Leffler in a womens’ clothes.

Tickets for the Second Annual Peaches-N-Crème Fashion Show are available at the Palace Theatre the night of the show, for $15 or for $10 from any of the Mangels (including me) or at the Lockport Maurices on Transit Road in the Home Depot plaza.

Doors open at 6 p.m. so attendees can get a look at the many baskets that will be auctioned off, with the show running from 7 to 10 p.m at the Palace.

9-1-1 upgrade needed

I have a tendency to view most laws as either an incursion into our freedom, feel-good legislation created to make the lawmaker look good, or both.

Very seldom do I hear an idea for a new bill and say to myself, “How does this not already exist?”
But that’s exactly what happened Friday when I got an email from Congresswoman Kathy Hochul heralding her new bill before Congress, called the Allowing Local Emergency Response Technicians to Accept Cellular Texts Act, or A.L.E.R.T. A.C.T.

In short, when you send a text message to 9-1-1, it doesn’t go anywhere. It just heads out to the ether, never to be heard from again.

Hochul’s bill would push for cellular service providers to alert users who text 9-1-1 that their message did not go through, allowing the party in need to at least know that texting 9-1-1 doesn’t work and help is not on the way. This way, the person in need of help isn’t waiting for nothing.

The bill would also push for funding to go to improve existing 9-1-1 call centers to enable them to receive text messages, so that in the future help would come.

Considering the amount of communication done by the youth of the world, I can’t believe that it’s currently not possible to text 9-1-1. You can text in your vote to “American Idol,” but you can’t text for help if you’re in trouble.


I’m not an engineer, so I certainly don’t understand the complexity of the cellular industry or phone service. I’m sure, though, that 9-1-1 call centers are even more complex than cell phones.

However, it seems apparent to me that our nation’s emergency response infrastructure should get with the times and add texting capabilities so that people who are unable to call 9-1-1 could text the system and get the help they obviously need.

It’s not 1991 anymore. Cell phones are not an extravagance. They are the norm now. I know more and more people all the time who are forgoing their home phone service and going with cellular only.
I also know more and more people who use text as their primary means of communication. On any given day, I may get a handful of phone calls and more than 100 text messages.

So adding texting capabilities to 9-1-1 is a necessity. And until that happens, asking cellular providers to inform their customers that their text did not go through is something those cellular providers should do — with or without the A.L.E.R.T. A.C.T. in place.

The next step, in my opinion, would be to allow Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, services to call 9-1-1. Anyone with a Magic Jack, Skype or Vonage phone simply can’t call 9-1-1.

Again, I’m not an engineer, so I don’t fully understand the difficulty, but I know that when people need help, we as society should make it possible for them to get that help.

I’m rooting for Kathy Hochul on this one. Her bill isn’t intrusive and it’s meaningful. Sure, it will cost money — to both local police departments and the cellular industry — but that money may actually save lives.

#NY26 ... Done and done

It gives me great pleasure to know that this is very likely, almost definitely, nearly beyond the shadow of a doubt my last column in which I mention the special election in the 26th Congressional District.

It annoyed us for a few months and now it’s going to annoy the pundits and major political parties for months to come as they try to discern what it means and each side does everything they can to pretend to learn from it, while eventually overplaying their hand.

For example, shortly after the election last Tuesday, the Democrats had discerned that it was all about Medicare and have already come up with a strategy for 2012: Hang the Paul Ryan budget plan on every Republican member of Congress, as well as every candidate for everything from the presidency to dog catcher in every small town across the United States.

The Republicans, meanwhile were already attempting to claim that their stunning defeat had little-to-nothing to do with the Ryan plan and their plans to change Medicare — even before the votes were counted last week.

They went into overtime trying to downplay the Medicare effect as soon as the election was over, with Speaker of the House John Boehner saying, “When you look at what happened in this election, you’ve got a third-party candidate who spent nearly three million dollars attacking the Republican candidate. I could be somewhat critical of how the campaign was run, but the fact is we didn’t win it. And part of, the small part of the reason we didn’t win clearly had to do with Medicare.”

That’s correct, they’re blaming Jack Davis for the loss. I’ve even seen some people saying that Davis “finally got his wish” to wrest that district from GOP control. These people are either not paying attention or just plain delusional. Well, of course, they are, they’re politicians.

Both Congressman Brian Higgins and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter supported eventual winner Kathy Hochul in her bid to take the 26th District. Slaughter even said afterward that she had a spare bedroom if Hochul needed a place to stay in D.C.

Of course, Democrats support Democrats. That’s what they do. It’s like the world’s most annoying fraternity. But with redistricting coming up in the very near future, I wonder how tight their relationships really are. Odds are, the 26th gets gobbled up by Slaughter’s 28th and Higgins’ 27th, which means Hochul will end up at odds with one of her two supporters, depending on where she decides to locate in the district — unless, of course, one of them decides not to run in 2012.

By the way, there was much ado made on Election Day about the fact that Hochul doesn’t live in the district she’s about to represent. She didn’t have to. She doesn’t have to. And the fact that her residency was the GOP’s closing argument told me long before the polls closed that Hochul was going to win it.

•••

I hope you had yesterday off of work. I hope you enjoyed it with loved ones. I also hope you appreciated it. This country exists because of the sacrifices of brave men and women throughout our history. Their sacrifices make everything else possible.

Finally it's time to move on

It’ll all be over soon.

Like most people in Western New York — especially the media, I have to presume — I’ve been looking forward to today for quite a while. After tonight, we don’t have to worry about commercials for or against any of the candidates in the special election for the 26th Congressional District. After tonight, I don’t have to worry about Kathy Hochul and Jane Corwin blowing up my email. After tonight, I can delete the #NY26 saved search on my twitter. After tonight it’ll all be over.

I hope.

I thought the same thing a week ago today about the school budget votes, particularly the sports complex vote in the Lockport City School District. And last Wednesday afternoon, I still wasn’t sure if that proposal had passed or failed. So there is a possibility that tomorrow morning, I’ll still be waiting, wondering and watching as candidates bring in high-priced lawyers from Washington much like George W. Bush and Al Gore did in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.

The polling numbers lately in the 26th district seem very close, with one poll over the weekend showing Democrat Kathy Hochul with a 4 percent lead, which was within the margin of error, and a second showing her a six-point lead, just outside the margin of error. Please, God, don’t let there be a recount. The voters of Western New York have suffered long enough.

For members of the media, especially those covering the election — which I’ve done a bit of this time around — election night is an awesome thing. I enjoyed election nights when I worked in radio, but there’s something about working in a newsroom on election night. Waiting for polling numbers to come in from places you’ve never heard of.

I’ve heard “jokes” before that war is God’s way of teaching us geography. Elections do the same thing for members of the media. Analyzing congressional districts might not sound fun to you, but there are maps of the 26th district on people’s desks in newsrooms across Western New York.

I’ve enjoyed seeing stories I’ve written picked up by other news outlets across the state, as well as seeing stories written by people I know and respect spread out across the state.

Because of the nature of this election and the potential implications, all eyes are on us today. Media outlets I love to watch and read have been talking about the same things I’m talking about. The same things you’re talking about. It all makes the world very small, and more importantly, centered around us.

There have been days in the past few weeks where I have wished that Chris Lee had just kept his shirt on, but what’s done is done.

It’s time to move on.

Thankfully.

Hopefully.

Wild, wacky #NY26 special election nearly over

With one week to go in the race to see who will take over the 26th Congressional District from the guy who took his shirt off, there is seemingly no end in sight to the silliness that encompasses the special election.

Last week, we saw Jack Davis mug some poor kid — or so it appeared. Jane Corwin, meanwhile got the key endorsement of 20 Republicans you’ve never heard of, who all just happened to be military veterans. And one faction of the Tea Party claimed that the other faction of the Tea Party was fake. Oh, and Kathy Hochul did something, although, to be honest, I can’t remember what. Ian Murphy, meanwhile, was declared irrelevant by Channel 2, and apparently, 98 percent of those taking polls in this race.

I can only imagine how sick you all must be of watching the television ads for this race, with each candidate saying that the others want to maim old people, eat children, raise taxes, shackle pregnant women and bring Stalin back to life.

I’m sick of the commercials and I don’t even watch much television. Just be thankful you don’t get the direct emails from the campaigns like I do. One day last week, I swear I got 192 emails from the Hochul camp. One email every 15 minutes. All day long. By the time I was done reading one, another popped into my inbox.

OK, so maybe I’m exaggerating just slightly. A little hyperbole never hurt anyone. Or that would be what these campaigns are indicating, at least.

I’ve gone back and forth during this race from “This is the best thing ever” to “can this be over yesterday, please?” A friend of mine who makes a career out of politics told me “in the world of politics, we call that love.”

I can tell you that I spent far too much time over the weekend checking in on the race to see who did what, who said something stupid, and how the Internet had reacted to whatever had been done and said. I even forced my kids to watch the news Saturday just in case something important happened. It hadn’t. Poor kids were forced to learn current affairs for no reason.

As a warning, things will get worse before they get better. The campaigns with the money (all of them except Murphy’s) still have a lot to spend and only seven days to do it in. That means more television commercials, more direct mails, more candidate events and more emails.

Also, don’t think for a second that “video-gate” was the last big surprise in this race. I’m sure that someone will announce Friday or over the weekend that the other candidates idolize Lee Iacocca — or were the second gunman on the grassy knoll — or something.

Take solace in knowing that one week from today it will all be over, at least until the next election.

To my readers in the Lockport City School District, don’t forget to vote today. There are some big issues on that ballot and it’s up to you, but if you don’t vote, you’re leaving it up to someone else. And, frankly, it’s all too important to leave up to someone else.

Reflections on bin Laden

It was really the plane going into the second tower that got everyone’s attention.

I had gotten an alert on my computer from MSNBC about the plane going into the first tower and thought it odd. Details were bizarrely sketchy at the time. Was it a real plane? Or just a prop plane?
Obviously it must have been an accident.

But then a few minutes after 9 o’clock, Flight 175 out of Boston crashed into the second tower — and all hell broke loose.

I was home with the kids. We lived on Niagara Street in Lockport at the time. We were safe. But as the morning progressed, panic swept across the country. Everything seemed like a potential target.

My wife worked in Niagara Falls and all I wanted was for her to come home where it was safe. I remember fear unlike any I’d ever felt before. The sky was falling. All I wanted was for my family to be safe, and I felt like I had no control over it whatsoever.

America changed that day.

I have to imagine that most people feel like Sunday night was the other bookend to Sept. 11. What began with planes crashing into buildings, ended with Navy SEALs and CIA paramilitary forces killing the world’s most famous terrorist following a firefight in Pakistan.

That chapter of our life is complete.

I’m glad he’s dead. But I don’t feel any safer.

•••

The president was barely done speaking Sunday night when the conspiracy theories started to fly saying that we’d had bin Laden for a week, but were waiting for the right time to announce it.

Apparently, according to the nut job conspiracy peeps, we held off announcing it so we didn’t ruin the royal wedding. And the best time to make such an announcement? Sunday night during “Celebrity Apprentice,” of course.

Also, I saw some opining that it was “convenient” that President Obama would make this announcement when his numbers were in the tank. Maybe he should have waited to catch bin Laden?

I did notice the president himself doing a little politicking. Anyone else notice the emphasis of “at my direction” during his announcement Sunday night? He wanted no one to doubt that he gave the word. Over time, I imagine the story will morph just a bit and the president himself will have caught bin Laden bare handed and taken him out personally, despite having only a pointy stick.

Speaking of politicking, I got an email from Kathy Hochul’s camp Monday morning.

It said: “I commend President Obama for his decisive leadership and the special forces who carried out this operation for their tireless work.”

Note to Kathy Hochul: No one cares if you commend the president. His coat tails will not get you elected.

I hadn’t gotten a press release from Jane Corwin as of the time I was finished writing this column.

Obviously that’s because she doesn’t share Hochul’s glee in the world’s top terrorist being caught. Or at least I’m expecting to get an email from Hochul soon, stating as much.

All aboard the crazy train ...

I cannot stop watching the train wreck that is the race for the 26th Congressional District.

I know I said a week ago that the four -ring circus that race has turned into had essentially turned my stomach on politics. And, truth be told, they continue to astound and confound me. But sometimes, things are just far too funny to not enjoy.

Take, for example, the email I got last week from Rus Thompson, party planner of the TEA variety; It said that TEA New York was having a candidates night in Wheatfield and all were invited. Well, all except the guy they didn’t like.

Rus told me personally that they had not invited Ian Murphy because Murphy had made some disparaging comments about the troops in a story he wrote for the Buffalo Beast a few years back. Apparently, TEA New York thinks the First Amendment is ranked way too highly.

So the TEA peeps had their little party.

Of the three candidates they did invite, one (Jack Davis) had an engagement elsewhere, receiving the endorsement of the Tea Party Coalition. (Apparently, there's more than one Tea Party in Western New York.) Another (Kathy Hochul) was off doing something else, although I still don’t know what. Leaving only Jane Corwin having Tea.

At the end of their forum, TEA New York endorsed Corwin. Meaning, Jack Davis and Jane Corwin received simultaneous endorsements from the Tea Party, while Ian Murphy wasn’t allowed in and Kathy Hochul didn’t want in.

Then Sunday night, I get an email from the Hochul camp saying “Hochul congratulates Sabres. Calls on opponents to follow.” It added, “Hochul only candidate to support Sabres.”

As if that weren’t asinine enough, it goes on to specifically call on her opponents “Republican, Jane Corwin and Tea Party-endorsed candidate Jack Davis” to “join me in rooting for the Sabres in their run for the Stanley Cup.”

First of all, does Hochul not know about Murphy? Or was he just not worth the ink in her press release? Secondly, I was almost surprised that the press release spelled “Sabres” right. Is there a bigger non-issue than supporting the Sabres? Really?

Oddly, it seems to me that Murphy, the guy whom everyone else seems to be ignoring, has the most concise declaration of his views, clearly stated on his website. Of course, he also has a lot of bizarre statements and does some wacky things, like wearing a three-corner hat to the TEA New York event. I mean, I can understand why Rus Thompson doesn’t take him seriously. Who would do such a thing? Oh, right, Rus Thompson would. I think his three-corner hat is glued to his head.

Also, Ian has made an issue out of not having seen Corwin’s birth certificate. Of course, Corwin’s origin of birth isn’t really a matter of dispute, but it is a novel way of highlighting some of the craziness in American politics these days.

And right now, there is no better place to see craziness in American politics than in New York’s 26th Congressional District.

It’s like the crazy train derailed, and I just can’t stop watching.

The politician who stole Christmas

All good things come to an end.

And so it was with my enjoyment of the race for the 26th Congressional District.

I said some time ago that this whole race was like Christmas. As it turns out, it was like that Christmas nightmare where you didn’t get any presents. Or that one birthday that went so wrong that you hate your birthday from then on.

I am so sick of hearing Jane Corwin whine. Even sicker with the knowledge that all that whining will likely land her a seat in Congress.

I’d love to hear what Corwin is going to do for us, but her camp is far too busy talking about the taxes that Kathy Hochul raised.

Now, to be fair, I don’t know anything about Kathy Hochul. I’ve never met her. And I doubt I’d vote for her.

I have, however, met Jane Corwin. And I liked her. She’s as smart as she is attractive. But the beauty she holds physically is matched by the ugliness in which she’s conducted herself in this campaign.
From day one, the Corwin camp has talked about Kathy Hochul being “Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked candidate.” I’ve never heard Hochul mention Pelosi. Nor have I heard that Pelosi has mentioned Hochul — or for that matter, has any clue who she is.

And yet, it’s Corwin bringing in Speaker of the House John Boehner to stump for her. Hmm. Disingenuous, much?

Now, of course, it’s the Democrats complaining about Corwin’s plan to bring Boehner in. Frankly, that’s equally disingenuous. If there were a Democrat that was able to come save them, they’d surely bring that person in.

And to top it off, Len Lenihan and his ilk are claiming that the reason they’re opposed to Boehner coming to Western New York is because of Friday’s amendment on aviation safety that seems to be unanimously opposed by the families of the Flight 3407 tragedy. Also disingenuous. Lenihan opposes Boehner being in his backyard for purely political reasons and any other explanation looks petty … and is an affront to the families of the victims of that plane crash.

The thing that struck me the most is my genuine belief that the amendment passed Friday would not have come to fruition if Chris Lee was still in office. And whether Jane Corwin, Kathy Hochul, Jack Davis or Ian Murphy wins this special election May 24, the voters of that district will not have half the congressman they had in Chris Lee.

I’ve been looking forward to May 24 as though it were Christmas. Now I’m looking forward to it as though it were tax day, a day to get past.

It’s truly a shame that people couldn’t run for election based on what they’re going to do for us as opposed to scaring us about what their opponents might do.

If terrorism is the act of making people conform to your will through fear, what does that make politics lately?

All good things come to an end. And I fear that with this race, my love of politics does, too.
I can only hope I’m wrong.