New Yorkers On Rove's List: Hall, Gillibrand, Kuhl and Walsh

if you haven't yet seen the video (4.00 / 2)

of GSA Administrator Lurita Doan responding to Rep. Bruce Braley, here it is. It's an instant stone cold classic.

"I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit this but I can say that I honestly don't have a recollection of the presentation at all."

TODAY is day one. It always is.

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by: phillip anderson @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 11:29:05 AM UTC

Don't forget (4.00 / 2)

...Fossella and King. Their districts are even more favorable to us than Walsh and Kuhl's. Credible challengers and a million bucks each should flip both.

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by: Michael Bouldin @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 13:57:12 PM UTC

Maybe (0.00 / 0)

Depends who the challenger is and what name recognition they can get.  Fossella and King are pretty entrenched.

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by: SteveWFP @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 16:57:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

well at least so far... (0.00 / 0)

Rove doesn't consider the districts to be in peril.

The districts are fairly moderate -- just hope we can turn them as well -- it just hasn't happened yet.

From what i remember about the PVI index:
Walsh D+3
King D+2
Fossella D+1
Hall R+1
Gillibrand R+3
Kuhl R+5

(alright so i found the PVI numbers and pasted them)

Going by the numbers Walsh is significantly better than Kuhl.

And that the Hall and Gillibrand districts are still leaning republican...

-- MrMacMan

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by: MrMacMan @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 17:55:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

i failed to mention... (4.00 / 1)

How awesome Massa is and that without him the race would not have been competitive.

(and that he's already decided he's going to run again!)

sorry for forgetting there

-- MrMacMan

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by: MrMacMan @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 17:58:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Kuhl's been in office for a relatively short time (4.00 / 1)

so his PVI matters less.  The longer he's in office, the harder he'll be to beat because of that PVI.  Massa better have a plan to do better in this race that goes beyond "presidential election"

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by: SteveWFP @ Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 01:53:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Indeed. . . (4.00 / 4)

Randy Kuhl is probably going to be more of a victim of circumstance than anybody.  What got him by last time was money, right at the last minute.  He's got a very, very strong challenger in Eric Massa, no doubt, but if we didn't get him last year, '08 could be tougher. 

I think that he's pretty unknown in the northern part of the district (where I think most people think they vote for Louise Slaughter), and so has a tendency to slide under the radar for the most part.  In fact, I'll bet Samantha Barend has better name recognition for her infamous campaign than does her challenger of the same race!

So if I were Massa's campaign manager, I'd say do the same positive campaign that you did last year as much as possible.  Let us in the blogging community defame Kuhl for folks who are curious.  But when people go into the booth, they aught to see "that Massa guy who talks about good things" and "a Republican."

Either way, NY29 is going to be a show worth watching, I guarantee it.

Watching from just above the water line. . . .

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by: DragonFlyEye @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 14:22:44 PM UTC

not on the website though (0.00 / 0)

check out their new site The Real Democrat Story

Gillibrand and Hall aren't on the list. 

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by: DIA @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 17:33:38 PM UTC

yeah (0.00 / 0)

i noticed that too.

TODAY is day one. It always is.

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by: phillip anderson @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 18:00:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

well that site (0.00 / 0)

is from the NRCC while the list was from the GSA/Rove.

Anyway I don't see how anyone would be able to label Gillibrand as 'liberal' -- i mean the liberal party was nearly able to get another candidate on the ballot (apparently he needed to file the necessary 'petition forms'... who knew? lol)

Hall is at least part of the Progressive Caucus... so i guess they could have had him on the site.

-- MrMacMan

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by: MrMacMan @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 18:02:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I agree (4.00 / 1)

Gillibrand is no liberal.  But the right wingers call Hillary liberal so the truth has never been a real factor in who they consider liberal. 

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by: DIA @ Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 13:25:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

One thing I'm noticing (4.00 / 1)

...is that they're playing defense where they shouldn't be. Doolittle and Schmidt are in solid republican districts, for example. FWIW, these lists show me weakness, not strength.

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by: Michael Bouldin @ Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 14:14:10 PM UTC

Rove (4.00 / 1)

I would be fascinated to know how Karl Rove thinks he is going to "help" Jim Walsh next time.  Hm, how about some of the same  sleazy ads they tried with Arcuri (that Meier didn't even WANT)?

It's not as if there is some kind of underground legion of well-organized Bible-thumpers in NY-25 that Rove can recruit, either.

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by: NYCO @ Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 19:35:47 PM UTC