NY-19: Cook Upgrades Race To 'Solid Democratic'

by: phillip anderson

Thu Aug 21, 2008 at 16:18:45 PM EDT

This Hudson Valley-based district, site of a 2006 election result many Republicans called a fluke, has been a recruiting nightmare for the GOP this year. National Republicans aren't showing much interest in their nominee, Kieran Lalor, whose conservative profile is a far cry from the moderate resume of longtime former GOP Rep. Sue Kelly, who carried this district easily for years before losing in the tidal wave of 2006. Hall doesn't face a real race for a sophomore term.

Sounds about right.

On the web: John Hall for Congress.

NY-19: CQ Upgrades Race From 'Leans Dem' To 'Dem Favored'

by: phillip anderson

Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 10:03:31 AM EDT

New York's 19th(New Rating: Democrat Favored. Previous Rating: Leans Democratic). The failure by the Republican Party to recruit a top-tier candidate to challenge first-term Democratic Rep. John Hall has pushed the race further in favor of the former Orleans rocker ("Still The One"). Republican Kieran Michael Lalor, an Iraq War veteran who works the night shift of a union job and campaigns during the day, is a first-time candidate. The Republican county committees rallied behind Lalor as their standard bearer for the Hudson Valley district, but only after recruitment stumbles. The DCCC lists Hall as one of their "Frontline Democrats" that the party will fight to protect and Hall enters the race with a serious fundraising advantage. He reported raising $1.9 million and had $1.3 million on hand by June 30 while Lalor reported raising $227,000 and had $151,000 on hand by the same date.

All told, CQ updated 14 House races this morning, all but two of them in favor of Democrats.

NY-19: Plan H, Another Challenger For Hall

by: phillip anderson

Mon Feb 11, 2008 at 19:28:23 PM EST

Oros to enter race against Hall

Rep. John Hall has gained another Republican opponent: Westchester Legislator George Oros.

Oros, a Cortlandt Republican, said today that he intends to enter the race against Hall and will file paperwork formally establishing his candidacy sometime within the next two weeks.

"I think I have electability," Oros told Politics on the Hudson just after today's Board of Legislators' meeting in White Plains. "I've been out there. I'm proven."

Oros, who joined the legislature in 1995, has been considering a possible candidacy for almost two months. He joins Iraq War veteran Kieran Michael Lalor of Peekskill as the only two announced GOP candidates in the 19th Congressional District.

Pardon me for thinking like a Republican, but George Oros sounds suspiciously like "George Soros," the scourge of all things good, holy and wholesomely American. I wonder how many GOoPs in the 19th will mistake them for each other.

Seriously.

NY-19: Greg Ball Is Out

by: phillip anderson

Mon Dec 31, 2007 at 15:08:02 PM EST

Freshman Assemblyman Greg Ball has announced that he will not challenge Freshman Rep. John Hall in next year's race for the 19th Congressional seat. At this point, it looks as if the GOP may be stuck with Kieran Michael Lalor's long shot run at the seat. Will the race for NY-19 be a snooze? It's sure starting to look that way.

Carmel assemblyman says he won't run for Congress in '08

Freshman state Assemblyman Greg Ball will run for re-election in 2008 and not for Congress, as he had speculated during the past few weeks.

Ball, who defeated longtime Republican Assemblyman Willis Stephens in a primary last year and then went on to best Democrat Ken Harper in the November election, wants another two-year term in Albany.

"A little over a year ago I was elected in a grassroots upset that sent a clear message to the good old boys in Albany and back home. Since my election victory, we have made extraordinary progress by elevating the debate on tough issues like taxes, illegal immigration and dysfunction in Albany. On all of these fronts, and more, we are making a substantial difference and I absolutely love being the assemblyman," said Ball, R-Carmel, in a statement.

Ball had considered running for New York's 19th Congressional District seat, which is currently held by U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains. He even traveled to Washington shortly before Christmas to meet with the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Ball didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking further comment.

So far, Kieran Michael Lalor of Peekskill is the only Republican to announce a bid against Hall.

I've always thought that Hall holds this seat no matter who the GOP decided to run. Now his seat looks like a pretty solid keeper.

Credit Where Credit is Due: Lalor Corrects Himself

by: phillip anderson

Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 17:07:45 PM EST

You are correct on Hall's AMT vote. Our bloggers made an honest mistake. Thanks for pointing it out. The KML2008 blog has been appropriately
amended.

Merry Christmas

Credit where credit is due and all.

NY-19: Lalor Has a Truth Problem

by: phillip anderson

Thu Dec 20, 2007 at 12:22:30 PM EST

Merry Christmas From John Hall: Rep. Votes Against Taxpayers and Troops.

In yet another outside the mainstream vote, Rep. John Hall voted against a measure that would save 2 million American families from paying an average of $2000 to the onerous Alternative Minimum Tax. The same bill included funding for ammunition and supplies for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still Hall voted "Nay."

The measure passed the House 272-142. Seventy-Eight Democrats, including Kirstin Gillabrand (sic) from the neighboring 20th Congressional District, voted in favor of the measure. As if his Monday fundraiser at the home MoveOn.org's patron George Soros wasn't enough proof that Hall is well outside the mainstream, voting against tax relief for the middle class and funding for troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan seals the deal.

John Hall did indeed vote against the massive spending bill. In doing so he "voted against" all manner of things, but most specifically he voted against another blank check for the war in Iraq. That said, Hall's record on ammending the Alternative Minimum Tax is quite clear and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the smear Lalor is trying to perpetuate. In fact, here's John Hall in the Congressional Record:

The nineteenth district of New York is one of the districts in this country most affected by the AMT.  Last year over 30,000 families in my district paid AMT.  I wish we had the support in both the majority, and the minority, that we need to advance the major tax reform necessary to prevent the AMT from unfairly penalizing thousands of families in the Hudson Valley.  The "patch" legislation that we considered today is the best legislation that we can pass at this time to prevent more families from being impacted by the AMT, and will ensure that an additional 70,000 families in my district alone will not be hit next year by the AMT.

I am proud that the Democratic Majority in the House of Representatives has twice passed a responsible AMT patch; offsetting the $50 billion in lost revenue from the AMT by eliminating tax loopholes for some of the richest people in the country, who choose to use offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.  However, neither the President nor his allies in Congress are fiscally responsible.  They will not accept any legislation that acts responsibly by ensuring that the cost of protecting working families from the AMT will not be borne by their grandchildren.  I believe I was elected to Congress last year to help restore fiscal integrity to the federal government, and I stand by the numerous votes I have cast in support of a responsible Pay-Go system.

Although I am deeply disappointed that we will not be able to pass a version of AMT reform with a revenue offset this year.  I am unwilling to let working families in my district suffer as a result of the President and the minority in Congress.  That is why, despite its obvious inadequacies, I feel that I must support this bill. I am disappointed that we were forced to pass this bill by borrowing the resources to do so.  As Congress continues its work in the future, I am committed to working to make sure our government operates within its means and respects the principle of fiscal responsibility.

Trying to paint Hall as an enemy of fixing the AMT is absurd and demonstrates a distinct antipathy to the truth on Mr Lalor's part.

UPDATE: John Hall's statement on yesterday's passing the Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007, which will provide AMT relief to 73,000 households in NY-19 is on the flip...

UPDATE II: Lalor corrects himself.