While I'm sure that everyone here is still paying most of their attention to the healthcare reform debate, we find outselves creeping up on another one of those bits of inconvenient life. To wit, the preparations for the 2010 election cycle are underway, and cannot be ignored: we can't pass bills without votes.
Fortunately, despite the ongoing propaganda efforts, the environment is still ripe to produce victories. A week ago, we proved again that even against the might of the national Republican party, and the smear machine they've brought to bear over the past year, we can continue the winning streak we've had for the last three election cycles.
We've removed 80% of the former Republican representatives from this state, electing open, accountable, and progress friendly legislators in their place.
There are now only two congressional seats left in New York held by regressives. NY-03, occupied by Peter King, whom most people here already know and despise. And NY-26, held by Chris Lee, a man with the intellectual prowess to rival of bag full of dried ferret droppings.
These two men continue to be a thorn in the side of all efforts at reform and fixing our national problems, and in my opinion they should both be prime targets in 2010. We in New York can do the same thing that our neighbors in New England did: kick the bums out. All of them.
As of today, it's 355 days until Election Day 2010. As the DFA trainers will tell you, the one thing you never have more of is time. That's why we need to start planning and preparing right now.
We in the GLOW Democratic committees recently have come into possession of some juicy material on Lee which you'll be hearing about in the future, but even so, it's going to take the combined efforts and support of people all across New York and the country if these efforts are going to have a chance.
That's why I'm asking everyone reading this to chip in, one way or another. Provide ideas. Volunteer time. Look for candidates. Contribute to the ActBlue nomineefunds.
But we need to get mobilized. Healthcare reform is important, but so is insuring a healthy and growing progressive majority in Congress.
There has been a lot of speculation about New York and redistricting come 2012. Some believe that my home congressional district, the 26th congressional district, could be a target. Others have discussed the possibility of some of the separate, gerrymandered districts.
Now comes word today that the 3rd congressional district might be a target during the redistricting process, which would be one way for Democrats to get rid of Republican Peter King.
A source close to Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith confirmed "serious discussions" between Democrats in New York and Washington are underway about King's district.
"It's an obvious choice because of the population of the area," he said.
Long Island was once a Republican stronghold, but it has been trending Democratic since the last census.
The GOP still has a 46,072-voter enrollment edge in King's 3rd Congressional District, which includes parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
The number of Democrats has grown faster since the last redistricting, with 16,843 voters added to their ranks since 2001, compared with the Republicans' 1,336.
King isn't concerned about being on the Democratic hit list.
"This is dream talk," he said. "It's three years from now. I don't know if I'll even be alive."
It will be interesting to see what approach the Democrats take when it comes to redistricting. King is probably the most safe of the three Republicans that are still serving in the House of Representatives from New York. Targeting him makes sense, but how you would split up his district is a tougher question.
"It is wrong...for Notre Dame to award President Obama an honorary degree, because this will be seen as tacit acceptance of the president's abortion views, which are so antithetical to Catholic moral teaching on the sanctity and value of human life."
King is all about protecting the borders, no amnesty for illegals and taking a hardline on law-breakers... unless of course they are ex-IRA gunmen here in the US.
It's simply amazing that someone like Peter King with his past ties to terrorists and his almost innate ability to speak out of both sides of his mouth gets elected.
King writes an op-ed for the New York Post today going way off the rails in his defense of his buddy Vito Fossella.
United States Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island who is known for his independent streak, is quietly exploring the possibility of mounting a bid for governor in two years, according to people close to him.
Mr. King, a congressman for nearly 16 years, representing parts of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, has been in discussions with fund-raisers in the state and with local party leaders in an effort to gauge the support he might have and to begin assembling a statewide political organization, those people said.
In an interview last week, Mr. King, 63, who is running for another term in Congress this year, said he would not decide whether to run for governor until after the fall elections.
But he said he was seriously considering it, contending that there was a leadership vacuum in the state party that had left rank-and-file Republicans demoralized and ideologically adrift.
He described, among other things, a political timidity in the Republican Party that he said was preventing its elected leaders from openly confronting Democrats, who vastly outnumber Republicans in New York, on controversial issues.
...
Mr. King's supporters say that he fits the profile needed to help Republicans win a statewide race in New York: a white Republican from the suburbs of New York City who is Roman Catholic with an ethnic background, in his case Irish-American.
...
His supporters also say that his record is an asset for any Republican running in a heavily Democratic state like New York. While he opposes abortion rights and supports strong measures to stem illegal immigration, he has been seen as something of a maverick within his own party.
I'm seriously considering starting a Draft King movement because King is exactly who I would want to face in 2010. He'll be able to raise some serious dough, probably enough to scare off other potential GOP contenders, but I'm pretty sure he'd be crushed in the general, despite his rather high profile and name recognition in the state, no matter who the Dem nominee is. I just don't see New York electing an anti-choice GOP nutjob with a penchant for saying absolutely insane things in public in 2010. Period. Plus, we win his House seat and keep it a for a long, long time.
Some may disagree, but i really feel he's our perfect candidate. Oh, please, Santa. I'll be extra good this year. I promise.
WASHINGTON - Rep. Peter King attacked as "disgraceful" yesterday Republican moderates who warned President George W. Bush on Wednesday that his handling of the Iraq war threatens to damage the GOP's future.
"Members of Congress, whether in my party or the other party, who supported the war and are now turning against it because it's unpopular, that to me is disgraceful," said King. "If you can't take a political hit, then you can't send soldiers into war to take real bullets."
King, who shouldered his tightest re-election campaign ever amid last year's Democratic landslide, acknowledged he is feeling the heat as he continues to back the president despite growing public disenchantment with the war.
So Peter King calls it a "disgrace" that members of his own caucus would dare to defy Bush's marching orders; so much for the marketplace of ideas, free expression, all that jazz. King's marching in lockstep to Bush's orders so much that he can't fathom anyone seeing Iraq for what it really is: an intractable quagmire.
In the crucial test of political fund-raising, Long Island Republican Peter King flunked out this quarter. He reports
a low $99,005 in receipts, with $115,700 spent, for a grand ANEMIC total of -$16,695. That's right, he LOST MONEY this quarter!
