Tight Race for Congress Prompts Visit by Boehner (NY)

NY Times ^ | May 8, 2011 | RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

[neverdem]

John A. Boehner, the House speaker, plans to visit upstate New York on Monday to support the struggling campaign of a Republican candidate who is running for a vacant seat in Congress.

Mr. Boehner’s appearance underscores the national stake in the race, and reflects the changing fortunes of the candidate, Jane L. Corwin, a popular state lawmaker who experts in both parties had once thought would win handily in the 26th Congressional District, which is heavily Republican.

In recent weeks, Ms. Corwin has watched her advantage in the race all but disappear as her Democratic rival, Kathy Hochul, seized upon public uneasiness over the House Republicans’ plan to overhaul Medicare, the federal health insurance program for retirees.

Ms. Hochul, the Erie County clerk, has repeatedly attacked the plan, introduced last month, as a threat to the elderly and has called on Ms. Corwin to reject it. Ms. Corwin has remained steadfast in her support of the Medicare plan.

Ms. Corwin’s position has placated conservatives, who stand to play an important...

--snip--

With the Medicare debate clearly providing Ms. Hochul momentum, her campaign has signaled it has no intention to drop it. While Mr. Boehner meets with Ms. Corwin at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens restaurant in Depew, Ms. Hochul plans to hold a news conference nearby with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

The district includes the northeastern suburbs of Buffalo and the western suburbs of Rochester, as well as Albion, Batavia, Lockport and North Tonawanda. It has about 30,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats and is considered one of the state’s more conservative regions.

The election, on May 24, is to fill the seat of Christopher Lee, a Republican who resigned in February after he e-mailed a woman a shirtless photo of himself that appeared on the Web.

[Vigilanteman]

House Republicans’ plan to overhaul Medicare ???

Which is??? Don't these NY voters realize that ObamaCare has already vastly reduced Medicare funding in order to support more illegal aliens, druggies and winos in the system?

[Nat Turner]

If you lay down with rinos you get up with fleas...How about she stops accepting the liberal lie and the media template and starts telling the truth...And folks wonder why republicans lose in NY!

[johnthebaptistmoore]

Wussy Speaker of the House, Rep. Boehner, needs to be replaced by a true conservative with a political backbone, asap! If only Rep. Mike Pence stayed in the House, instead of, very soon, running for Indiana Governor.

[bray]

Don’t believe the polls and move forward. Just where do these seniors believe the money will come from?

God Bless Our Troops

[Clintonfatigued]

I do hope that Jane Corwin can pull this out. The faux TEA Party candidate is the main reason it’s close at all.

[smoothsailing]

Corwin’s problems could have more to do with this...

http://swampland.time.com/2011/05/06/jane-corwins-internet-fail/

[nbenyo]

This district went 74% GOP in November. There is no way this should be close. If the Democrat wins, it will be a huge warning sign that the pendulum is swinging back.

[BoBToMatoE]

The reason why the race is so close is because of “TEA party” Candidate Jack Davis.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/poll_new_york_special_election_closer_than_expected-205191-1.html

Anyone know if this guy is legit or a Democrat implant? He is apparently taking 23% of the vote.

The GOP candidate, Corwin, is only getting 56% of the Republican vote and ~34% of indepedents.

While I would argue that the district is not representative of the rest of America, this Davis guy who is running could foreshadow what would happen if people decide to splinter from the GOP in 2012.

As Rush says, running a third party does nothing more than committ political suicide.

If the dude wanted to make a difference, you continue to fight from within and retake the GOP from its roots up.

Not good in either case.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Oh my goodness. What a load. The New York Times is flogging for the democrat, and for the national democrats, suggesting that the race is close because of Ryan's medicare salvation plan.

This race is close for one reason, and one reason only : Jack Davis, who used a NY loophole to put himself on the ticket as a "tea party" candidate, even though he's actually a democrat who has run as a democrat before.

He is taking 23% of the vote, showing that tea party faithful are sometimes as clueless as the mindless democrat voters. If those 23% were voting for the republican, she'd be a shoo-in.

This has nothing to do with medicare; the New York Times has run two articles on this theory of theirs, and their only mention of Jack Davis and his role in her problems was a one-sentence reference in their earlier article where they noted that the democrat had asked "Jack Davis, a millionaire businessman running with Tea Party support, to reject the plan".

They don't even show a poll suggesting that the medicare issue is swaying voters. They site a poll which says "In the special election for the 26th Congressional District seat, Republican Jane Corwin currently has a small lead, with the support of 36 percent of voters. Democrat Kathy Hochul is supported by 31 percent, and independent Jack Davis, running on the Tea Party line, has the support of 23 percent of voters, according to a Siena (College) Research Institute poll of likely 26th CD voters released today."

As you can see, the democrat is pulling 31%, to 60% for the two candidates who supposedly support Ryan's plan (although I can't find him saying that).

"Davis did run as a Democrat in three previous congressional races, but records from the Erie County Board of Elections show that Davis changed his affiliation to Republican in May of last year. In addition, Davis has said that if he's elected, he will caucus with the Republican party."

Is Jack a convert to conservatism, or did he switch last May because he thought he'd have a better shot winning as a "Tea Party" candidate than a Democrat?

[CharlesWayneCT]

I find this bloggish entry NY 26th: Jack Davis Rejects Paul Ryan’s TEA Party Caucus Budget Plan and Personally Attacks Ryan, which says Jack Ryan rejects the republican budget proposal, even while he claims he'll caucus with the Tea Party.

So my guess is he'll switch to Democrat a week after he arrives, unless he decides being a "Tea Party" person who attacks the Tea Party at every turn is a better political move.

The question is, why are any Tea Party people voting for a guy who attacks Paul Ryan and opposes spending cuts?

[Major Matt Mason]

There isn't much that is exciting about Corwin. She might be an improvement over Lee, but not by much. I think she has approached this campaign the way Moakley did in MA, thinking that she had it all wrapped up because this district is pretty reliably "R". She may still win, but it is closer than it should be.

[CharlesWayneCT]

More Jack Davis stuff -- sure looks like he's a democrat plant meant to make Tea Party folks look like racists:

a href="http://www.topix.com/forum/city/erie-pa/TB6MKGI075EKA0EVO">NY Candidate Jack Davis: Bus Blacks to farms to Pick Crops

And here's one where he opposes another part of the Republican budget, but pretends it's about "supporting" the guy who landed his plane in the hudson, and the passengers: Jack Davis stands with the families of the victims of Flight 3407 and Captain “Sully” Sullenberger..

I wasn't sure what he was talking about, until I found this article if we allow the Shuster Amendment to remain in place in the final FAA version of the bill, it will be a slap in the face of the families of the Buffalo victims. 'So those who cut the budget need to have those family members' faces in mind and they need to have the courage to tell those family members that we're choosing to do this in spite of the consequences.'

Here's an article about the Shuster amendment: Shuster defends amendment. Of note, Shuster is a republican, and the politicians quoted as attacking him are all well-known liberal democrats. So that shows where Davis is siding.

[KC_Conspirator]

Thank you for explaining the lie by the Ny Slimes.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

So Boehner scares democratic voters by backing the tepid Ryan plan to balance the budget in 2035 and disaffects conservatives by not cutting spending now.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

From your link: Davis’s alignment and support of the Obama plan comes as no surprise based on the fact that the last two times he appeared on the ballot for this same race he was the endorsed Democrat and Working Families Party candidate. Holy Cow he's a communist running under the Tea Party name!

[CharlesWayneCT]

And Here is Davis's Issues Page, where he tells us he is against free trade, wants to end "tax loopholes", but opposes "raising taxes", even though his "tax loopholes" plank means raising taxes on all sorts of corporations.

He's a typical anti-Nafta democrat. He has couched all his arguments in the robe of "jobs", the same way democrats often wrap themselves with children, minority, and disabled people. Like he attacks the talk of government shutdown, saying both parties "are doing nothing to put Americans back to work".

[neverdem]

This is a 3 way race with a Tea Party candidate who ran as a rat in 2004 & 2006.

Republicans scramble to avoid another New York special election loss

FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.

[neverdem]

Thanks for your links!

[Gene Eric]

Any voter that selects a Democrat masquerading as a Tea Party candidate is a complete idiot.

This is the yield on the GOP’s investment in arrogance towards the Tea Party. This should not be happening especially upstate NY.