Search results for "congressional battleground"
Here And Now
Oct 4th - 7:36 am
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in New York City with no public schedule.
LG Bob Duffy delivers remarks at the Buffalo Outer Harbor groundbreaking ceremony. 11 a.m., 225 Fuhrmann Blvd., Buffalo.
At 8:30 a.m., NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio discusses efforts to promote economic growth and development in all five boroughs; ABNY Breakfast Forum; The Conrad Hotel, 102 North End Ave. Manhattan.
Public health professionals will express concern over the lack of an independent review of the potential health impacts of fracking. 3rd Floor, state Capitol, outside the LCA, 2 p.m.
At 5:30 p.m., the NYC Districting Commission holds public hearing. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd., Manhattan.
Headlines…
The general consensus after last night’s first presidential debate, even – or perhaps most notably – from liberal donors and commentators, is that Mitt Romney won. More here, here, here…you get the picture.
Chris Matthews: “What was Romney doing? He was winning. If he does five more of these nights, forget it.”
President Obama, who is under fire for his lackluster performance, can take heart: George W. Bush was widely judged to have clearly lost the first debate against John Kerry in 2004, and went on to win the election anyway. (That hasn’t been true with all incumbents who struggled in debates, however).
Also roundly criticized for his debate performance is moderator Jim Lehrer. But a few people came to his defense, saying he did a good job of staying out of the way and letting the candidates do the talking.
Both Obama and Romney made a number of misleading statements last night.
Romney’s Big Bird comment went viral. @FiredBigBird has more than 23,000 followers on Twitter this morning.
Congressional Battleground – Dan Maffei (NY25)
Oct 26th - 9:00 pm
In 2008, Democrats swept through New York winning 27 of the 29 Congressional seats. Part of that wave was Democrat Dan Maffei in NY’s 25th District – who sailed to victory in an open seat that stretches from Syracuse to the Rochester suburbs.
This year, Maffei was expected to coast to re-election, but one week out he finds himself in a tighter than expected race. He joined Liz Benjamin from Syracuse Tuesday to talk about the race.
Maffei Ducks Pelosi Question, Concedes Dems ‘Might’ Lose House
Oct 26th - 4:20 pm
Democratic Rep. Dan Maffei came in for a CapTon interview as part of our (now nearly over) Congressional Battleground series and refused to say whether he would vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if the Democrats somehow manage to retain control of the House next Tuesday.
“Well, you know, I need to see what our options are…You know, Liz, I try to stay away from those theoretical questions,” Maffei told me.
“The fact of the matter: I think that we’ll have a lot of leadership choices…Obviously, I do think Nancy Pelosi is to the left of where the center of the Democrats are, just as I think John Boehner and a lot of the leadership in the Republican Party is to the right.”
Pelosi has been an issue in any number of House races both in New York and across the country, with a few Democrats even campaigning against her outright.
Maffei’s GOP opponent, Ann Marie Buerkle, recently told me she thought former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s values are more in keeping with NY-25 than Pelosi’s. (Palin endorsed Buerkle in July).
Maffei also conceded that the Democrats “might lose the House” but said that doesn’t worry him as much as the idea that the Tea Party might control the GOP agenda going forward. He also said he’s holding out hope about remaining in the majority, adding:
“I do think there’s also a good chance, and we’re seeing it in some of these races in upstate New York, that the Democrats are making a comeback.”
Congressional Battleground: NY-25
Oct 19th - 9:00 pm
Ann Marie Buerkle sits down with Liz Benjamin to talk about the race once thought to be a safe seat for incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei.
Congressional Battleground – George Phillips (NY22)
Oct 13th - 9:00 pm
Congressman Maurice Hinchey has been representing the sprawling 22nd congressional district that stretches from Poughkeepsie to Ithaca for nearly two decades. And he routinely cruised to victory relatively unscathed each and every time he has sought re-election.
All of a sudden, however, Hinchey’s looking vulnerable. Or, at least, that’s what the national Republicans seen to think. Today we learned a national group with ties to former President George Bush’s political director Karl Rove plans to spend $300,000 in the district on ads designed to help the Democratic congressman’s GOP challenger.
On Monday, the Democrats sent out their most popular surrogate, former President Clinton, to campaign with Hinchey. All this action has some people wondering if the nine-term congressman might be in trouble after all, including Hinchey’s opponent.
George Phillips was unsuccessful in his bid to oust Hinchey two years ago. He’s back this fall to give it another shot. He joined Liz Benjamin from Middletown Wednesday.
Congressional Battleground – Heavy Hitters Edition
Oct 12th - 9:30 pm
This fall, 39 is the magic number for the national GOP. That’s how many seats the party needs to win to take back control of the house. New York is one of the bluest of blue states, yet we’re seeing contested races in almost half of our 29 congressional districts.
Yesterday, the Democrats brought out their biggest of big guns – former President Bill Clinton – to stump for two upstate congressmen, Maurice Hinchey and Dan Maffei. We also learned that vice president Joe Biden will soon travel to new york to host a fundraiser for Long Island congressman Tim Bishop, who is one of the Republicans’ top targets.
But how much of all this action is a real sign of concern among the Democratic leadership, and how much is just for show – a head fake, if you will, in hopes of getting the Republicans to spend resources on candidates without much of a shot at victory, leaving less for those who do.
Congressional Battleground – Zeller vs. Reed (NY29)
Oct 8th - 9:00 pm
Do you remember Eric Massa? Back in 2008, he shocked a lot of people after defeating a Republican incumbent. Then shocked even more people when he resigned amid a sex scandal earlier this year after admitting to groping staffers and having tickle parties.
That was March when Massa left office, and the 29th congressional district, which covers much of the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes region, has been without a representative in Washington ever since.
That will change after the November 2nd election. Republicans are hoping to flip the district back to the GOP’s hands with their candidate, former Corning Mayor Tom Reed. Democrats, however, are trying to boost their candidate, Matt Zeller, in the polls and fundraising dollars with less than a month until the election.
Both candidates spoke to Liz Benjamin from our Corning Bureau.
Matt Zeller
Tom Reed
Congressional Battleground – Chris Gibson (NY20)
Sep 9th - 9:00 pm
In the past decade, many Congressional districts have shifted from one party to the other. But few have shifted as dramatically as the NY-20th.
In the early 2002, Republican John Sweeney won the seat with 73 percent of the vote. In 2008, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand collected 61 percent support on her way to re-election.
This year, the race could shift once again. Wednesday we spoke to the Incumbent, Scott Murphy, who is running with an anti-Washington message. In Thursday’s edition of our Congressional Battleground series, Liz Benjamin sat down his Republican rival, Army Veteran Chris Gibson.
Congressional Battleground – Rep. Scott Murphy (NY20)
Sep 8th - 9:00 pm
Back in early 2009, just months after President Obama had been sworn in, Democrats got their first post election test of their popularity. It took place in New York’s 20th District where Democrat Scott Murphy took on Assemblyman Jim Tedisco in a special election to replace Kirsten Gillibrand – who was just appointed to the US Senate.
The race was close. In fact, so close that at one point during the canvassing a few days after the election, the two were literally tied. In the end, after nearly 160 thousand ballots were counted, Murphy won by a few hundred votes in the heavily Republican District. Then, the race was seen as a signal of the strength of the white house. But this election cycle, the landscape is much different. And the anti-obama sentiment has made this race a virtual toss up between Murphy, and army veteran Chris Gibson.
In Wednesday’s edition of our Congressional Battleground series, Liz Benjamin was joined by the incumbent Scott Murphy.
Murphy Mum On Pelosi
Sep 8th - 5:14 pm
As part of our ongoing “Congressional Battleground” series here at CapTon, I sat down earlier today with Rep. Scott Murphy, the incumbent Democrat in NY-20 who is trying to hold onto the seat he won in a special election following the elevation of Kirsten Gillibrand to the US Senate by Gov. David Paterson last January.
Murphy didn’t want to discuss his party’s chances of retaining control of the House this fall, even though the outlook for the Democrats has improved slightly since President Obama has refocused his attention on the economy.
He also sought to distance himself from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, refusing to say whether he will vote for her to retain her leadership post if and when he returns to Washington, D.C. in 2011. Unlike a few of his fellow Democrats, however, Murphy is not actively running against the speaker, although he has stressed his independence from leadership – and Washington in general.
Muprhy did say he would accept the president’s endorsement if it’s offered to him. (Obama is keeping a low-ish profile in contested congressional races, although he is due back in New York for a fundraiser to benefit the DCCC and DSCC on Sept. 22).
It would have been a little awkward for the congressman to say he didn’t want Obama’s support, since the president’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is due to host a joint fundraiser for Murphy and Rep. Bill Owens (NY-23) on Sept. 19.
Take Capital Tonight and the State of Politics blog with you everywhere you go with our iPhone app! The mobile application features our blog posts, interviews, and a report news tool to send us your political news tips.