ny-23 – Moe Lane

Sierra Club endorses Martha Robertson (D CAND, NY-23) and sues to kill jobs in… NY-23.

I believe that the technical term for this is ‘oops.’

The Sierra Club is suing the state Public Service Commission over plans to re-power the Dunkirk power plant. Those plans call for the plant to be converted from coal to natural gas.

The lawsuit will delay the switch-over, and that is not sitting well with some lawmakers in the Southern Tier.

“They claim that the environmental baseline should be no plant at all. None. No jobs, no energy, no revenue, no tax base,” says Chautauqua County Assemblyman Andy Goodell.

Remember when Greenies loved natural gas? …Yeah, turns out that that was only because the Greenies didn’t think that people would go for that. Or else that was because people underestimated just how much natural gas was actually available: your average environmentalist-theocrat just loves boutique, high-cost energy sources. For the right sort of people, of course. Continue reading Sierra Club endorses Martha Robertson (D CAND, NY-23) and sues to kill jobs in… NY-23.

Martha Robertson (D CAND, New York-2[3*]) using already debunked DCCC talking points.

Martha Robertson (D CAND, NY-23), having apparently not learned her lesson about telling lies in the course of campaigning, is doubling down on stupid:

Two weeks ago, a local news station ran a story concerning Robertson’s claim that the VA suffered from “decades of underfunding.” That claim had previously been rates as false.

Robertson then shifted gears and falsely accused Congressman Reed of voting “against reducing the VA backlog, funding to process more disability claims for wounded warriors, medical and prosthetic research, medical services for post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide prevention, and homeless programs for veterans.”

Martha got those talking points straight from a DCCC press release and THOSE EXACT TALKING POINTS WERE JUST RULED FALSE BY POLITIFACT.

Bolding the NRCC’s, for once: although I have to admit, it’s surprising to see Politifact actually smack down Democratic talking points like this, apparently on multiple occasions.

Continue reading Martha Robertson (D CAND, New York-2[3*]) using already debunked DCCC talking points.

Update on Martha Robertson’s (D CAND, New York-23 PRI) cyber-attack accusations.

Meet Martha Robertson. Democrat, hoping to run in NY-23. Made an interesting accusation and promise, back in October of 2013:

Republicans have been pressuring Robertson to provide proof that GOP operatives attempted to hack her campaign website. Robertson made that claim in a Sept. 30 fundraising email.

“We’re working to hire a cyber-security firm to take a serious look at that and investigate everything that happened. Beyond that it’s really better to leave it up to them,” Robertson said in an Oct. 9 interview.

Annnd how did that investigation go? Well, according to this FEC report for 4Q 2013, it didn’t go at all: if Robertson had an investigation done, it wasn’t paid for by the campaign. Now, I am not an expert on this sort of thing, but as I understand the rules involving a FEC Form 3: Schedule B is for the reporting of all disbursements to vendors for campaign-related work. That there is no listing there for a cyber-security investigation seems very interesting. Almost as interesting? The fact that the campaign has been ducking this question since at least December. Continue reading Update on Martha Robertson’s (D CAND, New York-23 PRI) cyber-attack accusations.

Martha Robertson (D CAND, New York-23) to accept fundraiser from child molester.

You would think that Do not accept political favors from somebody who once molested a kid would be one of those basic Rules Of Life. You know: the sort of thing that people don’t need to be told about, before they start out on a federal Congressional career. Apparently not:

Peter Yarrow, who rose to fame in the 1960s folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, is set to do a fundraiser for [New York] Democratic congressional candidate Martha Robertson later this month in Ithaca – even though he infamously pleaded guilty in 1970 to a charge of “taking indecent liberties” with a child.

Not surprisingly, Republicans are making Yarrow’s appearance an issue in Robertson’s spirited race against Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, in the Southern Tier district that includes Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties. The Reed-Robertson race is expected to be among the hottest congressional contests in the country next year.

“It is absolutely deplorable that Martha Robertson would kick off her congressional campaign by having a convicted sex offender headline her fundraiser,” said Ian Prior, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Continue reading Martha Robertson (D CAND, New York-23) to accept fundraiser from child molester.

Doug Hoffman withdraws from NY-23.

Via AoSHQ: state law requires that he’ll still be on the ballot, but he’s calling on his supporters to throw theirs behind Matt Doheny. This must have been a hard decision for Doug Hoffman; but as he himself noted, the important thing here is to not split the Republican vote against the Democratic squatter currently in it. It is my humble suggestion that we take the time to thank Doug Hoffman for ending a potential split in this race. It is also my humble suggestion that we start asking incumbent Bill Owens a question that should have started being asked a month ago: What bribe did Nancy Pelosi give you to get you to break your word on opposing Obamacare, Congressman?

Or was it a threat that Pelosi used to break him? Although there’s not much choice between greed or cowardice when contemplating the motivations of an oathbreaker: Owen’s word is worthless either way, and he’s just as contemptible, too.

See also JammieWearingFool and The Other McCain.

Moe Lane (Crosspost)

NY-23 not yet certified.

For the record, I expect that in the end the results will probably still show that Owens won in that district – and if the final count does result in Hoffman winning, the campaign did concede and didn’t contest the preliminary election results, so Owens was properly sworn in. So it thus won’t reverse House Democrats’ health care rationing ‘victory.’

Unless the Democrats want it to. Right now, if I was the Speaker of the House I’d be looking for any excuse to avoid the Democrats’ looming civil war over the Stupak amendment. This would… do.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Rep. Bill Owens (D NY-23) breaks his word on the public option.

(H/T: Big Government) I’m actually not upset about this, seeing as I knew all along that he’d break his word. Fish swim, birds fly, ‘conservative’ Democratic legislators betray their principles on cue. And so it is, here:

GOUVERNEUR, NY – Congressman-elect Bill Owens was sworn in at noon today.

Owens indicated in a press release that he was now in favor of the bill in direct contrast to his earlier position during his campaign.

According to Politico.com, Mr. Owens assured voters that he felt the public option had no place in the health care reform bill. Contrary to that position, Mr. Owens now indicates that he intends to vote in favor of the bill even though it now contains a public option.

More at the link, including the three other promises that Owens has already broken. I would like to believe that this is a record of some sort, but it’s probably not.

Moe Lane

PS: Do not expect any so-called ‘Blue Dog’ or supposed ‘conservative’ Democrat to voluntarily get in the way of their party’s health care rationing bill. They vote as they are bid – and the ones doing the bidding are not their constituents.

Crossposted to RedState.

DOOMWatch: Siena has Hoffman at +5.

Via Jake Tapper’s twitter comes the report that Siena’s latest poll shows that the NY-23 race has gone from 36/35 Owens to 41/36 Hoffman over the weekend, with 18% still undecided. Those undecided are going to have to break heavily for Owens to let him win this one – and he’s got a day to make the sale. Given that Owen’s ceiling has been the mid-thirties for this poll, that will be quite the trick for him to pull off…

Moe Lane

PS: Just because it’s DOOMWatch doesn’t mean that you stop. Get thee hence to NY-23, if you can.

Stu Rothenberg calls the 2009 races.

Three out of four, at least, as CA-10 is not mentioned (to be fair, a GOP win there is the dark horse in this particular race). Short version: Virginia is at how-far-the-rubble-bounces; NJ is too close to call, but the breaks favor Christie; and NY-23 is between the Democratic and the Conservative candidate, with the NRCC contenting itself with publicly whaling on the former*. His conclusion:

Democrats could win two out of the three races, but only because multicandidate contests might allow Corzine and Owens to sneak through with a minority of the vote. A win is a win, but even if that happens, it’s not great news for Democrats for 2010.

In a sort-of-related aside, may I offer some suggestions? If you’re a member of the grassroots, stop complaining about the national party from the outside. If you’re a member of the national party organization, do a better job about being open and forthright about what you’re doing next time.

And, for both groups: life is not fair.

Moe Lane

*Yes, I’ve seen reports otherwise.

Crossposted to RedState.

Some more NY-23 links.

It’s going to be a busy few days, up in NY-23. Some of the stuff that’s of interest:

PJTV discusses Tea Parties, third parties, and the NY-23 race. Glenn Reynolds, Bill Whittle and Dana Loesch are actually all in agreement that the first creating the second would not be the optimal response right now; what’s better would be that making sure that politicians stop getting to run unopposed in primaries and general elections. (I agree.)
Dan Riehl (via Instapundit) wants to point out that the national GOP organizations didn’t pick Scozzafava; the local one did, and the long-term answer is to get actual conservatives in those positions of authority. (I agree: we always need more precinct committeemen.)
Jim Geraghty notices one of those odd coincidences, in the process of noting that Scozzafava happened to probably violate state law in filing a false police report.
R.S. McCain’s gone to New York. So has Dick Armey.
And… there are rumors.

That last one I don’t know if I buy. Yet.

Moe Lane

PS: Doug Hoffman for Congress.

Crossposted to RedState.