Fodder for political conversations
Updated: 10/12/08 7:16 AM
Things you need to know for politics talk at the height of Politics Season:
• The pollsters at Loudonville’s Siena College last week confirmed what Western New Yorkers sensed for a long time — something is brewing in the contest between Republican challenger Dennis Delano and the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Bill Stachowski.
Siena showed Delano leading Stachowski by a whopping 13 percent, topping the 27-year incumbent even in name recognition. The poll showed Stachowski with the support of only about half of the Democrats surveyed, with Delano claiming nearly two-thirds of Republicans and more than two-thirds of independent voters. Delano leads with men and women, with every age group and religion, and in every region of the district.
One of the poll’s interesting twists is that nearly half of voters want the Senate to become Democratic, with only 35 percent supporting Republican control.
If you’re a Republican, the big prize in this election could be control of the Senate, the last bastion of GOP power in Albany.
If you’re a Democrat, your dog in this hunt is Stachowski — in line to become chairman of the powerful Finance Committee should the Dems take control.
One thing is for sure. Both campaigns have negative ads in reserve should they feel they need them. It’s a good bet both sides will feel that need.
• Still on the Senate, Democratic candidate Kathy Konst experienced a rough few days after Republicans demonstrated their mastery of hardball politics. First they knocked Konst off the minor party line she so desperately needed, then they unveiled records showing she voted twice in the same election in Florida and Lancaster — a charge she denied.
The GOP wasn’t done. They revealed her husband, attorney Harry Konst, had filed for bankruptcy with a Florida address — raising questions about the couple’s claims they left Florida for good in 1992.
The rough sledding didn’t stop there. The State Board of Elections sued her for missing three campaign finance deadlines. Then, when she finally filed, she showed only $3,883 on hand — hardly enough to topple a veteran like Republican incumbent Dale Volker.
Good news eventually drifted Konst’s way late last week when Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano unveiled an ad endorsing her Senate bid. Absent a major influx of money into her own campaign, the Golisano effort could prove crucial to any hope of knocking off a powerful incumbent.
• Democrat Jon Powers surfaced last week for the first time since losing his congressional bid to attorney Alice Kryzan. Powers sent a letter to supporters indicating he has joined a Washington consulting firm called the Eleison Group, which Wikipedia describes as a Democratic consulting firm specializing in connecting clients with the religious communities.
“I will be working with the Eleison Group to develop Veteran Advisory Councils for congressional campaigns across the country,” Powers told supporters. “This will allow me to help candidates not only understand the issues around the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but put together policies to ensure we are taking care of those who served us.”
Powers also said for the first time he is no longer running for Congress as the candidate of the Working Families Party, just as Democrats try to replace him on that line with Kryzan. Republicans, by the way, are expected to vigorously oppose that move.
The Democratic hierarchy that backed Powers always presumed he would be the candidate — ditto for Working Families.
But Kryzan fooled everyone with her victory — and now, ironically, desperately needs the line to compete against Chris Lee on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines.
