Expect to see the RNC pulling funding from NY-20, a race that has been running as a toss-up.   From the Times Union.

The wife of U.S. Rep. John Sweeney called police last December to complain her husband was ``knocking her around'' during a late-night argument at the couple's home, according to a document obtained last week by the Times Union.

Bumped--Chris

You couldn't make this up.   Randy Kuhl, who Jerome diaried about here back in 2004 for being drunk and pulling a shot gun on his wife at a party, that Randy Kuhl (Republican-NY), gives his closing arguments to a debate with fighting dem Eric Massa at a Rotary Club.   He rambles for quite a bit.   But then he wants to talk about how the Republican government does so much for the people.  His example?  Katrina.  From the Times Union blog:

"You can see that when, in fact, this government needs to react, like it did with Katrina with immediate appropriations to help out people who were dying.

The rotary club laughs at him.   Watch the video here.

I believe the last poll i saw was pre-Foley and it had Massa tied with Kuhl.

Update (Chris): Here is the You Tube video:



Eric Massa is on the netroots page.

Several of the other races in NY are getting a lot more attention (NY-20, for example) but this new poll shows that NY-26 is certainly going to be close as well.  

The race for the congressional seat in New York's 26th Congressional district between Congressman Tom Reynolds and businessman Jack Davis is neck and neck according to new scientific polling information.

The survey was commissioned by Channel 2 News and was completed by Survey USA. It breaks down as the following:

45% Tom Reynolds (R)
43% Jack Davis (D)
8% Christine Murphy (G)
4% Undecided

This was a district not included in Chris' wednesday overview.  No one has paid much attention as far as I can tell since there haven't been any polls.  But this is encouraging.   Chris had NY-29 (massa), 24 (Arcuri), 25 (Maffei) and 19(Hall).    In addition to those we have gillibrand in 20,  Johnson in 23 and a couple others to boot.  Hopefully if the wave does come, it will wash over most of NY.  

Update [2006-9-28 18:11:57 by democracyinalbany]: No need to fear the Green candidate. She got knocked off the ballot for legal reasons. Better news.

I previously wrote about a Gillibrand ad here.  Well she just launched a new ad and I think this one is a winner.   In a nutshell it takes on the war, states her opponent's 100% bush war voting record and says we need a change in congress so we can have a change in Iraq.  Its simple and effective.   Let me know what you think.

I can't get the Youtube to post directly here.  Can someone advise on that?  I got it to work on my own Scoop blog here or you can check it out on DKOS in the current open thread.

Here is the latest ad from Kirsten Gillibrand who is challenging 4 term Republican incumbent John Sweeney in NY-20.   I believe this is her 4th ad.  The first two were apparently designed just to raise name awareness.  They were feel good bio pieces and I wasn't happy with them.   She then moved to a more issue based ad that mentioned Iraq at the end.  Now she has this ad that focuses almost wholely on Iraq.  

Here is a link to the ad (I apologize for not knowing how to link directly to YouTube in a diary).

My thoughts:

It opens with a clip of Bush saying we are making good progress in Iraq and then she follows by saying she disagrees with the president.   According to the first rule in the accountability memo this is very good.

She also talks about it being a "time for a change" and a "new direction in Iraq" which I believe are a good start.  What the ad doesn't do is:

Mention her opponent and his support for Bush.
Mention that she is a Democrat
Mention Republicans.

Its also interesting to note that Sweeney is one of the Abramoff crew and has ties to the Marianna Island debacle.  He also is being investigated in NY for using tax payer money to fund a lobbyist and freind ski weekend.  He's corrupt.  She isn't addressing that.   If i understand what happened in CA-50, then this probably is a good move.   However, I saw this ad that was used against Ralph Reed and I have to think this approach might work aside from the fact that the average voter doesn't know anything about the issue.  
 

I'm a believer in the old bit of advice "always read your enemies newspaper".   So I sign up for all the e-mail updates I can from the other side.  The RNC sends out some untentionally funny ones on occasion.   However, today I got this e-mail from Progress For America urging people to call their Senators and support Frist's nuclear option (they don't call it that).   Here it is:

www.ProgressForAmerica.org  
Progress for America Urges U.S. Senate
to End Judicial Filibusters

The U.S. Congress is back in session and the U.S. Senate is expected to consider many of President Bush's judicial nominations this month.

Unfortunately, a small minority of U.S. Senators refuses to permit many judicial nominees from even receiving an up-or-down vote. Believe it or not, some judicial nominees have waited more than three years for their floor vote.

This is unfair, unprecedented and unconstitutional.

I live in Albany, NY and have been writing the blog Democracy In Albany for the past 6 months.   The concept of a functioning democracy in Albany is an idea that our U.S. Attorney General would most likely call "quaint".   The state capitol is home to what is known as the most dysfunctional legislature in the country.  
Recently they have been slapping themselves on the back and acting like they invented democracy since they passed the state budget on time (at the very last minute) after not being able to accomplish this feat for the past 20 straight years.   Incumbents are very hard to beat at the state level.   We pay the second highest taxes in the country, while our upstate communities and cities decline and our lobbyists and politicians get rich.   I'm sure it's similar in your states, but it's bad here.  And depressing.