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again it is a compromise - here is a guy who is 99% with the Democrats, but 100 times better than Tonko who never did one thing. He was the big energy man for New York State and we end up with the highest priced energy in America.

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21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
House race field widens
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    A former city of Albany Republican chairman, now a Democrat, will run for an open seat in the 21st Congressional District, he announced Tuesday.
    Joseph P. Sullivan, who switched parties two years ago, becomes the 11th candidate to declare for U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty’s seat. McNulty, DGreen Island, is retiring at the end of his term this year after 20 years in the House of Representatives.
    Sullivan said he will focus on fighting terrorism, strengthening education, securing America’s borders and fixing transportation infrastructure.
    Sullivan is a Navy veteran and a retired state Senate administrative staffer. He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican against Mayor Jerry Jennings, a Democrat, in 2001.
    Sullivan faces an uphill battle for the congressional seat. He is unlikely to receive endorsements from the major county committees of the Democratic Party, as all have made endorsements or are planning to endorse candidates already in the race.
    Candidates for Congress must submit designating petitions by July 10. There will be a primary among the nine Democrats on Sept. 9. It is unclear if the two Republicans will face a primary. Those two are James Buhrmaster of Glenville and Steven Vasquez of Ballston Lake. The other Democrats seeking the seat are: John Aretakis, an attorney from North Greenbush; Tracey Brooks, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Craig Burridge, executive director of the Pharmacists Society of New York; Lester Freeman, the city of Albany’s equal employment opportunity officer; Darius Shahinfar, an Albany attorney and former aide to Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand; Phil Steck, chairman of the Colonie Democratic Committee and an attorney practicing civil rights and labor law; Paul Tonko, former 105th District assemblyman and former chairman of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; and Arthur Welser, a licensed broker with Real Property Enterprises in North Greenbush.

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21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Buhrmaster lining up endorsements
County GOP committees give backing
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.

    Republican James Buhrmaster this week became the only candidate for the open seat in the 21st Congressional District to lock up all the endorsements of a major party. Ten-term Congressman Michael R. McNulty, D-Green Island, is retiring at the end of his term this year.
    Buhrmaster picked up the distinction Wednesday when the Schoharie County Republican Committee endorsed him. He has now collected the endorsements of every Republican committee in the counties comprising the 21st District.
    Buhrmaster also has endorsements of the Conservative Party committees in Schenectady and Albany counties and is seeking their endorsements in the other counties of the district, a campaign spokesman said.
    The other Republican in the race is Steven Vasquez of Ballston Lake.
    Paul Tonko comes closest to having the most major-party endorsements among the nine Democratic candidates. He has endorsements of the Democrat committees in Montgomery, Schenectady and Schoharie counties and the endorsement of the labor-backed Working Families Party.
    Tonko is the former assemblyman of the 105th District and the former chairman of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
    The Democratic committees in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties are not making endorsements prior to the Sept. 9 primary, said Tonko spokesman Sean Shortell. The Fulton County Democratic Committee will consider endorsements after candidates file their designating petitions in July, he said.
    Democrat candidate Phil Steck has the endorsements of the Albany County Democratic Committee and the Independence Party. He is chairman of the Colonie Democratic Committee and an attorney practicing civil rights and labor law.
    Steck also holds the advantage in fundraising among all the candidates, according to first-quarter filings with the Federal Election Commission. He had raised $206,000 and had $154,000 on hand as of March 31. Second-quarter fi - nancial disclosure reports will be available July 15.
    The district consists of all of Albany, Schenectady, Montgomery and Schoharie counties and part of Schenectady, Fulton and Rensselaer counties. Democrats hold a plurality in voter registration, 41 percent to 28 percent for Republicans. Voters in the district gave Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry 55 percent of the vote in 2004, according to CQ Politics.
    McNulty said he will not make an endorsement in the race. However, his father, former Green Island Mayor Jack McNulty, has endorsed Democrat candidate Tracey Brooks, a former aide to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. McNulty’s sister, Ellen McNulty-Ryan, mayor of Green Island, is chairwoman of Brooks’ campaign.
    The other Democrats in the race are: John Aretakis, an attorney from North Greenbush; Craig Burridge, executive director of the Pharmacists Society of New York; Lester Freeman, the city of Albany’s equal employment opportunity offi cer; Darius Shahinfar, an Albany attorney and former aide to Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand; Joseph P. Sullivan, a former city of Albany Republican chairman; and Arthur Welser, a licensed broker with Real Property Enterprises in North Greenbush.

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It’s Just Unjust

To the Editor:

I read, with great interest, David King’s article “A Time to Fight” [Newsfrront, July 3].

As a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 21st Congressional District, I wanted to add my voice to the concerns regarding recent action taken in the Congress to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

I do not support retroactive immunity for any industry that violates the law and I do not support secret courts. Judicial power may be abused like any other.

However, the immunity provisions are not the worst aspect of the FISA revisions. There are two major problems with the new law. First, the new FISA revisions extend the time under which the NSA may conduct a wiretap from 72 hours to a week. No need has been demonstrated to increase this time period. Second, the bill gives wholesale approval to bulk monitoring of electronic communications (primarily email and phone calls). This monitoring is based on software algorithms of dubious validity that determine whether or not a person’s behavior patterns suggest that he or she is acting in a way that merits eavesdropping.

This concept, which is really a form of profiling, flies in the face of our longstanding mandates of probable cause and reasonable suspicion that require attention to individual circumstances. As a civil rights attorney, I am aware of no conceivable constitutional basis for this type of surveillance.

The recent revisions to FISA are an example of why I strongly believe that we need members of Congress who will not only challenge a Republican president, but who are also willing to stand up to members of our own party’s leadership when they are wrong.

Phil Steck
Democratic candidate for Congress
New York’s 21st Congressional District
Colonie

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21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Two candidates face petition challenges
Vasquez, Sullivan could lose spots
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com

    Two candidates in the 21st Congressional District race face legal challenges to their bids to run in the September primary, according to the state Board of Elections.
    Republican candidate Steven Vasquez and Democratic candidate Joseph Sullivan received notices by Thursday’s deadline that their designating petitions are under challenge.
    Republican candidate James Buhrmaster filed a challenge in Albany County Supreme Court against Vasquez.
    Keri Kresler filed specific challenges against Sullivan with the state Board of Elections.
    Candidates may challenge petitions either through the courts or through a board of elections, said state Board of Elections spokesman Bob Brehm.
    The state board will review challenges against the 1,734 signatures Sullivan collected on his petitions, issue a report and hold a hearing, Brehm said. Sullivan can appeal the board’s ruling if it goes against him, he said.
    Vasquez’s court date has not been determined, Brehm said. The board has until Aug. 4 to certify the list of candidates.
    Vasquez, Buhrmaster and Kresler were not available for comment.
    Buhrmaster has to the most to gain by knocking Vasquez off the Sept. 9 primary ballot. If successful, he would have more money to spend against his Democratic challenger in the general election. Buhrmaster has raised more than $200,000 for the race, according to financial filings.
    Sullivan said he is being targeted because he is a threat. “I have done the best at the debates and have the most complete and most comprehensive platform,” he said.
    He said Kresler is active in the Working Families Party, which endorsed Democrat candidate Paul Tonko for the 21st Congressional District seat.
    “Connections are key. People are knocked off ballots by people who pull strings, Sullivan said.
    Two Republicans and fi ve Democrats are seeking to succeed Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island, who is retiring in January after 20 years in office.
    The outcome of the petition challenges will determine who will be on the primary ballot. The General Election is Nov. 4.

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21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Judge expected to rule on challenges to petitions
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Republican 21st Congressional District candidate Steve Vasquez should learn initially Wednesday whether he will remain on the ballot for the Sept. 9 primary.
    That is when Acting State Supreme Court Judge Roger Mc-Donough is expected to rule on challenges to Vasquez’s designating petitions. Either side can appeal his ruling.
    Republican congressional candidate James Buhrmaster filed 450 challenges to Vasquez’s petitions, hoping to knock him off the ballot. Vasquez submitted 1,640 signatures to the state Board of Elections in July, 390 more than required.
    Buhrmaster and Vasquez appeared Monday in Albany before McDonough, who scheduled another hearing Wednesday to allow Vasquez to produce people who witnessed his petitions, said Josh Hills, a spokesman for Buhrmaster. Buhrmaster filed the objections in state Supreme Court in Albany County. Vasquez spokesman Warren Redlich said the candidate will have enough signatures to remain on the ballot and force a primary against Buhrmaster. “We have been through all their objections and some of their objections, more than 200, are valid. But we believe we have more than enough,” he said.
    Hills disagreed. “By our research, Mr. Vasquez does not meet the minimum requirement to run for Congress. We have him around 1,185,” he said.
    The objections center on technicalities such as the same people signing both Vasquez’s and Buhrmaster’s petitions, illegible signatures, people not enrolled in the Republican Party and more, Hills said.
    Redlich said Buhrmaster filed the challenges to knock a credible Republican candidate off the ballot, giving Democrats a better shot at winning the race.
    “He is spending his money to ensure no one can run a credible campaign against the Democrats,” Redlich said. “They are using the election laws to harass their opponents and knock them off ballot so they don’t have to pay for a primary.”
    Hills said Buhrmaster sees the fall race as the best opportunity a Republican has had in decades to win the congressional seat, long held by Democrats, and “having a primary would use some resources we would otherwise prefer to use in November.”
    Hills said the 21st district looks Democratic “on paper, but we have a quality Republican candidate with an independent streak that will help us.”
    He added, “We have raised $200,000 and had several hundred people carrying our petitions, and we will wage a strong campaign.
    Elsewhere in the 21st District race, Keri Kresler filed specific challenges against Democratic candidate Joseph Sullivan with the state Board of Elections. The state board will review challenges against the 1,734 signatures Sullivan collected on his petitions, issue a report and hold a hearing, state officials said. Sullivan can appeal the board’s ruling if it goes against him.
    Candidates may challenge petitions either through the courts or through a board of elections.
    Two Republicans and five Democrats are seeking to succeed Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island.

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Vasquez keeps spot on ballot for congressional primary
BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter

    Republican 21st Congressional District candidate Steve Vasquez will remain on the ballot for the Sept. 9 primary after turning back a legal challenge to his petitions.
    Republican James Buhrmaster, who is also seeking the seat, had filed 450 challenges to Vasquez’s petitions on the grounds that the people were not enrolled Republicans or had signed both candidates’ petitions. Vasquez had submitted 1,640 signatures to the state Board of Elections in July, more than the 1,250 required.
    Vasquez spokesman Warren Redlich said the two sides were in state Supreme Court in Albany Wednesday going line by line through the objections Buhrmaster had filed. Redlich said a few of the objections were valid but many were not. The Buhrmaster legal team conceded the points, withdrew the rest of the objections and waived appeal.
    Redlich said the Vasquez campaign was grateful for the support of its volunteers and looked forward to the primary.
    “Jim Buhrmaster has to run with a record of filing a frivolous lawsuit, wasting taxpayer money and trying to keep people from having a choice,” he said.
    Buhrmaster could not be reached for comment.
    Both men are seeking to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island.
    The Democratic candidates are Tracey Brooks, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton; Darius Shahinfar, an Albany attorney and former aide to Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand; Phillip Steck, chairman of the Colonie Democratic Committee and an attorney practicing civil rights and labor law; Joseph P. Sullivan, a former city of Albany Republican chairman; and Paul Tonko, a former assemblyman of the 105th District and the former president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

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Tonko favored in race for Congress

By MARV CERMAK
First published: Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Seeing how the Saratoga racing season is here, it's appropriate to come up with a "morning line" favorite for the Sept. 9 21st Congressional District primary.
     
After consulting with sundry political junkies, the consensus shows Paul Tonko the odds-on Democrat favorite.

Since Albany is the largest chunk of the district, at first blush Phil Steck and Tracey Brooks appear the ones to beat. Steck is Colonie Democratic chairman and Brooks, a former aide to Hilary Clinton, has Albany roots.

In comparison, Amsterdam native Tonko is off the beaten population path. Yet, my pundit panel reminds that Tonko represented Albany Hill Towns during part of his state Assembly tenure.

He also has tacit support from heavyweight Albany Democrats state Sen. Neil Breslin, County Executive Mike Breslin, Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari and Albany Assemblyman Jack McEneny.

In Schenectady County, the next biggest portion of the district, Tonko has been a huge Assembly vote-getter. Steck and Brooks are comparative unknowns there.

Likewise, Tonko is a household name in his backyard of Montgomery County and neighboring Gloversville and Johnstown while the others are strangers.

In the Republican primary, Jim Buhrmaster is the prohibitive morning line favorite. However, the GOP primary is insignificant because district Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 60,000.

My brain trust insists winning the Democrat primary is tantamount to victory in November.

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Tonko gets backing of AFSCME union
Candidates use mix of ads, endorsements to get their messages out

By LAUREN STANFORTH, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008

SCHENECTADY -- Former Assemblyman Paul D. Tonko hasn't advertised as much as have two of his Democratic opponents for the 21st Congressional District seat.
But according to Tonko's camp, why outspend opponents Tracey Brooks and Phil Steck when you believe you have potentially more than 20,000 supporters?

     
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the Capital Region's largest unions, announced Monday its support of Tonko to take over for retiring U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty, D-Green Island. The union of state and municipal workers says it will send mailers to its members in hopes that many of them will volunteer for Tonko's campaign.

"If we turned out that vote alone, we think it's enough to get Paul in the door," said Brian McDonnell, political and legislative director for AFSCME.

The heat is turning up in the election with the Sept. 9 primary less than a month away.

Brooks, former regional director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, has stuffed enrolled Democrats' mailboxes in the district with five fliers and aired a TV commercial. Albany County Legislator Phil Steck also has sent out mailers, and has unveiled his own TV ad.

While Tonko says his own advertising is coming, his campaign organizers say he has the advantage of bringing along supporters from his 24 years in the Assembly. AFSCME leaders said they decided to stick with Tonko because he backed them during issues like the proposed pullout in the 1990s of hundreds of computer workers from Albany to Kingston.

"This is a winning formula for me," Tonko said. He's also been endorsed by the local 1199 Service Employees International Union. "We're strong, we have a powerful voice and we're going to make it happen."

Brooks said Monday she was endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 97, which has an estimated 4,700 members in the district, which includes all of Montgomery, Schenectady, Schoharie and Albany counties and parts of Fulton, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties.

Other Democrats in the race are Darius Shahinfar, former aide to U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand; and former Albany City GOP chairman Democrat Joseph Sullivan.

Energy company president Jim Buhrmaster and business entrepreneur Steven Vasquez face off in the Republican primary.

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CANDIDATES FOR THE 21ST DISTRICT DEBATE HEALTH CARE

Posted on: 08/12/08
Written by: Jarrett Carroll, Spotlight Staff
email: carrollj@spotlightnews.com

Five of the seven congressional candidates for the 21st District looking to replace retiring Congressman Michael McNulty came out to discuss health care issues in what can only be described as a spirited, and at times tense, debate.

Democratic candidate Darius Shahinfar and Republican candidate James Burhmaster were not in attendance at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany.  Shahinfar could not attend because he was at Albany Medical Center with his wife who was giving birth to their second child.

Buhrmaster was not there because of his obligations as a member of the Schenectady County Legislature. He was attending a public hearing on the Schenectady County Community College budget, and a meeting of the county legislature at the time.

The Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare, Inc.(CDAUH) sponsored the debate and co-sponsors included Social Responsibilities Council of FUUSA and the Hunger Action Network of New York State.

The debate lasted for about two hours and although some of the discussion deviated from the topic at hand, the debate centered around health care issues and allowed each candidate ample time to share their views.

Candidate and Coeymans Democrat Tracey Brooks spoke first; followed by a prepared statement from Albany Democrat Shahinfar; Colonie Democrat Phil Steck; Albany Democrat Joseph Sullivan; Amsterdam Democrat Paul Tonko; and Saratoga Republican Steven Vasquez.    

Each candidate was given an equal opportunity to introduce themselves and highlight their views and then asked a round of questions selected by the sponsors of the debate.  The final half hour of the debate was reserved for questions from the crowd.

Although the debate began in high spirits and intermittent laughter, it quickly turned serious and even contentious at times.

The main point of difference between all the candidates during the debate was whether they supported single-payer health coverage.  When asked yes or no for House Resolution 676, which would give universal health care with single-payer financing,  the five candidates had different reasons, but responded as follows:

Brooks, yes; Steck, yes; Sullivan, no; Tonko, yes; Vasquez, no.

Shahinfar was not able to answer the direct question but in his statement said he would not accept government funded health care coverage if elected to congress, stating, “As Americans dig deeper into their pockets to make ends meet, I cannot, in good conscience, take more money out of their pockets for my own healthcare until an affordable healthcare plan is created which covers everyone.”

Sullivan, a self-proclaimed “conservative Democrat” and former Republican who’s controversial answers appeared the most out of line with his fellow Democrats, elicited the biggest reaction from the crowd throughout the night.