DaBrinker Report

20th CD Special Election -- Murphy Leads In Close Race- Updated

With all the precints reporting at 10:37 pm, Scott Murphy leads Jim Tedisco by 65 votes.  Murphy has 77,344 votes to Tedisco's 77,279.  For a county breakdown, check out the results at The Saratogian.

Update:  Jimmy is declaring victory eventually.  I'm shocked that Jimmy hasn't been able to work in to any of the morning stories that he was a basketball star at Union College. 

This election is far from over.  As Liz reported:

As of yesterday evening, the board had canvassed the 10 counties in the 20th and discovered that 10,055 absentee ballots had been issued by seven counties and 5,906 had been returned.

That number could go up, as three counties haven't provided their numbers. Absentee ballots must be received by April 7, but the ballots sent in by overseas/federal/military voters (recall that there was a fight over those) can arrive by April 13 and still be counted.

Of the 10,055 absentees, the Repubicans have a roughly 600-ballot edge, according to the board. But of the 5,906 received to date, 798 more came from Republicans.

 

DaBrinker Mailbag: Tracking $30K

A reader who is trying to clarify where Jim Wright's $30,000 was contributed, sent me this email:

Research:

RTC CEO Ron Wright, Jim's brother, $30K ??

thank you

You can see for yourself at the RTC website.  As you may recall, $30K was sent to RTCPAC.

I'm not sure if the two Wrights are related.  Can any readers clarify this? 

I wonder if JJ and Big Blog Bob over at the Watertown Daily Times will ever publicly ask about the $30K. 

 

DaBrinker Mailbag

A NNY reader sent me this:

 

Jim Wright makes my skin crawl. Always has, always will. Can't quite put my finger on it, but he CREEPS ME OUT!

 

I feel pretty much the same way about DANC! Never liked the idea, NEVER WILL. Let downstate take their damn trash and bury it in their own back yard. All those huge tractor trailers hauling trash on our Thruway should be banned.

 

You can take that St. Lawrence Seaway and shove that too. Those big ships ought to be stopped from entering our fresh water from Canada or the US. Maybe then we could take full advantage of that power dam up in Massena and keep our water levels where they need to be for recreational use. Canada and US both need to rebuild their rail system with high speed electric trains. Then they can unload and move their cargo via rail. Its a no brainer that would create a lot more jobs... Put that on your blog!

 

Speaking of the Thruway . . . when I was in elementary school in the early 60's we were told that the toll would go away some day when it was all paid for. Imagine how our State Budget would look minus all of the NYS Thruway Authority. Ditch the tolls and all the employees and administrative BS. Can you imagine?

 

To be honest, since all this "bailout" bullshit, I don't watch or read the news anymore. The whole system is a sham and I'm not going to let it ruin my life. If you ignore it, you can make believe it doesn't exist. I use more caution with what I click on in Newzjunky and blogs.

 

 

A Local Politics Case Study -- Update

If you ever wanted to learn what not to do in local politics, look to Political Ivy.  Over the past two days, Political Ivy has really demonstrated his knack for politics.  In just two days, Ivy has pissed off two politcal parties. 

Let's take a look at the series of posts leading to today.  On March 20th Ivy starts off with a fluff piece on John Rice, Chairman of the Jefferson County Independence Party.  No doubt, Political Ivy's beginning attempts to secure the Independence line for his election in November.  No harm done so far, just a shameless post.

On March 23rd, the wheels come off the wagon when Political Ivy does a post outlining what a great candidate Jeff Graham would make for Jefferson County Clerk.  What's the problem with this other than another shameless post by Ivy to secure the Independence line?  I'm glad you asked.  It turns out that Ivy is a Jefferson County Republican Committeeman.  In addition, he might have a leadership position with the County Republican party.  I could say for sure if the Jefferson County Republicans had a website.  But they don't.  Those in the party that are savvy enough, apparently only do self-serving blogs.  Not websites that promote the whole party. 

So, a Republican Committeeman promotes a candidate from another party for a Countywide position.  Someone's not playing nicely in the sandbox.  Day one, one party down.

On March 24th, to save face Political Ivy forwards a Jeff Graham email that mirrors the March 23rd post to the Watertown Daily Times.  By doing this, Ivy embarrasses Jeff Graham, who happens to be on the board of the NYS Independence Party.   Day two, political party two has been aggravated. 

By the way, nice of Bob Gorman and JJ to wake up and write a breaking news story.  Maybe next week they'll wake up again and write a story about Jim Wright's missing $30k-- using JW's talking points.

But back to the point of this post.  I listened to Jeff Graham's radio show yesterday and I must say, Jeff handled this set back nicely after being thrown under the bus by Ivy.  Today he sends a post to Political Ivy basically stating that a blogger like Ivy shouldn't hide behind a "cloak of anonymity."  And Political Ivy adds a footnote:

(This Note Added By PIV regarding personal attacks as referenced by the mayor. PIV refrains from personal attacks, PIV will take issue with policy decisions or the politics of someone, but this is no place for personal attacks.)

First about the personal attacks, as I said a year ago to Paul Newell: "BS"!  So, here is the purpose of this post, as I see it.  Political Ivy and Watertown Daily Times are setting the stage to accuse this blog and NGD of personal attacks.  Next, Political Ivy divulges to the surprise of everyone, who the writers are.  Then Big Blog Bob and Political Ivy start screaming for NGD to divulge who the writers are and cursing the personal attacks.  I'm 90% sure I'm giving them too much credit, but you never know. 

And finally, about this comment in the WDT article mentioned earlier:

Legislator Scott A. Gray, R-Watertown, acknowledged Tuesday that he has access to the blog's e-mail account and forwarded the mayor's e-mail to the Watertown Daily Times. He offered no comment when asked again if he was the author of Political IV.

Seriously?!  You just happen to have access to the email.  I just happen to have access to my apartment and this blog too.  Come on man.  This is the best you can do?  I think you remind me of Kenny Bania more than Rosco.  But, that changes from day to day. 

Update: The Jefferson County GOP does actually have a website.  My bad.

Ivy Chasing the I Line

   

Political Ivy appears to be shamelessly going after the Independence line for his upcoming election.  In a post yesterday, Ivy can't gush enough about Jeff Graham being an ideal candidate for County Clerk. 

I have no problems with Jeff Graham and he very well might be a great candidate for Clerk. But, Ivy did not do this fluff piece for Graham or the best interest of the people of Jefferson County.  Ivy is doing everything he can to get that line for himself.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ivy's next step is to grow a rat tail to look more like Frank McKay, Chairman of the NYS Independence Party. 

DaBrinker Mailbag: Tracking Jim Wright's $30K

In an attempt to help us discover where the nearly $30k of Jim Wright's campaign account was actually contributed to, a reader emailed me pictures of the facility located at 625 Elden Street, Herndon, VA 20170 (where RTCPAC is suppose to be located).  I have been typing Herdon, as it was entered in Jim Wright filings, but it's actually Herndon, VA.  Anyway here are the pictures:

 

Here is the directory of businesses in the office building:

Certainly doesn't clarify anything, does it.

Political Ivy’s Spin

Political Ivy is like the gift that keeps on giving.  I can’t keep up with all the stories that the Ivy 5 (apparently there are five of these clowns) generate with each misstep, misspeak, exaggeration, and spinning of stories.  So today I’m going to devote two posts to Ivy. 

 

Ivy is so eager to embarrass people that he doesn’t realize he is providing counter arguments in his own post.

 

In the “Livin’ well”  post, Ivy criticizes Senator Aubertine for giving his staff raising.  First, Ivy explains that Senator Aubertine named a new Chief of Staff – Lee Willbanks. Than Ivy, lists that Lee received a 97% raise.  Ivy continues to use this 97% number in comments he’s leaving on this blog and NGD’s blog. But he neglects to include the fact that Willbanks received a big promotion in these same comments.  Big surprise.

A Typical Political Ivy Story

Not sure why Political Ivy did this story about JR's Liquor Store.  But I have two guesses:

1. to push his story about Aubertine' staff earning about $400k down the first page of his blog after my story about Wright spending about $500k on his staff when he was a Senator.  Thereby making the story less prominent; or
2. Political Ivy is running for re-election this year so he’s starting to suck up to John Rice, liquor story owner and Jefferson County Independent Party Chairman

You have to hand it to Political Ivy, he is very transparent. And he doesn’t even realize it. 

Jim Wright's Former Staff

Political Ivy has recently brought up the topic of staff salaries.  It really got me wondering what Senator Wright use to pay his folks.  Now, I don't really want to drag the names of Jim Wright's former workers into this discussion, so I will use their initials, titles and 2007 salary.  I figured they suffered enough working for Senator Wright so why list their names.  So, here we go:

Jim Wright's Albany Staff

Legislative Director C.P.      $67,950

Scheduler L.L.                      $30,797

Committee Director K.I.        $48,385

Counsel F.M.                         $45,000

Jim Wright's District Office Staff

Executive Director G.W.         $74,677

Communications Director J.R. $37,000

Scheduler S.W.                       $26,200

Constituent Relations Dir T.P.  $54,915

Legislative Asst J.B.                $31,354

Legislative Asst J.E.                $50,379

Legislative Asst S.W.               $20,209

Legislative Asst D.J.                 $15,583

Jim Wright's Central Staffers Assigned to his Office

Currently unknown

And this doesn't include any central staff he had assigned to him, since I'm not clear on those assignments...yet.

When you add up the salaries of Senator Wright's employees that I have been able to track down, it totals $502,449 (not including Central Staff).  The total of Senator Aubertine's staff salaries based on Political Ivy's post (including Central Staff) is $411,000.  Jim Wright's staffers that are currently accounted for were paid nearly $100,000 more than Senator Aubertine's staff.  

Political Ivy can you help me identify Wright's people that I missed?  I might actually right a nice story about you if you do. 

DaBrinker Needs Help

I've been getting emails about Senator Jim Wright's $800 charges for printer ink and phone bill payments when he's not running for elected office.  Yet, another reader was surprised by the $9,500 contribution to the Committee to Elect Dave Renzi three months before Wright got the DANC job where Wright will not be political. 

I gotta admit that all these expenses make me curious and wanting to know more, but none of these were as strange/questionable/bizarre as the $29,249 that was CDed (Jim Wright's note not mine) to RTCPAC as a contribution. 

It's so weird because I can't find any business, organization or group that matches the name RTC or RTCPAC at 625 Elden Street, Herdon, VA 20170. 

As I stated in my last post, typically when you see PAC in the name of some group, the PAC stands for Political Action Committee.  Open Secrets is a website where you can track contributions by or to PACs.  When you search Open Secrets for RTCPAC, there are no matches.

So this is where I need help.  If you can help me find out what RTCPAC is and the explanation for the nearly $30,000 expense, I will buy you a couple of drinks at Pete's. 

I will provide hints and suggestions as I find them.  It's kinda like playing Where's Jim "Waldo" Wright been lately.