Here's the Deal

Greetings! I’d like to lay out my agenda for this next election cycle. Hopefully it will work out better than last year, when this blog fell apart shortly before the election. I’m not going to bother updating this site with the results of the 2009 elections. I’d rather just move forward with this year. This is a Central New York/Onondaga County/City of Syracuse blog. Let me explain.

For federal and state races, I will be focusing on regional candidates. For county races, I will focus solely on Onondaga County. Likewise, I will also focus on local races only in the City of Syracuse. I apologize for those of you who may have unnatural interest in say, the 2nd Ward Common Council election in the City of Oswego (a seat currently held by Republican Michael Myers, by the way – I hear Freddy Krueger is a Democrat), but I am Syracuse-based, so I’m sticking to what I know. There are several statewide races this year also, but you’ll only see them mentioned here if there is some local connection. For example, gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio visiting Syracuse or Congressman Maffei suggesting that Governor Paterson should exit stage left to make room for Andrew Cuomo. Below is a basic rundown of some of the races you can expect to find information about here.

Congressional Races:

23rd: Currently held by Democrat Bill Owens, Republican challengers include Doug Hoffman, Assemblyman Will Barclay, Matt Doheny and Franklin County Legislator Paul Maroun.

24th: Currently held by Democrat Mike Arcuri, with Republican Richard Hanna gunning for a rematch.

25th: Currently held by Democrat Dan Maffei, Republican challengers include Paul Bertan, David Gay, Ann Marie Buerkle and Mark Bitz.

29th: Currently held by Democrat Eric Massa, with Tom Reed, Republican Mayor of Corning, in the running.

State Senate Races:

48th: Currently held by Democrat Darrel Aubertine. No competition announced, but Jefferson County Legislator Barry Ormsby, a Republican, is exploring a bid.

49th: Currently held by Democrat David Valesky, Republican challengers include Andrew Russo, Jessica Crawford and East Syracuse Mayor Dan Liedka.

50th: Currently held by Republican John DeFrancisco. No competition announced, but Onondaga County Legislator Tom Buckel, a Democrat, is exploring a bid.

State Assembly Races:

119th: Currently held by Democrat Joan Christensen, with a primary challenge from Jane Fahey-Suddaby. There is no announced Republican candidate.

120th: Currently held by Democrat Bill Magnarelli. There is no announced Republican candidate.

121st: Currently held by Democrat Al Stirpe. There is no announced Republican candidate.

124th: Currently held by Republican Will Barclay, who may be running for Congress instead of re-election this year. There is no announced Democrat candidate.

129th: Currently held by Republican Brian Kolb. There is no announced Democrat candidate.

There are very few County/City races this year, but I’ll get the notable stuff up here. (Expect a short post about the primary race that Sherriff Kevin Walsh will be facing in the fall.)

I’m also going to spend some time revamping the navigation of the site, including adding tags to all of the previous posts, which takes time, so bear with me during the transition. Also, last year you may have noticed that a majority of posts last year were simply aggregations of news stories. This year, I’d like to add more original content (like the multi-part primary candidate analysis in the Syracuse Mayor’s race last fall).

Thanks again for visiting, and continuing to visit, my website. Again, bear with me as I make the transition and gear up for this year’s elections. Check back often.