What Republican Wants to Give School Budget Control to Albany?

Joe Saladino does.

In his News12 debate with Democrat Craig Heller, Saladino says he wants to give control of YOUR school budget to Albany.
The same Albany lawmakers that can barely get a budget in on time and has run up a huge debt.
This means in YOUR school district, funding will be determined by lawmakers from outside the disrict that know nothing about the schools needs.

I know I don't want people from Monroe or Erie County deciding what is best for my kids school and I'm pretty sure they don't want Joe Saladino deciding how their schools should be run.

We can do better than Saladino.
We NEED to do better than Saladino.

We need Craig Heller who wants REAL school funding reform and wants to lower your taxes, not hand over control of your schools to Albany.

Problem Posting

We have a weeks worth of stuff because of technical issues.

Stayed tuned for some interesting stuff...

The Newsday Non-Endorsement Endorsement of Assemblyman Joe Saladino

A funny thing happens when you read the endorsements from Newsday or any paper for that matter. They usually say "Newsday endorses..."
And example from this weeks endorsements:
"Newsday endorses Lavine."
"Newsday endorses him (Barra) again."
"Newsday endorses Walker."
"Newsday endorses Sedacca."
"Newsday endorses Jackson."

What did they say about Saladino?
"Saladino has demonstrated, even in his short tenure, that he deserves to return."

What, no "We endorse?"

A Two-Fer - This Blog Mentioned in the Media

Our reporting on State Senator John Flanagan's ad taking a cheap shot at Democratic opponent Brooke Ellison got a mention in the New York Times "The problems presented by a campaign involving a disabled candidate were underscored when some Ellison supporters took offense at a 30-second Flanagan commercial they called insensitive and gratuitous. In the ad, an unnamed “Democrat for Flanagan” describes herself as a teacher, mother and golfer, then adds: “Huge — I have a huge handicap.”
On a blog, www.nassaugopwatch.blogspot.com, Democrats complained that the ad was “vile and reprehensible” and “in bad taste.”
Mr. Flanagan defended the ad, saying it was simply one of several unscripted testimonials from supporters in the district. Neither the candidate nor his campaign manager could explain why a comment about a golf handicap would be chosen for inclusion in a campaign commercial. They also declined to identify the woman in the ad.
Last week Mr. Flanagan introduced a new ad that praises Ms. Ellison as courageous and inspirational, even while questioning her credentials by describing her as “young” and “inexperienced.” (Mr. Flanagan, 45, was first elected to the Legislature at 25 — younger than Ms. Ellison.)"

And our other site Peter King Watch made an appearance in Newsday "In the online universe, the Peter King-Dave Mejias race is red-hot, and it's mostly a one-sided affair.
From satirical parodies on YouTube and MySpace to liberal blogs like kingwatch.blogspot.com, Mejias and his supporters are delivering King a drubbing. One of the more whimsical screeds is a music video that features King's head dancing to an up-tempo jazz beat called, "Have You Had Enough of Peter King?"

Wanna see the video? Go to: http://kingwatch.blogspot.com/2006/09/have-you-had-enough-of-peter-king.html

Hannon Ringing Death Knell for New York Republicans?

E.J. Dionne, Jr. writing in the Washington Post "The Empire State strikes back, Hillary, Spitzer lead attack on New York Republican machine in shambles, " quotes Sen. Kemp Hannon about the state of NY republicans. "State Sen. Kemp Hannon, a Long Island Republican who has spent nearly three decades in the Legislature, also worries that the coalition of "Reagan Democrats" that D'Amato helped build -- "they were Irish, Italian and Polish Democrats and some Jews" -- is a thing of the past. "I believe that Bush has destroyed that whole thing," Hannon says. "It's not here any longer in the Northeast." And the parts of upstate New York "not moving ahead economically whatsoever ... feel it a great deal."

Al D'Amato adds "You have a foreign policy which is groping and a domestic (Mark) Foley scandal, so you have a lot of disaffected people and I think it's going to result not only in the Democrats taking over the House, but also with substantial numbers."

Assemblyman Saladino's Opponent On MassapequaNews.com

Democratic candidate for state assembly and local attorney Craig Heller is a guest host on the massapequanews.com webcast this week.

Nassau GOP Losing Voter Edge

From year to year, the republicans are losing the wide gap they used to have in Nassau County. According to Newsday's Spin Cycle site ,
"Democrats are closing the registration gap in Nassau County, once a Republican stronghold.
Since March 1, 6,925 new Democrats have registered to vote in Nassau compared with 3,658 Republicans, according to Democratic elections commissioner William Biamonte. In that period, 5,225 new voters registered but did not enroll in any political party.
That brings the total number of registered Republicans to 331,280 compared with 300,063 Democrats and 177,780 unaffiliated voters.
If this trend continues, "we're moving towards being a Democratic county," Biamonte said. He declined to predict a time frame, but added, "Hopefully not that long."
- Celeste Hadrick on Long Island"

It's still a 31,000 voter gap but his is as close as it has ever been.
Democrats Tom Suozzi, Comptroller Harvey Weitzman, DA Kathleen Rice and Assesor Harvey Levinson all won county-wide.
The large number of unaffiliated voters means it's going to be harder to gauge how the voters are going to cast their votes. Whoever gets the majority of unaffiliated voters are the ones who will control Nassau.

From Our Neighbors in Suffolk

Yes this is Nassau GOP Watch but this stroy needs to be told...

"During an ad for John Flanagan (NY Senate district 2), the narrator has a complete non sequitur about golfing, during which she says "Huge, I have a huge handicap" and laughs.
This is significant because, as I'm sure you know, Flanagan is running against Brooke Ellison, a national advocate for the disabled. She's been paralyzed since she was hit by a car at 11. Brooke is extremely accomplished: she graduated magna cum Laude from Harvard in 2000 (and the Kennedy school in '05). She's been on the Today Show and in the NYT. Christopher Reeve's last project was directing The Brooke Ellison Story.
You can see the full ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3l-LxT3-q8
Chris Stoller from MyDD went to school with her, and did a great post about it: http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/9/26/204631/835"