Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Republican John Katko has seized the momentum and surged past U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei to open up a 10-point lead in their race for Congress, according to a new poll by Syracuse.com/The Post-Standard and Siena College. In a stunning reversal from five weeks ago when Maffei had an 8-point lead in the joint poll, Katko now leads Maffei among likely voters 52 percent to 42 percent. Only 6 percent remain undecided... The poll of 704 likely voters in the district underscores the volatility of the race, with wild swings in the candidates' popularity. Voters were contacted by...

Lori Brasnahan was trying to save her daughter’s life when she was stabbed to death in March, prosecutors say. Branashan and her daughter were abducted from the parking lot of Great Northern Mall near Syracuse by a man who brutally raped the 10-year-old girl before murdering Brasnahan, a 47-year-old school librarian. Prosecutors in Onondaga County, N.Y., say the man responsible for that atrocity, David Renz, 29, had been released from federal custody in January, two days after the FBI arrested Renz on a child pornography charge...Nevertheless, U.S. Magistrate Andrew T. Baxter released Renz, ordering him to wear a GPS tracking...

Washington -- Rep. Dan Maffei, after winning the most expensive campaign on record for a Central New York congressional seat, says it is time to take the big money out of politics. Despite the millions of dollars in special-interest money spent on his behalf, Maffei says he's ready to change the system and back it up with tough legislation.

With two weeks until Election Day, Operation Counterweight in Upstate New York is approaching its home stretch. Below is an update for the 24th District where Ann Marie Buerkle faces a rematch with the Democrat she defeated in 2010, Dan Maffei. Roll Call rates it lean Democrat because the District is 56% Democrat, the most recent public polling shows the race tied. Please consider making a donation to Buerkle’s campaign to help her past the finish line.... Much of the early buzz about this race was very negative about Buerkle’s chances , as she faces the incumbent she narrowly defeated...

Ann Marie Buerkle wins the NY 25th district race for US Congress. Another US House seat pick up for Republicans. Press conference for 4 PM. Link only for copyright purposes.

The last county in New York's 25th District has reported the count of absentee ballots on Sunday afternoon. Ann Marie Buerkle, pro-life Catholic good gal, has 104,374 votes, 567 more than culture of death 'Rat Dan Maffei. Congratulations, Congresswoman-elect Buerkle. You are the GOP's 242nd member of the house for the 112th Congress; the GOP is up 63 seats from the 111th. Only three races left, although the 'Rats lead in all three (the word in NY-01, the east end of Long Island, is that bearded Marxist Tim Bishop is 15 votes ahead of the GOP's Randy Altschuler).

< snip > . . . Republican challengers currently lead in three of the five remaining undecided races, including New York's 25th district. Absentee ballots were counted there today and GOP challenger Ann Marie Buerkle maintained a lead of 411 votes by last count. Blogger Sam Foster says this almost certainly means Democrat incumbent Dan Maffei has been defeated. Buerkle's victory would be of historic significance because, as the Los Angeles Times reports, Republicans haven't held more than 240 House seats since 1949.

Rep. Dan Maffei’s (D) strategy for bitterly clinging to the NY25 House seat is becoming clear. He’s hiding behind his attorneys who are doing his dirty work for him. He isn’t having bags of ballots appear, he’s trying to make bags of ballots disappear. Absentee ballots were counted in Monroe County, and Ann Marie Buerkle’s lead expanded, yet again, over Maffei. Maffei’s campaign calls this good news. Maffei’s campaign noted that Buerkle carried the 25th District’s three towns in the Rochester suburbs (Irondequoit, Penfield and Webster) by 10 points on Election Day, 55 percent to 45 percent. When the absentee...

East Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - If you're one of the more than 8,000 people in Central New York who voted by absentee ballot in the 25th Congressional Race, you may have received a phone call from someone Monday, asking you which candidate you voted for. You've contacted us, wondering how these callers knew you voted absentee and whether it's legal for them to be asking for this information. The Board of Elections in each county maintains a list of the names of voters who request absentee ballots in any given race. That list, believe it or not, is public information. In...

As the campaign season entered its final weeks, the area’s two incumbent congressmen were outspending their Republican challengers by wide margins. Of course, they had more to spend — a lot more. For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Rep. Dan Maffei, D-25 of Syracuse, took in $366,805 in net contributions. Challenger Ann Marie Buerkle took in less than half of that: $147,888. In the 24th District, incumbent Democrat Mike Arcuri of Utica outraised challenger Richard Hanna by a smaller margin, $256,291 to $138,527.... 24th District While Hanna had the fundraising edge early in the campaign, Arcuri quickly regained it, and...

Washington -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid down the law this year: To prevent the appearance of Congress doing unethical favors for big campaign contributors, she told Democrats they could no longer steer federal money directly to corporations. The only "earmarks" members could seek in spending bills would be for nonprofits... But not everyone is obeying Pelosi’s tough talk... U.S. Reps. Dan Maffei and Michael Arcuri have found a way to work around the new orders: Simply pass the federal money to not-for-profit organizations and let them forward it to corporations.... Maffei and Arcuri accepted campaign contributions from the same...

not completely unexpected but still would have loved to see a 'no' vote here