Boehlert will face challenge in Nov. [liberal NY GOP Congressman must go]

ONEONTA - A conservative Republican businessman from New Hartford said Monday that he plans to challenge Rep. Sherwood Boehlert in November for the 23rd congressional seat.

Republican Boehlert, 65, is likely to seek an 11th term in office, according to a spokesman in his Washington office.

Rodger Potocki, 58, president of his own development consulting firm, is scheduled to formally announce his intentions at 4 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn in Oneonta. He plans to hold press conferences today in Oneida, Rome and Little Falls, he said.

Potocki declined to outline his stances on specific issues in advance of his formal announcement, but said his views are similar to those of Republican David Vickers of Hamilton, who challenged Boehlert two years ago.

"David and I met two years ago when he was running and he is a friend," said Potocki.

Potocki said he followed the last election cycle closely and was impressed by Vickers' showing in the Republican primary.

In that race, Vickers garnered about 42 percent of the vote and won Madison County.

"It was a close race and pretty significant considering he was not well-known," said Potocki.

Potocki said his political outlook "basically mirrors that of conservative Republicans in the Congress and comes down pretty heavily in support of the direction that President Bush is taking in his budget."

He would like to see Congress vote for "additional limitations on spending, and I hope they can offer some additional tax cuts," he said.

Potocki is president of The Potocki Group, a consulting firm. Formerly he was regional manager of Family Golf Centers Inc. From 1979 to 1994, he was executive vice president of Oneida County's Industrial Development Corp., and before that, was director of planning and community development for the city of Rome.

Boehlert's spokesman, Jim Philipps, said Boehlert "has every intention" of seeking re-election. Boehlert, former Oneida County executive, worked with Potocki in the early 1980s when Potocki was with the Oneida County IDC, Philipps said.

Philipps said low turnout in the 2000 Republican primary made the race as close as it was.

"In a primary, typically 100 percent of the challenger's supporters get out to vote, compared to just a fraction of the incumbent's," he said.

In the general election, Boehlert won handily against Democrat Richard Engelbrecht and Vickers, who ran as a candidate of the Conservative and Right-to-Life parties, Philipps noted.

Boehlert is chairman of the House of Representatives' Science Committee, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and senior member of the House Transportation Committee.

"Congressman Boehlert's leadership positions in the House and his seniority enable him deliver to the people of the 23rd at an unprecedented level," said Philipps.

In this year of redistricting to conform with the 2000 census, New York State will lose two House seats. However the 23rd congressional district is not likely to be one that is carved up, according to Lee Daghlian, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections.

Philipps and Christine Potocki, Rodger Potocki's wife, said they too had heard nothing to indicate that the present 23rd District will become part of another district.

An announcement on proposed state Assembly and state Senate district lines may be made this week, according to state Sen. James L. Seward, R-Milford. It may be a month or so until a similar announcement is made about congressional district lines in the state, he said.

After the proposed district lines are announced, hearings will be held so that people can comment, before district lines are drawn for the next decade, he said.

Potocki to take on Boehlert

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Utica Observer-Dispatch

ROME — New Hartford resident Rodger Potocki announced in a series of news conferences across the sprawling 23rd Congressional District Tuesday that he will try to wrest the Republican nomination from Rep. Sherwood Boehlert of New Hartford.

Potocki, 58, said he decided to take on Boehlert in the Sept. 10 GOP primary because Boehlert has failed to address the district’s economic problems and “clearly is too liberal.”

He said that during Boehlert’s tenure, “we’ve lost an air base, major employers have departed (and) we’re still getting lay-off after lay-off.”

In a statement, Boehlert said leaders of all nine county GOP committees in the district have endorsed his re-election and noted his senior position in Congress as chairman of the Science Committee and member of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

“I have both seniority and influence in an institution and a town where seniority and influence count,” he said. “I have delivered time and again for the people of the 23rd Congressional District.”

Potocki said that seniority has given Boehlert “limited view and narrow experience.” He said he would be a conservative Republican dedicated to the principal that “good government gets out of the way and lets people achieve.”

He said he has had more than 20 years’ experience working in or with private enterprise. He was executive vice president of the Oneida County Industrial Development Corp. for 15 years, then was regional manager for a chain of golf centers that went bankrupt in 2001 and currently is president of The Potocki Group, Business Development Consulting.

After the announcement Tuesday, Potocki said his next job is “to work on our campaign organization and fundraising.”

“I’ll be fighting hundreds of thousands of dollars in special interest monies flowing into Mr. Boehlert’s coffers,” he said.

His wife and acting campaign manager, Christine Potocki, said, “We’ve gotten quite a bit of commitment (for campaign funds). It’s encouraging.”

Neither she nor the candidate would be more specific.

Here is some info on Bohlert that someone on my committee dug up through the internet. If you cut and paste it into a word doc you can go to the links.

1. From Boehlert’s own website:

www.house.gov/boehlert/cq50feature.htm

a. Boehlert is a reminder that the national Republican party once had a vibrant liberal wing.

b. [In 1999], Boehlert...backs the Clinton administration and strays from the GOP party line more often than all but a handful of his Republican colleagues.

c.Boehlert was one of just 30 House Republicans who voted “no” on at least two of the four articles of impeachment against President Clinton.

2.In fact, after the impeachment vote, Reps. Sherwood Boehlert and three other republicans wrote Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., that the Senate vote against impeachment.

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:29PRiol4pVgC:www.courttv.com/casefiles/clintoncrisis/122298_ctv.html+republicans+voted+against+impeachment+boehlert&hl=en&ie=UTF8

3. In 1991, Human Events magazine described Boehlert as one of a group of Liberal Republicans in the House of Representatives [who] seem to have learned a lesson from the defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I.-Vt.): The easiest way to win the adoration of the media is to oppose President Bush or make the congressional Republican leadership look bad.”

4.Boehlert (R.-N.Y.) has supported four Democratic efforts to block President Bush’s energy proposals, while rejecting the Republican rule that would have governed floor debate on new campaign finance restrictions. http://www.humaneventsonline.com/articles/08-06-01/carney.html

5.On the American Conservative Unions ranking of members of congress, with 100 being the most conservative and 0 being the least, Boehlert received a rating of 36. In other words, he has only voted with conservatives approximately one third of the time. In fact, there are a number of democrats who are ranked more conservative than Boehlert. Boehlert ranks approximately as liberal as Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, the king of government pork barrel spending.

http://www.conservative.org/rating2000/house.html

6.In 2001, Boehlert voted:

a.For Clinton-era workplace regulations

b.Against a constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds majority vote of the entire House and Senate to pass any tax increase.

C.Against Passage of a bill making it a criminal offense to injure or kill a fetus during the commission of a violent crime.

D.Against scholarships for students from consistently low-performing of dangerous schools. Scholarships could be used at private, including religious schools

E.For funding the National Endowment of the arts.

F.For lifting the embargo on Cuba

G.For keeping files on all gun owners who undergo background checks

H.For last-minute Clinton Administration requirement for sharply lower arsenic content in drinking water. The standards impose enormous costs on small water systems, with no demonstrable gain in health.

I.In favor of D.C. extending city employees' health benefits to unmarried domestic partners.

J.In favor of requiring federal contractors and other recipients of federal assistance to provide unlimited translators for people who don’t speak english

http://www.acuratings.com/acu_doc.cgi?ACT=1&USER_ID=977&YEAR=2001

7. The non-partisan group Citizens against government waste gave him a ranking of only 44%, which translates to “lukewarm to taxpayers.”

http://www.cagw.org

8.In 1998, Boehlert voted for Puerto Rican Statehood. However, he voted against making English the official language.

http://www.conservativeusa.org/portorco.htm

9. In March, 2001, Boehlert made personal appearances with Hillary Clinton.

http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2001/03/02/hillup.html

10.In the 1996 election cycle, Boehlert was one of the Top 10 Recipients of Indian Gaming PAC and Individual contributions.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/cashingin_gaming/gaming3.htm

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