Money from Target's top executives has gone mainly to Republicans. Former Chief Executive Officer Robert Ulrich, who retired last year, gave $617,000 during his time as Target's leader, most of it to the state GOP. Current Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel has donated about $25,000, almost exclusively to Republican candidates and causes, including at least $1,000 to Michele Bachmann's "Victory Committee." Check out more of Steinhafel's campaign contributions here.
“I’m so pleased and honored to have the endorsement of the local independent voters and the Independence Party ballot line this fall,” Sen. Aubertine said. “Representing all of us means putting people ahead of politics and understanding that the best interests of Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence Counties do not fall neatly into one party or another. Working for all of us means working together. I want to thank all nine members of the local Independence Party Committee and all of the local voters who signed petitions for your support and endorsement.”
Sen. Aubertine said it’s important that voters have a choice on Row C and said he will take action where needed to ensure voters are not disenfranchised. Over the past year, more than 50 pieces of legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by Sen. Aubertine passed the Senate. All but a handful passed unanimously and not one passed along party lines.
The Senator led the charge to protect jobs in the district especially at the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility and has fought the onerous soda tax. He has stood up for the rights of rural residents to own outdoor wood boilers, ensured small business owners have a voice as strong as the corporate giants and passed numerous pieces of legislation to reduce regulations on agriculture, energy and other industries.
“We’ve supported Darrel right from the beginning through all we faced the first time around,” said John L. Rice, chairman of the Jefferson County Independence Party, which endorsed the Senator locally in both the special and general elections of 2008. “We like what he’s done. He’s stuck up for the working man. The small businesses, the farmers, or anyone that calls him, he listens and gets back to them. It was a unanimous decision of all of the people on our committee to endorse and back Darrel.”
The Senator has established himself as the leading voice for Upstate New York, be it through his role as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the Rural Resources Commission, the Upstate Caucus or as vice chair of the Senate Energy & Telecommunications Committee. Though part of the Senate Majority, the Senator has shown his independence by successfully fighting efforts to pass harmful farm labor legislation, micro-stamping gun legislation, and new taxes.
In early June and before the start of petitioning, Mr. Rice and the only constituted Independence Party Committee in the 48th Senate District delivered its endorsement of Sen. Aubertine to the state Independence Party Committee which has since given the Senator the authorization to run on the Independence Party line. The Senator and his supporters collected nearly twice the required number of signatures from independent voters throughout the three counties to ensure that voters have a choice on Row C.
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WATERTOWN (July 13, 2010)—The New York State Rural Schools Association on Monday afternoon in Cooperstown honored state Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine with its annual Appreciation Award for his work on behalf of rural schools. “We’d like to acknowledge the contributions the Senator is making as chair of the Rural Resources Commission and his continued support for both the Center for Rural Schools at Cornell and the Rural Education Advisory Committee,” said Lawrence A. Kiley, executive director of the Rural Schools Association. “It’s all indicative of the support the Senator is showing the small and rural school districts of New York State. Particularly in times like these, our association is appreciative of the fact that we have someone who advocates for and understands rural New York.”
The Appreciation Award is one of three annual awards given by the Association and is intended to honor the work done by an individual, usually an elected official, who has an important role to play in support of rural schools and can influence recognition of the work done in rural schools and help provide the resources schools need. Last year the Association presented this award to Assemblyman Bill Magee.
“Our rural schools are critical to any overall strategy to strengthen the economy of Upstate New York. Providing the necessary quality education our students deserve in these difficult times requires creativity,” Sen. Aubertine said. “I’m honored to receive this award from the Rural Schools Association and will continue to work with the association on behalf of our rural schools. The Rural Education Advisory Committee and the Center for Rural Schools are at the center of our efforts to find creative solutions to meet the needs of our students in the rural areas of New York State.”
The Association announced the award Monday with the winners of the Anne Z. Paulin Distinguished Service Award for a rural school board member and the William Deming Recognition Award for a rural school administrator.
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Rep. William L. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, joined the majority Thursday in supporting the extension of unemployment benefits until Nov. 30.The bill, which now goes to the Senate, would extend unemployment insurance to about 143,000 New Yorkers. It passed 270-153.
“These benefits are critical to hard-working Upstate New York families as the unemployed in our community continue to search for work during the worst economic climate our nation has seen since the Great Depression,” Mr. Owens said in a statement. “This legislation is urgently needed after weeks of partisan politics have stood in the way of middle-class families who have lost their jobs because of the recession. Upstate New Yorkers are concerned with spending time with their families and putting food on the table, not who scores the most political points in Washington."
Mr. Owens's office said the current lapse of benefits, which started in late May, is "unprecedented." Federal lawmakers, they said, have never allowed unemployment benefits to expire when the national unemployment rate is above 7.2 percent until now. The current rate is 9.7 percent
Brian S. McGrath, a Democratic candidate in the 122nd Assembly District, charged Thursday that his Republican opponent was "waving the white flag to the special interests in Albany" by not authoring portions of his campaign platform.Kenneth D. Blankenbush, the Jefferson County Legislature chairman, acknowledged Tuesday that he used some of the wording given to him by the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee for his "True North" plan. It was discovered after a Republican Assembly candidate downstate used the exact words in his campaign plan.
"Farmers, small business owners and every north country family deserves better than a cut and paste job from political propaganda," said Mr. McGrath in a statement. "People need new ideas and energy to take on the tough work ahead. To think a platform that would work for downstate can also work for the north country is out of touch."
Senior citizens were being warned this week not to give personal information to anyone who claims they can deliver or speed up the federal government's $250 “doughnut hole” rebates for Medicare Part D.Seniors who suspect fraud are urged to call the state Insurance Department’s Consumer Services Bureau at (800) 342-3736.
An Opinion.The Republican Party again is using county government for their political advancement in Oswego County. The Tie Shirt controversy is the latest in a long list of the use of taxpayer money to support a Republican County Committee endorsed candidates or issues. This week Oswego County Fair workers wore political tie shirts supporting a republican candidate while working at the county fair. What next. Are we to see during the summer months bright orange tee shirts being worn by county highway workers with the slate of endorsed republican candidates on road resurfacing projects???
Here is what I found shocking and somewhat unbelievable from Oswego County Fair Association President Carol Sweeney comments in the Valley News article …
"I was told that there was nothing I could do because they aren't fair association members and that they had the right to express their opinion," she said, adding that she preferred they did not wear the political shirts…"They are paid to park cars," she noted. "I didn't like it but I was told I couldn't tell them to remove them.”
I know after living in Oswego County my entire life this might seem somewhat jaded, but please… they are either hired by you or they are not. Most of us in the real world know if your employer asks you to stop wearing a political tee shirt you do it or get fired. I know if they had a Democrat tee shirt on they would have been let go that minute and escorted out the gate!
What really struck me as a partisan “Republican Cover-up” was Republican County Committee Vice Chair and Republican County Legislator Shawn Doyle’s comments. He actually serves as the building superintendent and he didn’t notice them as he drove in? No conflict there. (??)
The bottom line is the Republican Party got caught again using county government for partisan politics. Clearly just another campaign season in Oswego County where the Republican Party throw out ethics to win elections.
Tom Libous, chair of the cash-starved, shoe-string SRCC, continues to make strange political bedfellows. Just a few weeks ago, he was making deals with Democrat-turned-Republican gubernatorial hopeful Steve Levy. Today, Libous will appear at a Tea Party event with none other than multi-millionaire turncoat Carl Paladino. All of this leads us to wonder - how low is Tom Libous willing to go in his desperate bid for more campaign cash?
Carl Paladino's campaign crashed and burned when his proclivity for racist, sexist email forwards was revealed. Now he is attempting to keep his candidacy alive by throwing his millions into petitioning efforts across the state. He's even exploring the possibility of using his cash to create a new ballot line -- creatively dubbed the "Taxed Enough Already" (T.E.A.) Party.
For almost half a century, Republicans controlled the state senate with an iron fist. They cut the Democratic Minority out of power, and locked the people of New York out of government. All the while they conducted backroom deals for their own benefit and the benefit of the special interests fueling their campaigns.Republican rule was characterized by sky-high tax rates, out-of-control spending, and fiscal gimmickry to hide the true costs of their irresponsibility.
Senate Republicans have failed New Yorkers. For over 40 years, they passed tax-hike after tax-hike on the middle class to fund outrageous, unnecessary, and redundant programs.
Republicans had over four decades to lower taxes and bring real relief to New Yorkers. For forty-four years, they failed to deliver on their promises to New Yorkers.
During the final three decades of the Republicans Majority, New York State had the highest state and local tax burden in the nation for 27 out of 30 years. In the other 3 years, New Yorkers shouldered the second highest tax burden. Three New York counties rank in the top ten most taxed in the nation.
Republicans claim to be fiscally conservative, but their record tells a different story. While New Yorkers tightened their belts, Republicans went on a spending spree.
Between 1984 and 2008, state spending increased by almost $100 billion – many times the rate of inflation. Despite promises to rein in spending, Republicans violated their own “spending cap” 24 times in 28 years.
During the Pataki-Bruno era, spending not only rose dramatically, but Republicans proved unable to pass an on-time budget. Ten out of 12 budgets were late for a total of 819 days – the equivalent of nearly three full years.
Thanks to Republicans’ tax-and-spend style of governance, the debt load attributable to every man woman and child in New York soared from $1,774 to $2,675.
Despite a strong economy during the 1990s, Republican spending habits and failure to hold accountable public authorities and corporations resulted in a near doubling of the state debt between 1997 and 2008 from $31billion to $54 billion.
The shocking extent to which Republicans used the government as their personal piggy bank, and doled out favors to each other and to supporters, was revealed in 2008.
A report by the New York Times uncovered how Joe Bruno and senate Republicans spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money on perks like the “Bruno Mobile,” and inappropriately used Senate resources for political purposes.
Decades of unethical behavior by Senate Republicans were epitomized by their obstruction of ethics reform and the trial and conviction of former Majority Leader Joe Bruno, who was found guilty on two counts of felony corruption for using his office to reap a $3.2 million pay day.
15-year Republican incumbent John DeFrancisco is in unfamiliar territory. While the Senate was under the Republicans control of convicted felon Joe Bruno, DeFrancisco was the “go-to guy for people seeking money” and became accustomed to doling out “tens of millions of dollars of pork.”
Now, with the Democrats in the majority and attempting to clean up the GOP mess, DeFrancisco has taken on another reviled role: that of “GOP pit-bull.”
DeFrancisco may take pride in being a pit-bull, but his constituents need a real representative, not a rabid dog on Dean Skelos' leash. As the GOP pit-bull, and prime spokesperson, DeFrancisco will have to defend numerous questionable activities – such as voting 12 times to shut down state government by opposing recent budget extenders, and masterminding last year’s GOP Senate coup that paralyzed government for over a month.
Most recently, this GOP pit-bull turned into a flat-out playground bully. This week, Derancisco was one of only three senators – to vote against legislation that will protect school students from bullying.
Thankfully, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and the residents of Onondaga county may finally get the representation they deserve. This year, DeFrancisco faces his “first serious contender in years” in the form of Democratic candidate and Syracuse Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Joy.
Onondaga County residents need and deserve a leader that will fight to lower taxes and protect their children -- not a GOP attack dog doing the bidding of Dean Skelos, and certainly not a school-yard bully like John DeFrancisco.
Although the BP oil disaster has killed 11 men, poisoned thousands of animals, and ruined the livelihoods of millions of Americans, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R-MS) still believes that the foreign oil giant has suffered the most. Gov. Barbour has dismissed this catastrophe from day one, comparing the toxic oil to “toothpaste” and worrying about the impact of paying damages on BP’s finances. In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Barbour brushed off the suggestion that the conservative ideology of deregulation should be reconsidered, saying that “the idea that more regulation is necessarily better, I think a very suspect idea.” In fact, Barbour cited the greatest environmental catastrophe in American history as proof that “the market system works,” saying that BP is the biggest victim “in this deal”: I think right now every oil company in the world says, I don’t want to pay $100 million a day to cut corners on drilling a well. And that’s where I believe the market system works. Nobody’s got more to lose in this deal than BP.
Link to full post.Listen Here:
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) called on Michael Steele to resign Saturday, significantly raising the pressure on the embattled Republican National Committee chairman whose remarks last week on the war in Afghanistan were assailed by members of his own party.
"Frankly, I find Steele's remarks totally unacceptable," Cole, the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and ex-chief of staff at the RNC, said in a statement to POLITICO. "He should apologize and resign. He undercut American forces fighting in the field, politicized further a war that two presidents of different parties have deemed in the national interest and embarrassed the party he purports to lead. It is time for him to go — quickly."
It Takes Less Time To Travel to Mars ...than it's taken Rick Lazio to make his tax returns available to the public. It's been 202 days since his campaign pledged to make them available. Yet there is still no sign of them.
Voters are STILL waiting to find out exactly how much Lazio made while lobbying for Wall Street.
While Rick keeps on stalling, here's a list of ten things that took less time:
10) Napoleon's invasion of and retreat from Russia - 172 days.
