Harrison picks up another endorsement

Steve Harrison has picked up the endorsement of the Democratic Organization of Richmond County. via Dana at the Brooklyn paper;

[Steve Harrison] won the endorsement of the Democratic Organization of Richmond County in a landslide 22–3 vote over Democratic rival, Councilman Domenic Recchia, on Monday night.

snip

The Staten Island Democratic Association is an important progressive political club in a key portion of the conservative 13th congressional district, which encompasses Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and all of Staten Island.

This is the third major club/organizational endorsement for Harrison;
* Democratic Organization of Richmond County
* 13th Congressional District PDA
* Staten Island Democratic Association, SIDA

PDA event to raise funds for NY Congressional races

I received an email today from PDA, Progressive Democrats of America announcing a March 14th theatrical premiere of War Made Easy. Iraq can be a pivotal issue of this Congressional race and thus this movie should be great impetus to get active in the upcoming elections. But the best part;

Proceeds from the evening will benefit Progressive Democrats of America's 2008 organizing efforts in New York congressional districts. All in all, a great way to spend $100 for a ticket that gets you into the theater for the special screening as well as into the post-show reception. Seating is limited, and I hope you'll click here now.

This is the national PDA group organizing this event. The local chapter of PDA in the 13th has endorsed Steve Harrison. There are no promises that proceeds of this event will go into campaigning in the 13th but certainly we can try to get them involved. Speaking of which one of the best ways to get them involved is to get involved in their organization.

Join PDA's email list

update: via Tom;

Harrison hopes that the local PDA support will lead to an endorsement from the national PDA, "which would translate into troops and treasure for our campaign."

More implications from last night's Democratic victory

In an article breaking down the Democratic victory in the open state senate seat upstate, June O'Neil puts this in perspective moving forward, via the Times;

“The Democratic Party can meet and beat the Republican machine anywhere. If we can do it here, we can do it anywhere.”
-June O'Neil, NY State Dem Party Co-Chair

Upstate special election is bad news for Fossella

Again voters in the state have shown that they are trending Democratic and excited by Democratic pick ups. Today in upstate NY there was a special election in the 48th Senate District. The district on paper is very Republican;

78,454 Republicans
46,824 Democrats
35,000 Independents

Yet went 52-48 for the new state senator Darrel Aubertine (D). To make matters worse the district was hit with terrible weather most of the day and yet a tremendous ground game in large part due to the Working Families Party has put the state senate one seat away from Democratic control. What does this all mean to Fossella? Well it can't be promising. Once again a strong ground operation has helped flip a formerly strong Republican seat. At some point the Working Families Party is going to become a major player in a Congressional race and the 13th seems like an ideal testing ground. If not the whole district, WFP involvement in the race for Andrew Lanza's senate seat, SD-24 would have a net positive impact on the congressional race.

Second, after Republicans were trounced in terms of turn out in the presidential primary in Fossella's district, there are clear signs that this is not an isolated incident. New Yorkers are leaving the Republican candidates they once supported in favor of change promised by Democrats.

Even more Chris Ward and Vito Fossella

This time Tom actually picks up the story, a little late to the game, but bad press for Fossella regardless;

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) has severed ties with his campaign treasurer, whom the National Republican Congressional Committee suspects of fraud.

snip

A Republican source told the Advance that the irregularities had to do with the NRCC itself, as opposed to individual lawmakers' accounts, PACs or fund-raising committees handled by Ward.

Chris Ward has been Fossella's campaign treasurer since at least July, 2006 which coincides with the end of his role as the NRCC's treasurer. Thus far no impropriety has been connected with Ward and any of his roles as treasurer for individual campaigns, but it does raise plenty of suspicions. Donors to the NRCC must be concerned and so must big donors to campaigns such as Fossella's with questions about where their money possibly went.

That said I must ask, Tom where have you been? Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News broke the Chris Ward and Vito Fossella connection back on February 1, twenty-two days before any coverage in the Advance.

Steve Harrison hits Fossella on gun violence

Via Tom;

Speaking at a press conference in West Brighton, Harrison cited Fossella's A-minus rating from the National Rifle Association and said, "Fossella and his fellow Republicans show blind obedience to the gun lobby. They need to take responsibility for their records on gun control and responsibility for their failure to curb gun violence."

snip

While Fossella voted in favor of a 24-hour waiting period for gun purchases at gun shows, Harrison said the congressman fails to point out that he voted to lower the waiting period from 72 hours.

snip

He also lit into Fossella for being among the Republican lawmakers who allowed the assault-weapons ban to lapse.

"No one needs an Uzi for personal protection or to hunt," Harrison said. "There is no legitimate reason for automatic and assault weapons to be legal."

My favorite part of the article is the obligatory closing remark from the opponent's staff, Fossella in this case purposefully deciding to refer to Steve as "surrender Steve" and calling him a "radical left-winger". Clearly the issues of ending the war in Iraq and being liberal are not holding up across the country as states that otherwise would be voting Republican are shifting drastically to the two Democratic presidential candidates both of whom support and end to the war and have been labeled much worse than liberal. Go ahead and connect the Democratic congressional and presidential candidates, we know how the district feels already.

And here is the full text of Steve's press release from Friday's press conference;

Northern Illinois. Virginia Tech. The Ganas Commune in Staten Island. Columbine. We can’t let incidents like these happen in Staten Island and Brooklyn., says 13th Congressional District (Staten Island and Southwest Brooklyn) Democratic candidate Steve Harrison, speaking out in favor of tougher gun control laws.

Harrison will highlight Fossella’s record of supporting legislation that makes it easier for criminals, terrorists and the mentally unstable to acquire guns and ammunition and offer ideas to help curb the carnage in a 1 PM February 22, 2008 Press Conference at Congregation Bna’i Jeshurun, 275 Martling Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10314 (A block from the Armory).

Harrison challenges his opponent, New York City’s only Republican House Member, Vito Fossella, to change his consistent support of the gun lobby agenda. “Vito's passive approach to gun control helps to facilitate gun proliferation to those who should not have guns,” says Harrison.

Harrison outlines his approach to gun policy. “My goal is to keep guns and bullets out of the hands of criminals, terrorists and the unstable, prohibit the sale and possession of the types of weapons that are unnecessary for self defense or recreation and put dealers trafficking illegal firearms out of business.”


Harrison also ran against Fossella in 2006, receiving a higher percentage of the vote than any other Democrat ever under the Congressional District’s current configuration.


For more information visit steveharrisonforcongress.com.

Local PDA chapter endorses Steve Harrison

I have been traveling for several days without internet access, sorry for the light coverage.

The local chapter of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) has endorsed Steve Harrison;

The local chapter of Progressive Democrats of America, representing the 13th Congressional District, voted tonight to unanimously endorse Steve Harrison for Congress at a meeting at the Armory Inn in Westerleigh. At the meeting, Steve Harrison spoke about the importance of defending the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the need to create real energy independence in the United States, including revitalizing our manufacturing capabilities in the process. After his talk, he fielded several questions in a lively Q&A session. In answering the PDA candidate questionnaire, Mr. Harrison responded, “Our current Congressperson, Vito Fossella, poorly represents our district. As NYC's only House Republican, Fossella votes with Bush and against our interests 90% of the time. He supports Bush's fiscal policy that has cut critical middle class programs, while bankrupting this country. And he wants to indefinitely continue the failed war in Iraq, which costs us billions of dollars and countless American lives.”

Steve Harrison’s challenger for the Democratic nomination, Domenic Recchia, was invited to the meeting but did not attend.

Formed in January 2005, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) works to build a Democratic Party controlled by citizens – with policies that serve the broad public interest, not just private interests. It is a grassroots PAC that works inside the Democratic Party, and in coalition with other groups working to end the war in Iraq, advocate for health care for all, ensure clean elections, and slow global warming.

PDA played a key role in the stunning electoral victories of Democratic Congressional candidates of November 2006. The 13th Congressional District Chapter of PDA was started in January 2008 to bring attention to the 2008 local congressional election.

Steve is quickly wrapping up the activist support in the district with the recent SIDA endorsement, the DFNYC activity (no endorsement yet) and now this. I am curious to see if the local PDA group can give this race some attention with their national group. PDA was very active with the Donna Edwards race in MD-04 where she knocked off a Democratic incumbent thanks in large part to tremendous activist support both in terms of money and volunteers on the ground.

Harrison press conference, Friday 1pm

Steve Harrison holding press conference on gun control
Friday, February 22, 1:00pm
Congregation Bna'i Jeshurun, 275 Martling Avenue, Staten Island
Google Map

More Chris Ward and Vito Fossella?

Chris Ward the disgraced former treasurer for Vito Fossella continues to be a story and Vito can't be happy about that.

Elizabeth brings up Ward to note that both Vito Fossella and had to fire Chris Ward after that whole NRCC and FBI thing. This is a follow up to her previous piece where she first broke that Chris Ward was then currently serving as Fossella's treasurer. But she teases us with the most interesting tidbit of them all;

According to a DC campaign finance source, the fallout from this scandal is just beginning, and could hit close to home (meaning New York) very soon.

Before you get your hopes up this comment is probably referring to Rep. Tom Reynolds who was the former chair of the NRCC while Chris Ward was treasurer, although I would certainly like to be wrong on and see Fossella get snared even more.

note: I think introducing comments from sourcing without validating why they are a credible source should not be tolerated and will comment more on this at a later date

Vito Fossella loses debate to constituent

It is nice to see Vito Fossella getting smacked around by his own constituents;

I read Rep. Vito Fossella's letter [Feb. 13: "Public isn't served when elected officials mischaracterize each other's legislation"] in which he responded to Sen. Diane Savino about his proposed bill to allow people to tap into their IRA accounts to pay their subrpime debts.

His response just proves how out of touch Mr. Fossella is with his constituents and reality. Mr. Fossella, what makes you think those who have subprime loans have any retirement fund at all, let alone enough money in it to help them pay off their mortgage?

Secondly, your solution to take money out of their retirement fund (if any) would make matters worst in the end. Jim Dau of AARP warned that "homeowners at risk should understand that tapping into retirement savings compounds into a bigger loss."

What Mr. Fossella also fails to mention is that he voted against a real piece of legislation, H.R. 3915, which would have required the disclosure of an estimated interest rate (APR) and the maximum it can adjust to, the total estimated monthly payment and what percentage it is of a borrower's monthly income. These measures would make it very clear to the borrower about their projected expenses. However, Mr. Fossella voted against this bill.

thanks Richard!

SIDA endorses Steve Harrison

The Staten Island Democratic Association endorsed Steve Harrison tonight 42 to 6 according to a commenter on the SI Live politics forum.

Any other endorsements out there yet?

update: Tom covers the endorsement;

"It is no surprise that Steve Harrison won SIDA's enthusiastic endorsement last night," said club president Nick Popolo. "Over the past two years, Steve has built a solid relationship with many members of the club. We've seen him progress over the last two years to become an inspiring speaker and advocate."

Introducing Laura LoBianco Sword

Laura LoBianco Sword has joined the Steve Harrison campaign as campaign manager. From Tom;

Ms. LoBianco Sword, 38, works as a counsel for Democratic North Shore Assemblyman Matt Titone. She is a longtime member of the borough Democratic executive and county committees.

via her bio on Swordlaw.com;

Laura also has over sixteen years of experience in politics and has served in many capacities, ranging from volunteer to treasurer to consultant on statewide and local campaigns. Laura provides candidates and political organizations with strategic advice and legal counsel with respect to campaign finance rules, board of elections requirements and policy matters.

Laura serves as the Financial Secretary for the Democratic Organization of Richmond County and on the executive board of the Democratic Party of Richmond County, where she previously served as the party’s deputy law chair.

Laura definitely brings campaigning experience and establishment connections to Harrison's campaign. This appears to be a strong addition and I look forward to seeing what she can do. This post is short on analysis as I do not know anymore than the above details.

Gloria Steinem at Harrison's Feb 27th Fundraiser

I didn't catch this at first but Gloria Steinem will be joining Frank Barbaro at Steve Harrison's upcoming February 27th fundraiser at Social in Manhattan.

Cocktail Reception to Benefit Stephen Harrison
Frank Barbaro, Guest Speaker
DATE: Wednesday, February 27th
TIME: 6:30-8:30pm
LOCATION: Social Bar and Grill
795 8th Avenue (btw. 48th and 49th Sts.)
RSVP: Ruth_Benedict(at)comcast.net
Or reserve your space online at steveharrisonforcongress.com

1753 Days Later

Hello? Domenic, you there?

Anybody know if Domenic Recchia has a campaign website up? I certainly can not find one.

domenicrecchia.com and recchia2008.com have been purchased, but the whois look-up comes back to domains by proxy with GoDaddy essentially meaning the owner is not publicly known.

flashback 2006; Hello? Steve, you there?. The Harrison campaign quickly got in touch and pointed out their newly launched site.

Meanwhile on the other side of the race Steve Harrison has launched a more in depth website and redesign. If you haven't seen it yet take a look.

55% of likely voters choose Democratic Congressional Candidates

via Gallup;

According to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 8-10, 2008, only 41% of adults likely to vote this November say they would support the Republican candidate running in their congressional district. Fifty-five percent say they would vote for the Democratic candidate.

In 2006 when Democrats swept Congressional races and Fossella faced a scare with his closest election Gallup had Republican support at 44%.

h/t Jonathan Singer, MyDD

February 27th Fundraiser for Stephen Harrison

Cocktail Reception to Benefit Stephen Harrison
Frank Barbaro, Guest Speaker
DATE: Wednesday, February 27th
TIME: 6:30-8:30pm
LOCATION: Social Bar and Grill
795 8th Avenue (btw. 48th and 49th Sts.)
RSVP: Ruth_Benedict(at)comcast.net
Or reserve your space online at steveharrisonforcongress.com

Sub Prime Mortgages on Staten Island

State Senator Diane Savino wrote into the Advance to talk about the administration and Vito Fossella's lack of action to solve the problem;

Staten Island was given the dubious honor in January of being the only borough with an increase in foreclosures. As reported by Karen O'Shea in the Jan. 16 edition of the Advance, foreclosures on the Island jumped by 53 percent by the end of 2007.

snip

The White House's response is too little, too late. Last December, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a plan where lenders agreed to temporarily freeze rates on certain ARM's. Unfortunately, this will only apply to individuals with good credit histories, whose mortgages reset in January, leaving out thousands of homeowners who truly need help.

Rep. Vito Fossella's proposal allowing seniors to dip into their retirement accounts to avoid foreclosure is hardly the panacea, either. The proposal, referred to by an AARP spokesperson as a "last resort," may put seniors at risk of losing their life savings. If Congressman Fossella were serious about tackling this crisis, he would have voted for HR 3915, a bill that would have reformed abusive practices in the subprime industry.

NRCC preparing to save Vito Fossella?

I have said several times before that Vito Fossella can not rely on the National Republican Congressional Campaign to come in and throw money into his race if it is looking bad for him this fall. They are devastatingly underfunded and having the FBI investigating their accounting is not helping. But news comes today that they may be preparing fire wall plans including Vito Fossella's seat;

Republicans also are defending seats in very expensive media markets. In the New York City media market, the NRCC will have to decide how much to spend on the New Jersey open seats (the 3rd and 7th districts) and Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays' 4th district seat. The NRCC will also have to decide if Democratic target Rep. Vito Fossella needs help in New York's 13th district.

Certainly there are more doubts about Vito Fossella holding onto his seat than there were this time in 2006.

Vito Fossella and the House Commerce Committee

With now 29 Republicans bailing ship and resigning or retiring Vito Fossella is quickly moving up the seniority ranks, by default not qualifications. Take a look at the Republicans ranked by seniority on the House Commerce Committee;

• Joe Barton, Ranking Member, Texas
• Ralph Hall, Texas (potential retirement, age)
• Fred Upton, Michigan
• Cliff Stearns, Florida
• Nathan Deal, Georgia
• Ed Whitfield, Kentucky
• Barbara Cubin, Wyoming (retiring)
• John Shimkus, Illinois
• Heather Wilson, New Mexico (retiring)
• John Shadegg, Arizona (retiring)
• Chip Pickering, Mississippi (retiring)
• Vito Fossella, New York

This list was truncated and their are quite a few members below Vito on this committee

Fossella is quickly moving up the minority ladder. After Fossella became a member of the minority party in 2006 he was forced to reduce his committee membership and choose the House Commerce Committee over the House Financial Services Committee. Clearly this committee assignment appears more important to his career, so consider this another reason to work on taking him out before he gets any kind of power.

Vito Fossella's seat "on the front line"

via Elizabeth;

Rep. Steve Israel, a Suffolk County Democrat who is in charge of recruiting candidates for the DCCC in the Northeast, said there are nine Congressional races of note in New York this fall - an embarassment of riches for a state that used to be, as he put it, "a kind of political backwater in national elections."

For now, (until the next Census, that is), New York has 29 Congressional seats, 23 of which are held by Democrats. Israel said the party is trying to "fill in the blanks" with six of those seats.

The Fossella v. Harrison/Recchia race is one of the six NY races Rep. Israel and the DCCC are focusing on. Maybe of most note in the article was this;

Israel stressed that the DCCC will not get involved with candidates until after the September primary, which means Democrats are going to have to slug it out to get the nomination - and the fundraising assistance that comes along with it.

Domenic Recchia is perceived to be the candidate of choice of the DCCC and so any involvement by the DCCC would seemingly be to the benefit of Recchia.

Vito Fossella forced to fire Chris Ward amidst FBI investigations

Christopher J. Ward through this week was serving as the treasurer for Rep. Vito Fossella's re-election campaign committee. Today we find out that Vito Fossella was forced to terminate his campaign's relationship with Chris Ward after his own National Republican Congressional Committee asked the FBI to investigate what they termed "severe" audit problems. This is the guy who has been handling all of Vito Fossella's money so the question is how soon until irregularities are discovered with Vito Fossella's campaign. Once again Vito Fossella is mired in ethics and corruption scandals.

Hillary Clinton alone beats entire Republican total in Staten Island

via Tom;

At the GOP vote counting operation in Midland Beach, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said the Island is a "pretty good reflection of how the whole country goes, at least on the Republican side of things."

Rep. Vito Fossella couldn't be more right that the island is a good reflection of how the whole country goes. Democrats had larger voter turnout this year in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, and Alaska, all states that Republicans won in 2004 presidential election. But we don't have to look across the country to know that, now you can add Staten Island to that list.

approximate Presidential Primary votes in Staten Island

Democratic: 28,366 (Hillary Clinton: 17,760)
Republican: 12,500

Good thing Fossella throws that disclaimer that the island should only be predictor for the Republicans, because otherwise it looks like by his own standards he and McCain are going to have a difficult time attracting voters this fall.

The cost of Vito Fossella's War

Rep. Vito Fossella added to another endangered election watch list

Rep. Vito Fossella is among the 14 most endangered Congressional Republicans in 2008.

via the Washington Times;

Rep. Vito Fossella, New York 13th: Mr. Fossella successfully defended this Staten Island and Brooklyn district — New York City's only Republican-held seat — through the 2006 wave by a 57-43 margin. But a Hillary Clinton Democratic nomination could yield a problematic turnout disadvantage.

And as we said with Rudy Giuliani off the ballot Fossella faces a harder race and the Times hints at what Hillary Clinton on the ballot could do to him;

There are anywhere from 14 to 33 potentially endangered Republican incumbents this cycle depending which election-watchers one consults. These endangered seats would normally be unremarkable. They are balanced by roughly as many potentially competitive Democratic incumbent-held seats. At least 90 percent of incumbents typically win re-election. But in a context of more than two dozen open seats, they compound a serious problem for Republicans. The two factors combine to raise doubt that Republicans can hold ground in the House in 2008. It is not too early to reach this judgment. The "terrain" slopes steeply when it comes to the House.

1739 Days Later

Vito Fossella and the IAFF

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) donated $1,000 to Rep. Vito Fossella's campaign last quarter, and it seems contrary to all of their political efforts. First and foremost I have the utmost respect for the IAFF. They are a tremendous organization and recently did some great ground work for Sen. Dodd's presidential campaign. And that is why this contribution intrigues me. The IAFF has spent quite a bit of time exposing Rudy Giuliani and his real record regarding disastrous decisions before and after September 11th. While that was going on Rep. Vito Fossella was hard at work negating the IAFF and trying to get Rudy Giuliani elected.

It is not just that Vito endorsed Giuliani. Many elected officials passive endorsed presidential candidates. The bigger problem is the Vito campaigned hard for Rudy Giuliani.

"We helped him out immensely here," said Fossella. "We had people making phone calls and doing other things. You don't have to be physically located in the state to help him. Everything makes a difference. We made a pretty good showing in the Rudy Giuliani campaign."

Fossella took part in a conference call with Giuliani and present and former House members recently, and also has appeared on television to tout Giuliani's campaign.

and then there is this piece where Vito praises Giulaini's leadership post September 11th;



To the fire fighters who worked effortlessly to expose Rudy Giuliani's horrible decisions and poor leadership I would ask you to take a look at the Democratic candidates in this race and see if they do not better represent what you are fighting for and who you want in Washington DC.

update: Going through some previous posts I found this;

Fossella is the only New York City member of Congress to not sign on to Nadler's letter asking Congress for money to fund the health care needs of our first responders suffering from various ailments related to contamination of the area around Ground Zero.

and this;

So while Rep. Vito Fossella used his sound bites to say terror! as often as possible, it wasn't until Rep. Nadler (D) spoke second, that he brought up the point about President Bush refusing to cover the costs of medical tests and treatment for our own firemen. Given the chance to use his appearance to demand funding medical coverage for these first responders, Rep. Vito Fossella instead used his time to praise President Bush.

Vito Fossella's treasurer fired by NRCC, under FBI investigation

Rep. Vito Fossella's current Treasurer, Christopher Ward has been fired by the National Republican Congressional Committee and the NRCC has asked the FBI to investigate potential misdeeds on his part.

Via Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily Politics comes the break in the original Real Politics story.

The NRCC would not comment on the investigation, though the source, who is outside the committee, characterized the fraud as severe. Details of exactly what is being investigated is unclear.

Elizabeth picked up the unreported connection that not only has Mr. Ward worked for several other Congressional and Senate campaigns in addition to the NRCC, but he is severing as Rep. Vito Fossella's re-election campaign treasurer. In fact he has served in this position at least through last Monday, January 28, 2008 when he files Fossella's 4Q FEC report. There are no public indications yet that Rep. Fossella has removed him from his paid campaign staff.

This now raises many unpleasant questions for Rep. Vito Fossella. Are his fund raising reports now under scrutiny? Has Mr. Ward commited any similar fraudulent activites on Rep. Fossella's campaign that the NRCC discovered? Is Mr. Ward still employed by Rep. Fossella?

In the end I can't say that corruption tied to Rep. Fossella should surprise anyone.

Harrison's 4Q Filing

4Q 2007
Net Q: $69,230
Net: $106,457
CoH: $83,116
Debt: $2,351

The Harrison campaign who has sent me this press release. It is great to see a campaign recognize what internet outreach can do.

Democratic Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison Tops 100G
Fundraising success attributed to Grassroots support

(Staten Island/Brooklyn) Daniel Kadin of Daniel Kadin Associates, the fund raising group for Congressional Candidate Steve Harrison (13th CD, Staten Island/Brooklyn), announced today that the campaign raised over $106,000 through year end and has cash on hand of over $83,000.

“The sum was raised over the last quarter of ‘07 plus the last two weeks of the third quarter,” said Kadin.

Harrison was the Democratic candidate against incumbent Vito Fossella in 2006. With only $130,000 against Fossella’s $1.7M, Harrison garnered over 43% of the vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee credited Harrison with showing that Fossella can be beaten.

Harrison is already approaching his total ‘06 number well before March, the time of year he began fund raising for the ‘06 race.

Kadin points to Harrison’s grassroots support. “Steve had 439 contributions from individuals as of year end, with over 60% in-district, split about evenly between Staten Island and Brooklyn. That’s a remarkable achievement. This is not a district noted for large donations but the numbers show deep support in the district. It’s fine and necessary to get out-of-district support but in-district support is indispensable to win the election.”

Harrison’s fund raising approach mimics the Howard Dean model. Typically this style of fund raising relies heavily on grassroots support through vehicles such as on-line appeals to small donors and house parties. It tends to mushroom as time passes and minimizes reliance on money from special interests. “

“Harrison is doing very well in the grassroots sphere,” said Kadin, “as the election draws near, the on-line crew becomes more active. Solidly progressive candidates like Steve do very well in that world.”

Recchia's 4Q Filing

The first good sign of Domenic Recchia's viability in this race came with his FEC filing.

4Q 2007
Net Q: $220,770
Net: $220,770
CoH: $206,451
Debt: $0

• Recchia trails Rep. Vito Fossella by about $70,000 $43,000 or $16,000 when you consider Fossella's debt.
• Recchia's disbursements/expenditure rate is well below Fossella's, $90,000 less

update: I have added Recchia to the sunlight tool in the right column. Note that those totals are total contributions not cash on hand. The numbers are a lot closer than it looks because Fossella has a small spending problem. He can't be trusted with his own money, should he be trusted with yours?