Potential Primary for Kuhl in '08?
By Upstate Blue, Section News
Posted on Thu Mar 01, 2007 at 06:00:15 PM EST
This came in via Rochester Turning?
Even so, it?s actually quite depressing, considering that this was the district that sent the socially liberal, fiscally responsible Amo Houghton to Congress only three short years ago. What ever happened to the traditional Upstate New York Republican? It will be quite a disapointment if the Southern Tier eventually ends up going the way of Kansas, transitioning from being a one-time bastion of sensible, moderate Republicanism into a hotbed of wingnuttery, anti-intellectualism, and cultural backwardness.
Fighting29th has a post up about why Kuhl is pinned down into supporting the war to the hilt: if he strays off the grounds of the right-wing loony bin, he may face a primary challenger or, what might be worse, a conservative party line challenger in the general. Apparently, Bob Lonsberry is threatening to run against him support a primary challenger against Kuhl unless Randy gets behind a plan to build a moat along the Mexican border.And from what I?m hearing, it sure seems like they?re enough wingnuts down in the Southern Tier who won?t be fully satisfied until they get another Coburn or a Brownback lunatic down there?.
This really takes me back?in 2000, a nutter who once taught my sister high-school Spanish almost beat Sherwood Boehlert in the Republican primary (I grew up in Madison County, a rural area about 100 miles east of here) in the old NY-23 district. I don?t think Walsh faces the same problem: Onondaga and Monroe Counties don?t have a high enough concentration of right-wing lunatics to turn out Walsh in a primary. But the 29th certainly has enough to frighten Kuhl.All in all this could turn out for the best?a Conservative Party spoiler may be just what we need to put Massa over the top in a rematch.
Even so, it?s actually quite depressing, considering that this was the district that sent the socially liberal, fiscally responsible Amo Houghton to Congress only three short years ago. What ever happened to the traditional Upstate New York Republican? It will be quite a disapointment if the Southern Tier eventually ends up going the way of Kansas, transitioning from being a one-time bastion of sensible, moderate Republicanism into a hotbed of wingnuttery, anti-intellectualism, and cultural backwardness.
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