Until 20 years ago the suburbs around New York City were strongly Republican. Now they are strongly Democratic. In the area I would consider the NYC metro area there are 30 Congressional Districts. These are NY-(01-19), NJ-(04-13), and CT-04. (I know, it's debatable what is and what isn't.) Only 5 of the 30 are represented by Republicans: NY-03, NJ-05, NJ-11, NJ-07, and NJ-04. Amazingly, there are 6 districts in this area that have a PVI of D+30 or better.
All across the country, suburbs are trending Democratic. Older suburbs are now reliably Democratic. However it looks like some of the suburban areas around New York City may have peaked in around 2000. Some of these "traditionally Republican" areas may be trending Republican again.
My pappy used to tell me: "Son, if you're gonna go out, you may as well do it in style!" Looks like GOP Rep. Pete King is gonna do it in style:
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) is preparing a run at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D) seat in 2010, his office confirmed Tuesday. [...]
King is one of just three GOPers in the New York congressional delegation to survive November's elections and has a good fundraising start on the race, having banked $1.2 million as of late November.
Of course, a lot depends on who Paterson chooses to fill Clinton's seat, but I'd wager that King faces extremely tough odds -- even against a "weak" Democrat. A King candidacy would also open up his Long Island House seat (old PVI: D+2.1), which is very winnable for Democrats with the right candidate.
"I am seriously considering the race for Hillary Clinton's seat," King told The AP. "I'm very serious about it."
The eight-term lawmaker from Long Island said New York's GOP chairman Joseph Mondello "supports me 100 percent," and that state Conservative Party chair Michael Long has responded positively.
The son of an NYPD lieutenant, King said he "would genuinely represent the interests of blue-collar conservatives."
We had a pretty good night on election night in the Northeast. We cleaned house. We nailed 1 GOP Senator, 6 House of Reps Districts, 1 State Senate and held on to all of the State Senates, State Houses, US House Reps and US Senators we had coming into this cycle.
That the Northeast is rapidly realigning towards team Blue is undeniable!
But the work my friends has merely begun. Forget the bunkum about us being irretrievably on defense in 2010 come below the fold to see who should be in our sights in 2010 as we stay on offense in the Northeast........
Lieberman, through his Reuniting Our Country PAC, gave Smith's reelection bid $5,000 on Oct. 10, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. ...
The same day he wrote a check to Smith, Lieberman's ROC PAC gave $5,000 to Rep. Peter King, the Long Island Republican. In radio and TV appearances the final days of the campaign, Lieberman also frequently said that a Democratic majority of 60 votes, a filibuster-proof level, would be a bad thing.
I'm sure Lieberman gave as late as he did to try to hide the contributions - he did something similar with his shady petty cash accounts in 2006. Senate fundraising reports take forever to process - believe it or not, they are filed in hardcopy form and scanned in! It's insane (and of course the GOP has blocked the ridiculously obvious reforms that would bring the Senate into the 20th century). It also means that final Senate reports are not publicly available until after the election, which totally defeats the point of campaign finance disclosure laws.
The Peter King donation would have been knowable, but few people were looking since King didn't have competitive race. But for that reason - the closeness of the contest - the donation to El Gordo was the far bigger deal. It was disgusting enough that Joementia vocally supported Susan Collins and Norm Coleman (hell, if Franken loses, we can blame it on Lieberman). But cutting a check? That is truly a crime.
Like I said, what an asshole - not that we didn't know that already.
David Horowitz is a Republican activist who travels from college campus to college campus, giving inflammatory lectures about how liberals hate America and Muslims want to kill you. He recently published a new book called Party of Defeat: How Democrats and Radicals Undermined America's War on Terror Before and After 9/11. The authors of this book proudly advertise it right here. As you can see, it has a white flag on the cover, it is about as offensive and inflammatory as you can get.
The Northeast (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island & Vermont) has been sharply trending towards the Democratic party for some years now. Increasingly at a State and Federal level Republicans are finding it harder to get elected in the Northeast, be they conservatives or moderates, particularly in statewide races. And this years election seems certain to thin out their ranks even further.
We now have 7/9 Governors, 14/18 Senators and 51/65 House Districts!
Below the line for a look at the 14 GOP held House Races in the Northeast in 2008.
Republican Rep. Peter King, apparently channeling the same demons that possess Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA), unleashed some harsh words towards the American Muslim community in a recent interview:
Unfortunately, we have too many mosques in this country. There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully. We should be finding out how we can infiltrate. [...]
I think there's been a lack of full cooperation from too many people in the Muslim community. And it's a real threat here in this country.
You can watch the interview yourself over at YouTube. As ThinkProgress notes, this is hardly the first time that King has had harsh words for Muslim-Americans.
Republicans benefited from a 9/11 bounce in King's district in 2004, when Bush carried the Long Island-based 3rd District by 5 points after losing by 8 to Gore four years earlier. His normally lofty re-election margins took a hit last year, when he dispatched late-starting challenger Dave Mejias by a 56%-44% margin. If, however, you believe that the Democratic presidential nominee will rebound to Gore's 2000 margin (or better), then targeting King for defeat could be worthwhile.
