"Least Influential Office"

"One of the least influential offices in state government — a Republican seat in the Assembly" the Buffalo News reported the other day.

Does that mean Republican candidates should fold up their tents and go home, of course not? If everyone possessed that sort of irresponsible attitude toward elections, our government would be more of a run away train wreck than it is currently. Jim Tedisco, minority leader of the Assembly has done a fine job leading that conference of Republicans and has been one of the best leaders the Republican Minority has seen in the last several years. An effective leader furthering their agenda Tedisco was one of the first to call it as he saw it with Spitzer in Albany, being the recipient of the "f'n steamroller" remark.

Down deep what this really means is the responsibility for financing a GOP campaign is primarily the candidate's for an Assembly race. The majority party of either the Assembly or Senate raises more money and therefore, they have more to spend on defending their seats or going after seats, especially if seats are put "in play" like the 118th district or the 122nd seat, if Dede ran for Senate. You can safely guarantee the Democratic candidate will have more money to spend on a race than a Republican Assembly candidate who will have to raise or spend more of their own money.

Likewise, the Republicans will have more money available to spend going after the 48th Senate seat compared to the Democrats whose contribution will be considerably diluted during a general election as opposed to the past special election.

What kind of money will a Republican be looking to spend to win the 118th Assembly? If it is anything like the 142nd district, a dominant GOP contender there is willing to commit $250,000 to $500,000 for a primary and general election while the defending GOP member is raising $100,000.

A Republican candidate will have to buck up big time, the Democrats will be willing to spend that much here, and more, especially with the State Democratic Party Chair June O'Neill, she will not want to lose in her own backyard.