Every Republican member of the House of Representatives voted against the economic stimulus bill, which passed anyway and another version of which now looks likely to pass the Senate. No doubt there are many dubious expenditures in the bill, but the Republican candidate in the 20th Congressional District, Jim Tedisco, should try to stake out a middle position, and not line up with his party against it. The Republican alternative of relying on tax cuts is no more convincing than the Democrats' big-spending plan as a way to halt and reverse economic decline. And, according to today's paper, the stimulus bill will include money for long-planned, worthy local projects like the second track between Schenectady and Albany, which would help alleviate rail congestion throughout the state. There would also be enough money to get that Albany convention center off the ground. Liberals and other opponents of Democratic Mayor Jerry Jennings have raised some arguments against the convention center, but that doesn't make it a bad idea. While neither of those projects are in the 20th Congressional District, no doubt there are some some worthy ones there along with some boondoggles that would be funded by the bill.
Meanwhile, I see Democratic candidate Scott Muphy is ducking questions about how he would have voted on the stimulus bill (though I bet he ultimately comes out for it). He also ducked a question about how he would have voted on last year's TARP bailout bills, which Kirsten Gillibrand opposed. Nor has Murphy's campaign materialized yet in the district, although that was supposed to have happened by now. Meanwhile, Tedisco is off on a campaign tour today in the southern part of the district. The TU blog reported that the Democrats were sending a press spokesman up from Washington, and I left a message yesterday with another campaign aide, Adam Sullivan, asking for the press guy to call me, but that hasn't happened yet.
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