Reader Elmer sends two interesting front-page items from the Corning Leader. The big news in Corning is the lack of migrant workers for Southern Tier farms. The immigration crackdown has scared off legal and illegal immigrants, and farmers are finding the H2-A visa program, which is supposed to help supply workers, "an unbelievable amount of bureaucracy".
The second story concerns the declining New York population and its affect on the government programs and representation. The likelihood of another redistricting in the 29th is discussed. The district narrowly avoided annexation to a major city in 2000, and that all of Monroe might be attached to it after the next redistricting. That would probably lead to a Democratic takeover in the 29th, though Bob Van Wicklin, ever the optimist, thinks that turnout, which is better in the Southern Tier, might keep the seat in Republican hands.
Here are the stories: Page A1 [pdf] and Page A10 [pdf].
Finally, today's Democrat and Chronicle has a story pegged on the recently-announced DCCC ads. This continues a consistent pattern of minor ad buys leading to stories in the newspaper, which is a large part of the intended effect of those ad campaigns. The DCCC ads also triggered stories in Congressional Quarterly and the New York Observer late last week.
Comments
This is interesting though... turnout was higher in Monroe than any other county... I don't know what Van Wicklin is talking about.
Does anyone know what Mark Assini (and my thanks to the earlier reader who reminded me of the name) is doing now? Any longshot he might get into this race this time around--or is that just fantasy?