take19 - TAKEN!!!

After nine long days, Sue Kelly has finally conceded. For more on that news see here and here.

In honor of this auspicious occasion, Take19 is sponsoring a little contest for the person who can come up with the most clever haiku. The winner will receive one of our soon-to-be redesigned t-shirts with the new phrase, "Fired Sue Kelly!" Post your entries in the comments section or send them via email to take19 (at) gmail.com.

Stay tuned for where Take19 goes from here. Though we're clearly just one of the reasons John Hall won last Tuesday, many of us are tired from working so hard for the past year and a half and need to spend some quality time with our family and on our professional endeavors. Happy Thanksgiving, a few days early!

UPDATE Keep those haikus coming. There's already a bunch posted in the comments.

As noted in both the The Daily Politics and the The New York Observer blogs today, one of Sue Kelly's supporters, Seth Arluck, who owns New Hampton Lumber in Orange County, seems a bit distraught over last week's results. If you can't make out the sign, it says "Congrats Al Qaeda and KJ", a reference to the village of Kiryas Joel, which voted for John Hall over Sue Kelly. As noted on Daily Kos this morning, Arluck has a long history of supporting Sue.

Now, we can understand Mr. Arluck being upset over the results of the election since Sue lost (even if she still refuses to concede). But comparing a voting bloc to a terrorist group seems a tad bit over the top.

Earlier today, the Daily News had an interesting story about Adam Rose, a real estate developer and Lewisboro resident who spent $500K to help get the word out about Sue Kelly's true record. The money, which was given to a 527 group called Majority Action, funded a radio, television and direct-mail campaign that heavily targeted the large group of unaffiliated voters in the district.

Sue, of course, complained relentlessly about Majority Action's campaign, even going so far to allege that John Hall was orchestrating it, which was about as truthful as Sue's Kim Jong Il ad. She also sent out a nasty letter to her supporters decrying, "who opened their checkbooks to fund this filth remains to be seen." Now that Hall has won -- no matter how many times Sue clicks her heels -- Adam Rose has chosen to make his involvement known.

But here's the real rub: last we checked, Lewisboro is located in NY-19. That would make Adam Rose a constituent -- one who felt that Sue was not representing his interests, and who like many other constituents, we're guessing couldn't get the time of day from Sue.

This afternoon, more than 100 residents of the 19th CD descended on Katonah to demand Sue Kelly acknowledge what we all already know, that John Hall won the election fair and square.

Sue Kelly's campaign has retained attorney John Ciampoli, who, as attorney for the Westchester County Republicans, filed a last-minute challenge to the registrations of thousands of voters before Tuesday’s hotly contested race for the 35th Senate District between State Senator Nick Spano and County Legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins. He filed close to 6,000 pre-election challenges to voters in that race. Ciampoli is also the same attorney who represented Nick Spano in the 2004 recount of the 35th State Senate District race.

We marched and will continue to march to demand Sue Kelly stop these tactics and honor the will of the voters. It's time she finally learned to listen to her constituents.

Speaking at the press conference were Doni Belau, a Bedford mother of two, Zara Jackson, a senior from Somers, Anthony Merante, a veteran from Phillipstown, and Michelle Cooper, a small business owner from Peekskill.

More photos are here and the full release will be posted shortly.

Dear Sue,

It should be apparent to you (as it is to CNN, MSNBC, The Journal News, etc. etc.) that John Hall defeated you fair and square on Tuesday and is now our Representative Elect.

But no, you can't go quietly into retirement. You couldn't show some dignity or class like President Bush did today when he welcomed the new Congressional leadership to lunch. Instead of ending your career in public service on a high note, you've stooped to lawyering up and throwing out accusations and innuendo.

Sue, we've known you for a long time and honestly, while we've had our disagreements, we respect you for your public service and dedication to at least some of your constituents. We're sorry you can't show the same respect and dedication in defeat.

For the sake of the voters of the 19th Congressional District who expect to have their voices count and for the sake of our Country, stop this nonsense Sue. It's beneath you.

link to article here

And if you didn't make it to the victory party last night, there's video here. If you're like some of us, you may find yourself crying when John starts singing.

WE FIRED SUE KELLY!

Hall 86,281 51%
Kelly 83,375 49%
92% Reporting

NYTimes reporting.



Dutchess:

Sue W Kelly 20,761
John Hall 19,79
100% reporting

Putnam:
Sue W Kelly 14,714 52%
John Hall 13,448 48%
100% reporting

Westchester:
Sue Kelly 19,336 43%
John Hall 25,196 57%
87% reporting

Orange:
Sue W Kelly 28,525
John Hall 28,618
100% reporting


So thats the reporting for now.
I'm not saying we are going to win.

All im saying is we are ahead right now.

For the past year and a half, a band of dedicated volunteers have kept this web site alive, documenting the shortcomings and incompetence of our Representative Sue Kelly. Her faults are too numerous to recount here now, just look on the left sidebar and you can read our releases and look up her voting record. But don't just take our word for it -- all four papers that cover this district -- The Journal News, Poughkeepsie Journal, Times Herald-Record and New York Times (behind a wall)-- all endorsed John Hall over Sue Kelly.

Here's what it all comes down to - if you support the war in Iraq, if you believe the Administration did all it could to hunt down Osama Bin Laden or help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or build strong schools and safe communities and support the growth of the middle class - then vote for Sue Kelly.

On the other hand, if you believe as we do that this Administration and the Republican Congressional Leadership have failed us, have failed to fight terrorism and instead dragged us into the quagmire of Iraq where 2,800 brave Americans have died, failed to support strong schools and safe neighborhoods, failed to protect our weakest from the ravages of poverty and failed to help the victims of Katrina. If you believe this Administration's tax policies have favored the weathly at the expense of the public good and have hurt the middle class - then tomorrow cast your vote for John Hall, our next Representative.

UPDATE John Hall is posting GOTV volunteer opportunities throughout the day here. If you can help out, please do!

Sue Kelly obviously doesn't think the voters of the 19th Congressional District are very bright, otherwise she would have come up with something a little smarter than robocalls (listen here) that claim to be from the Hall campaign but are only designed to annoy and cut into his lead.

We're on to you Sue. And according to Talking Points Memo, even your own people are embarrassed by it.

I was handing out leaflets for John Hall yesterday at a grocery store. There were two tables, a democratic one and a Republican one.

When I was handing out palm cards, several people said to me something like, "I WAS going to vote for John Hall, until I got all those phone calls. I got seven or eight, right at dinner time."

The guy from the Republican table, who was a local district leader-- friendly and chatty, actually came over to me and said, "You know, most of those are coming from Sue's office, but don't tell anybody."

Nice. Real classy.

Enjoy these next few days, they'll be your last as our Representative.

The Army Times, the leading independent publication read by military leaders, is calling for Donald Rumsfeld to resign over his mis-handling of the Iraq quagmire. According to CNN:

The editorial will be in four independent publications that serve the four main branches of the U.S. military, according to the senior managing editor for Army Times Publications, the papers' parent company.

Curious what Sue Kelly's stand on this important issue? So are we. Why don't you call her and ask? 202.225.5441 in DC or 845.291.4100 (Orange County), 845.897.5200 (Dutchess County) or 914.962.0761 in Westchester. We'd certainly like to know.

With election day just three days away, Sue Kelly seems to have had a change of heart when it comes to Mess-o-potamia (to borrow Jon Stewart's phrase about Iraq), which seems a bit surprising, considering that just a few weeks ago, Sue actually said that "Iraq is mostly pacified now". Of course, that was before more than 100 members of the military were killed in Iraq in October. As you can see in this clip from New York 1, Kelly says, "I think we need a new paradyme in Iraq." We wonder if that means firing Donald Rumsfeld as the four newspapers serving America's armed forces are now calling for.

One more thing about that NY1 tape. A John Hall supporter was coming out of Turco's on Thursday as the tape was rolling. Here's what he sent us about his interaction with Sue:

so I'm running an errand at the supermarket (Turcos in Yorktown) about an hour ago, when I see half a dozen people with Kelly campaign literature and a TV crew (New York 1) near the entrance. Since leafleting in front of supermarkets is common practice in Yorktown campaigns, I think nothing of it - but prepare for some friendly ribbing as I walk by with a John Hall button on my parka. Suddenly this skinny blonde woman swings around and in a superior tone - like she's yelling at her gardener - says "You must be in favor of ..." and runs through a list of Republican talking points, finishing with higher capital gains taxes. I'm thinking this is one volunteer the Kelly campaign should find a back office assignment for - but respond in a friendly fashion (no need to act like her) that I'm not rich, so Republican tax cuts for the top half a percent don't help me out much. She appears to take this personally and gets more hostile: "I'm not rich, I've worked for everything I own since I was 18," she yells. I'm looking for an escape route from this crazy lady when it finally strikes me that her voice sounds familiar - but I can't believe an elected official on the campaign trail would talk to a voter this way! But sure enough it was HER - I ducked into Turcos and hid from my Congresswoman in the produce section.

Maybe that explains why she's been in hiding. Her people skills don't seem to be so good.

Cranking out negative campaign literature and ads that distort your competition must clearly take a lot of time. How else to explain why Sue Kelly would blow off senior citizens today in Orange County at a "Congressional Forum" organized by the New York State Alliance For Retired Americans and the New York Statewide Senior Action Council, Inc..

Why would Kelly, who despite her athletic prowess, blow off her fellow senior citizens? Good question. Then again, she's been MIA for much of the past few months past 12 years, though she seems to have plenty of time to hang out with has beens (see here and here).

We're sure today's absence had nothing to with the fact that the Alliance gave Sue a big fat zero rating on her voting record. Or the fact that both groups -- as are many seniors -- opposed to Sue's vote on Medicare Part D (for Disaster). Then again, Sue doesn't exactly have the same healthcare worries that most seniors do: she gets the best medical care and it's absolutely free!

An AP story that hit the wires a short time ago includes Sue's latest explanation for why she ran away two weeks ago from an RNN news crew:

Says Sue: "I was running to get out of the rain."

Take a look at the video again. Do you see any rain? Do you see anyone with umbrellas, or even trying to cover their head?



Why on earth would someone lie about something that's easily visable on tape? Makes you wonder what else she's lying about? Like her resume. Or her own questionable investments. Or John Hall's ties to Kim Jong Il.

It seems as if Sue Kelly's implosion is nearly complete. She's so desperate and unglued at this point that she's letting her nutjob handlers take the campaign to a new low, while at the same time whining about how outside groups are twisting her record. Her latest mailer, a complete insult to the intelligence of her constituents, is a disgusting attack on John Hall and has a clearly manipulated picture of him with Kim Jong Il of North Korea and various mushroom clouds. She really is so shameless that it's breathtaking. Anyone who lives in this district, be they Republican, Democrat, Independent, Green, or whatever, should be embarrassed to have this woman represent us.

Of course, most of us know that it's rubber-stampers like Sue Kelly that have allowed North Korea to continue with its' nuclear ambitions. So now she's saying that is a reason to support the money-pit missile defense system? Is Sue saying that North Korea's nuclear program was nurtured to support and justify Star Wars?

As for supporting the troops, isn't bringing them home and keeping them alive the best way to support them? Or at least having a decent plan to resolve the Iraq situation? What's the plan, Sue? Stay the course, right? Just two weeks ago, Sue Kelly actually told the Times-Herald Record that Iraq was "mostly pacified". Kelly takes a 15 year-old vote of Hall's from the Ulster County about "praying to God" to watch over our military as an asinine justification that John Hall doesn't support our troops. Pretty obvious that Sue's handlers are old Pat Buchanan staffers, huh who are willing to do anything to try and win. Problem is that you can't play the kindly grandmother and mail out stuff like this.

Sue Kelly, you have no shame. The voters of the 19th district deserve an apology from you for littering their mailboxes with this absolute garbage.

Hot the off press:
The Poughkeepsie Journal has endorsed John Hall over Sue Kelly. For those who are keeping score, that means the four major newspapers that cover the area all chose Hall. None endorsed Kelly, a shocking turn of events for the 12-year incumbent. Here's a few snips:

Hall is particularly strong on environmental issues. He makes the compelling and important point this nation needs to start weaning itself off oil and other fossil fuels; the government should start backing more alternative forms of energy.

[kelly] has been overly and relentlessly optimistic about the situation in Iraq, from the misguided reasons to go to war to the strategy employed thereafter.

Hall has the intelligence and depth to make quite a difference in Congress if given the opportunity. If he doesn't veer too far to the left and shows a willingness to work with those across the political aisle, he could accomplish a lot for the district and bring fresh ideas to Washington. Voters should give him that chance.

The bottom line is that even as Sue Kelly tries to spin, deflect and even run away, the people who call NY-19 home are planning her retirement party.