The Daily New posted the Club for Growths Rankings for several NY congress people

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2012/05/club-for-growth-dumps-on-ny-congressmembers

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May 9, 2012

By Amy Standaert

US Congressional Candidate Bob Dieterich

The Dieterich campaign issued a press release today announcing their plans to file suit against Congressman Paul Tonko’s Independence Party petitions. “We are confident that our legal challenge will be upheld and that Rep. Tonko will not be the Independence Party candidate who appears on the ballot in November,” campaign Attorney James Walsh explained. “Upon close scrutiny, we found that hundreds of Rep. Tonko’s signatures were invalid and, as a result, he will not have the necessary signatures to secure the line in this year’s election.”

The significance of such a lawsuit can bode quite well for challenger Bob Dieterich should his challenge be successful. With close to 23,000 registered Independence party members in New York’s new 20^th Congressional District, there is the potential for this having quite an impact on Election Day.  The Independence party line garnered close to 10,000 votes in the November 2010 election when incumbent Tonko ran against Republican Ted Danz.

Party members who simply vote party lines will now be required to take a closer look at the candidates themselves and choose the candidate who they think would hold true to their Independence Party platform.  According to the Independence Party of New York website, members believe in putting “an end to budget deficits, unfunded pension liabilities, and other underfunded long term liabilities,” which are issues Dieterich fully supports as demonstrated by his attendance at a recent ‘Mandate Relief’ rally in Albany.

Perhaps what is most striking about this lawsuit is how an elected official could knowingly partake in unlawful methods for gathering signatures that is so crucial to the democratic process.  “Over the past week, Dieterich for Congress volunteers in conjunction with legal counsel identified signatories who had already signed for Bob Dieterich, were not properly sworn in prior to signing the petition, or whose signatures were collected by volunteers who were not eligible to serve as Commissioners of Deeds. This embarrassing revelation comes only weeks after Democratic councilmen in Albany blocked the appointments of 10 commissioners of deeds for Tonko’s campaign who illegally claimed false home addresses and workplaces.”

A Notary Public or Commissioner of Deeds may carry petitions for any party in New York but they must follow certain procedures to ensure the signatories validity. The law requires a Notary or Commissioner to administer an oath affirming their identity. “Paul Tonko has spent the majority of his adult life making laws for others to follow,” said Dieterich. “All we are asking is that a sitting Congressman follow those same laws when seeking elected office.”

Bob Dieterich is the Republican and Conservative Party-endorsed candidate for the newly-formed 20^th Congressional District which includes all or some of Albany, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady Counties. He was the recipient of The Business Review’s prestigious Chief Financial Officer of the Year Award in 2011 and served honorably in the New York Air National Guard, having achieved the rank of Captain. Bob lives in Glenville with his wife Laura and three beautiful daughters.

Finding a challenger for Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo, fortified by huge numbers of new Democrats in his reapportioned 26th Congressional District, has not been easy for local Republican leaders.

But Grand Island businessman Michael H. Madigan finally stepped forward Monday, acknowledging he will be outnumbered and outspent this fall but promising to wage a full-scale effort based on passions for education and traditional GOP principles.

And while he credits Higgins for a “tremendous job” in developing the waterfront, he believes that the incumbent has failed to confront conditions creating one of the nation’s poorest cities and horrendous high school graduation rates.

“That’s the real tragedy in our city, and it’s something that has been horribly neglected,” Madigan said. “The approach we’ve taken for the last 50 to 60 years has not worked.”

Madigan, 48, is a senior program manager for Life Technologies, a global biotechnology company. He joined the company in 1987 and has worked as production manager and manager of process engineering. He said he will emphasize his private-sector experience in contrast to his opponent’s long career in government.

The new candidate said he would never embrace a federal stimulus package favored by Higgins, pointing to a more than $700 billion price tag and the problems of unemployment, falling household incomes and even more national debt that have lingered.

“We really have different views; he’s more about handouts and one-time payments,” Madigan said.

The Republican hopeful steps into a difficult role ever since reapportionment solidified Higgins in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. GOP officials in Erie and Niagara counties received few inquiries in the new district, although in 2010, GOP opponent Leonard A. Roberto turned in a decent performance against Higgins in a district that then included Chautauqua County.

Madigan said that he expects to raise enough money to be competitive and that he has discussed his candidacy with minor-party leaders such as state Conservative Chairman Michael R. Long of Brooklyn. Though local Conservative leaders proved to be strong Higgins backers during previous campaigns, Long has refused to back his congressional efforts because of the Higgins’ stance on litmus tests such as support for late-term abortions.

As a result, Madigan is expected to garner Conservative support and is seeking Independence Party backing, too.

The new candidate, a University at Buffalo graduate who holds advanced certificates in business studies from Villanova University and Project Management Institute, said he is active in educational causes and would rank them as a top priority in Washington. He said New York’s graduation rate for black males stands at 25 percent, while neighboring New Jersey boasts a rate of 69 percent.

“You’ve got to wonder what happened in New York to make it so bad,” Madigan said. “There are ways to fix the system, but it’s going to take a tremendous amount of leadership.”

He said more local control of education is needed rather than a federal government that “dictates.”

“We need a fresh set of eyes and not someone beholden to special interests,” Madigan said.

Though Madigan has never before run for public office, he has served as a Republican committeeman on Grand Island and worked on the campaigns of Roberto and 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl P. Paladino. He said he has not been part of the tea party movement but supports its goals.

“I’m not anti-tax; there’s a difference between being anti-tax and ‘taxed enough already,’ ” he said.