20th Congressional District

I'm quite proud of the selection of Kirsten Gillibrand to be the next Senator from New York. I was a resident of her district in college and was able to meet her a couple of times. Her selection does set up a bit of a battle in her relatively conservative upstate NY district. A lot of people have talked about how this seat has a Republican lean, but due to the diligence of the folks at www.swingstateproject.com, we now know that Obama narrowly won the district in 2008. Bush had won by 8 points in 2004. The real problem for the Democrats is that they have a very narrow bench. Their best option seems to be a series of county chairmen, unless former New York Rangers goalie Mike Richter were to run. The Republicans have some appealing candidates, like Assemblyman James Tedisco, who is the affable minority leader of the state assembly. There's also John Faso, who lost to Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 Governor's race, and Sandy Treadwell, who lost to Gillibrand last time around. The election will be held within 30 to 40 days after Governor David Paterson calls for it, which could be awhile, since he may want to give the Democrats maximum time to find a good candidate.

Currently, with Gillibrand set to resign the House, the Democrats' advantage stands at 255-178. If Hilda Solis is confirmed as Labor Secretary, the advantage will be 254-178.