WGXC-90.7 FM
Audio Feature: WGXC Congressional Report 20181002
Sep 28, 2018 9:45 am
Here's the week in the news for Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook), the District 19 Congressperson for the WGXC listening area. The Fivethirtyeight.com website currently reports Faso votes with Donald Trump's positions 90.2 percent of the time, up slightly from last week. Fivethirtyeight.com also currently predicts Faso has a 45.2 percent chance of winning re-election, rating Democrat Antonio Delgado at 54.8 percent. Click here to download or play an audio version of this report (5:16).
• Woodstock radio station WDST (100.1-FM) pulled the National Republican Congressional Committee ads bashing Democrat Antonio Delgado from its airwaves this week calling the ads, "highly offensive and factually distorted." Delgado is trying to unseat Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook) in the November election. There are two NRCC anti-Delgado spots airing over-and-over on social media and local television and radio stations. There more music criticism than political think-pieces, focusing more on a hip hop album Delgado released 12 years ago, than on any of his political opinions, and have been called racist by some. Gary Chetkof, WDST's president, wrote on Facebook Sept. 20, "While we try not to impose censorship restrictions and while we do support the free exchange of ideas (even those we do not support), we believe these ads are highly offensive and factually distorted. Therefore after extensive conversation with our FCC attorneys in order to understand our right to not run these political ads, we have decided to discontinue these advertisements." Political observers suggested the NRCC may complain to the Federal Communications Commission about the decision.
• The Daily Freeman is reporting a Rhinebeck resident is looking to have a decision overturned that gave independent 19th Congressional District candidate Diane Neal a spot on the ballot in November. Paperwork was filed September 21, on behalf of Rima Liscum, a member of the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee and supporter of Neal's opponent, Democrat Antonio Delgado. Liscum is looking to reverse the decision by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court that overturned a lower-court ruling that Neal's nominating petitions lacked sufficient signatures. The appellate decision sided with Neal's argument that she was not property served notice of the petitions' deficiencies. Neal, Delgado and Green Party candidate Steve Greenfield are all vying to unseat first-term Republican Congressman John Faso on November 6. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.
• Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that the Spectrum television network will show live video of a debate between Republican incumbent John Faso and Democrat Antonio Delgado Oct. 23 from the Woodstock Playhouse. Capital Tonight’s Liz Benjamin and Spectrum News Washington reporter Jeevan Vittal will moderate the discussion between the 19th congressional district candidates. In other campaign news, the Faso campaign is attempting to you one of their candidates perceived weakness against his opponent. The Faso campaign is pointing out that the Delgado campaign has stopped doing television interviews. “The same week Antonio Delgado refused to debate in Delaware County, we receive confirmation he is restricting the press’ access to him while on the trail,” said Joe Gierut, communications director for the Faso campaign. “Mr. Delgado continues to mislead voters and his refusal to debate with each of the qualified candidates in Delaware County, after trying to claim Congressman Faso is avoiding debates, is hypocrisy in its purest form. The facts are Mr. Delgado is the one avoiding debates in addition to avoiding television reporters and their requests to do interviews.” Faso has agreed to an Oct. 24 interview on WGXC, but has not held a single traditional town hall meeting like his predecessor Republican Chris Gibson and Democrat Scott Murphy in his entire term in office. Faso also does not announce public appearances, and his "Public Schedule" web page has been blank for over six months. Delgado puts appearances on his "Events" page at midnight before the events.
• Woodstock radio station WDST (100.1-FM) pulled the National Republican Congressional Committee ads bashing Democrat Antonio Delgado from its airwaves this week calling the ads, "highly offensive and factually distorted." Delgado is trying to unseat Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook) in the November election. There are two NRCC anti-Delgado spots airing over-and-over on social media and local television and radio stations. There more music criticism than political think-pieces, focusing more on a hip hop album Delgado released 12 years ago, than on any of his political opinions, and have been called racist by some. Gary Chetkof, WDST's president, wrote on Facebook Sept. 20, "While we try not to impose censorship restrictions and while we do support the free exchange of ideas (even those we do not support), we believe these ads are highly offensive and factually distorted. Therefore after extensive conversation with our FCC attorneys in order to understand our right to not run these political ads, we have decided to discontinue these advertisements." Political observers suggested the NRCC may complain to the Federal Communications Commission about the decision.
• The Daily Freeman is reporting a Rhinebeck resident is looking to have a decision overturned that gave independent 19th Congressional District candidate Diane Neal a spot on the ballot in November. Paperwork was filed September 21, on behalf of Rima Liscum, a member of the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee and supporter of Neal's opponent, Democrat Antonio Delgado. Liscum is looking to reverse the decision by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court that overturned a lower-court ruling that Neal's nominating petitions lacked sufficient signatures. The appellate decision sided with Neal's argument that she was not property served notice of the petitions' deficiencies. Neal, Delgado and Green Party candidate Steve Greenfield are all vying to unseat first-term Republican Congressman John Faso on November 6. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.
• Nick Reisman reports at New York State of Politics that the Spectrum television network will show live video of a debate between Republican incumbent John Faso and Democrat Antonio Delgado Oct. 23 from the Woodstock Playhouse. Capital Tonight’s Liz Benjamin and Spectrum News Washington reporter Jeevan Vittal will moderate the discussion between the 19th congressional district candidates. In other campaign news, the Faso campaign is attempting to you one of their candidates perceived weakness against his opponent. The Faso campaign is pointing out that the Delgado campaign has stopped doing television interviews. “The same week Antonio Delgado refused to debate in Delaware County, we receive confirmation he is restricting the press’ access to him while on the trail,” said Joe Gierut, communications director for the Faso campaign. “Mr. Delgado continues to mislead voters and his refusal to debate with each of the qualified candidates in Delaware County, after trying to claim Congressman Faso is avoiding debates, is hypocrisy in its purest form. The facts are Mr. Delgado is the one avoiding debates in addition to avoiding television reporters and their requests to do interviews.” Faso has agreed to an Oct. 24 interview on WGXC, but has not held a single traditional town hall meeting like his predecessor Republican Chris Gibson and Democrat Scott Murphy in his entire term in office. Faso also does not announce public appearances, and his "Public Schedule" web page has been blank for over six months. Delgado puts appearances on his "Events" page at midnight before the events.