Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco was chosen by county party bosses as the Republican candidate for the March 31 special election to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20 (the district that covers Greene and Columbia counties), after she was appointed to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

Tedisco lost in a squeaker to Scott Murphy, gave up his Assembly leadership post under pressure, and sulked for a few months.

But he came out of his funk, and started campaigning for a NY-20 rematch with his usual shtick of faux-populist press releases, ready availability to print reporters, call-ins to conservative talk radio shows, and, in a nod to how media have changed, a blog on the Albany Times Union website. The Times Union is evidently comfortable with hosting political candidates on their site, as long as they have not formally announced.

And it gives obvious candidates like Tedisco campaign blogs where never a discouraging word is heard, since the candidate gets to moderate comments. I found that part out when I made some comments under Tedisco's posts, and none of them got posted.