Paul Kirby is reporting in the Daily Freeman Woodstock-based attorney David Clegg is the eighth Democrat to eye the 19th Congressional District seat. The trial lawyer, church deacon and former public defender will formally announce his intention to challenge first-term Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso at an event July 9 in Kingston. “I believe that we are fighting for the soul of our country,” Clegg said in a phone interview Mon., Jun. 26. “The Republican agenda is going to hurt a tremendous amount of people in our community.” Clegg said the health care bill currently before the Senate is “a tax break for the rich. It is sacrificing people who are vulnerable,” he said. “... It is going to harm a catastrophic number of people.” Clegg is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz and the University of Buffalo Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. After law school, he served as a VISTA volunteer representing Native Americans in western Nebraska and South Dakota. Clegg served as an assistant Ulster County public defender for nine years in the 1980s and 1990s. He is currently chairman of the Ulster County Human Rights Commission. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.