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Audio Feature: WGXC Congressional Report 201900819

Aug 19, 2019 12:01 am
This is WGXC's Congressional Report, tracking the votes, words, and actions of Rep. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat from Rhinebeck representing the 19th Congressional District, and Paul Tonko, a Democrat from Amsterdam from the 20th Congressional District. The Fivethirtyeight.com website reports that, so far, the first-term Congressperson Delgado votes with Donald Trump's positions 4.7 percent of the time. Since Democrats took over the House of Representatives Tonko also votes with Trump's positions 2.3 percent of the time. In the previous Congressional session, Tonko voted with Trump 22.6 percent of the time. Congress is currently on its August recess. Click here to download or play an audio version of this report (6:51).

David Lombardo is reporting for the Times Union Oneonta Republican and retired National Guard general Anthony German has announced his intention to run for Congress. German will file the necessary paperwork August 14, to challenge first-term U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado in 2020. German says he is inspired to run because the political landscape has become so divisive and that Delgado, a Democrat from Rhinebeck, does not represent the "values of the district." He says Delgado has gone to the "extreme left" of the Congress. German says his own military experience and decades of living in the region has equipped him with the skills and knowledge to do the job better. German retired from the New York National Guard in February with the rank of adjutant general. He was involved in responding to every disaster in the state since 1990, including Hurricane Irene in 2011, and has been deployed all over the world. He believes that his time in the military, where people are "forced to work together," makes him uniquely qualified to work across party lines despite the polarized environment in Washington D.C. German cites health care as an area ripe for compromise. "Democrats have tried one way, Republicans have tried another. Both ways have failed," German said. Asked about the specific path forward to affordable care, he said only, "We'll flush out the details as we move forward." In response to the potential challenge, the Delgado campaign said they are focused on finding bipartisan solutions to lower health care costs, expand rural broadband, support family farmers and help veterans. So far Republican Michael Roth and Ola Hawatmeh have registered campaign committees with the Federal Election Commission. German said he is prepared to run a primary campaign if necessary and does not plan to back out of the race if any high-profile Republicans step in. Read the full story in the Times Union.

• Not much is known about Ola Hawatmeh, another Republican running for the 19th Congressional District office. On June 18 she talked with Jamie Allman on the "Allman in the Morning Podcast."

• Paul Tonko does list any public events this week on his website. Delgado will hold a town hall meeting in Broome County at 6:30 p.m., Aug. 20 at the Deposit State Theater, 148 Front St. in Deposit.
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