Bad news for Ithaca's favorite congressman?
The pistol-packing conspiracy theorist has always been able to count on the college towns in his bizarrely gerrymandered district to overwhelm whatever token opposition the Republicans can muster. Writing in the New York Post,
Imre Beke Jr. says this may be about to change.
But this year might be different for Hinchey. His challenger is George Phillips, a bright, charismatic conservative from Binghamton who knows both the Congress and the district. A former staffer for Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Phillips now teaches history at a Catholic school in Binghamton.
A recent internal Phillips campaign poll showed the gap between the two to have narrowed to seven points, 44 percent to 37 percent -- with Hinchey leading, but below the 50 percent mark, a bad place for any incumbent to be.
Worse still for Hinchey, 19 percent were undecided. They're not undecided about him (not after his 18 years in Congress), but waiting to hear more from his challenger. And so far, the more they know, the more they like Phillips.
The poll -- plus Dick Morris' recent assessment that the seat is a "possible pickup for the GOP" -- has had an impact of its own. "Donations are starting to pour into our race," Phillips recently announced on his Web site. He'll need every donation he can get to make the race competitive.
But Hinchey has certainly left him an opening. The congressman's supporters say voters are just angry about high unemployment and government debt, but they's also upset at his disregard of the district.
Hinchey votes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time -- even though the district is hardly populated with San Francisco Democrats.
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