Last Sunday 5:30 AM found me biking to the Battery where, with a few hundred others, I helped put on BikeNY’s Five Borough Bike Tour. My main job was to ride very slowly, fix flats, gears & chains, hand out water, snacks and encouragement to 30,000 riders. In a previous post I suggested low-key NYC rides you can still go on. Below, I suggest somewhat more adventuresome multi-day rides in order of their physical demands.

When I was a very young teen, I rode on multi-day bike trips organized by the 92nd Street Y and American Youth Hostels. We carried our gear and food; rode 30 or so miles a day on fairly unforgiving 3-speed English touring bikes. I loved it. Heavy duty exercise, lots of unsupervised time on the road for making out, group meals. My dream – never achieved – was to lead those trips.

Fifty years later, in the course of courting, I’ve been getting my wish. On a dare, a couple of years ago I signed up to help put on a multi-day bike ride in the Adirondack Mountains. I practiced and practiced until I could get up the steepest hill in Central Park without collapsing. (Of course, in the Adirondacks, most every hill was steeper and longer than those in Central Park.). Since then, I’ve been on a number of multi-day rides and I want to invite you along.

The following three rides – sponsored by non-profits --, in order of increasing difficulty,

The Journal-News has endorsed
John Hall for Congress over Republican incumbent Sue Kelly. The Journal-News, which is read in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, is the third newspaper with major circulation in the 19th Congressional District to endorse Hall. Previously, he was endorsed by the NY Times and the Middletown Times-Herald-Record which has circulation in Orange and Rockland counties.

The Journal-News in a careful assessment of both candidates stated:

"We recommend Hall, a musician-activist and former school district and local-government official, to district voters in the Nov. 7 election. Driving our call for change: Need for more independence, more critical thinking, less slaving devotion to party ideology - and party mistakes. Kelly has offered none of this"

UPDATE: Elliot Spitzer will campaign with Hall Tuesday and Hillary Clinton will join him Wednesday. (Bill Clinton campaigned for Hall Monday.) And -- a possibly realistic Majority Watch robo-poll (via Kos) pegs Hall leading Kelly 49-47 within the margin of error.

In addition, the Campaign reported raising twice as much in the recent reporting period as Sue Kelly (About 220,000 as compared to 120,000)

Congressional Quarterly has decided that the John Hall-Sue Kelly race in NY's 19Cd is more competitive and adjusted its assessment of the district to "leans Republican." The shift was based, in part, on Kelly's connection to the problems of Mark Foley. When issues of Mr. Foley's contact with House Pages first was brought to the attention of Republican leaders in the House of Representatives in 2000, Sue Kelly was the Chair of the committee overseeing the House Page program. Review the CQ article, here. Sue Kelly's failed leadership in the Foley fiasco gets local coverage as well: (via Ben Smith) the Middletown Times-Herald Record has this report.

See Sue Kelly's reply in Susan Elan's article in the Journal News.
Sue Kelly's votes against veterants were at issue at a Beacon, NY veterns' speak out and press conference Wednesday. The Hall campaign outlined Sue Kelly's anti-vet. votes:
"*Cut access to disability and retirement benefits (HR 1588,

Important developments in the race to face 19th CD incumbent Sue Kelly over the last week showed lots of added steam to the campaign of folk-rock performer John Hall and some to another of his Democratic Party Rivals.

John Hall was endorsed by Jim Martorano, the Yorktown democrat who dropped out of the race four weeks ago. Jim M’s supporters in Westchester and Yorktown may give Hall an assist there. Democracy for Westchester also endorsed Hall. Most importantly, the New York State United Teachers which represents public school teachers in the district endorsed hall today. If the teachers and hospital workers really put effort into their Hall endorsements, that will multiply his already extensive resources. Finally -- folk and rock performers who support Hall will participate in a NYC Town Hall fundraising Concert on August 20, 2006. Jackson Browne, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle and Nanci Griffith (See the Events Notice, for more details).

Judy Aydelott, who has had the lead in fundraising among the Democrats, has been hosting free community dinners around the District in which voter dissatisfaction with Sue Kelly has been the subject of discussion. Aydellot, an attorney and Iraq war opponent was formerly a Republican.

Update on Petitions and Endorsements in the 19th CD race to replace Sue Kelly.

1) Judy Aydelott has been endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus and by Emily’s List.

Her campaign stated that it filed petitions containing 3,554 signatures and that the Hall campaign had filed a “general” challenge to her petitions.

2) John Hall was endorsed by the County Democratic Committees of Orange, Duchess and Rockland counties; The American Federation of Musicians and its Local 802 (orchestra, theatre, club and studio musicians); Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (skilled electricians); United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 (supermarket and grocery store employees); and the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 1. (stage hands etc.) in addition to SEIU 1199

His campaign said it filed more than 4200 signatures on designating petitions.

3) Darren Rigger’s campaign stated that it filed 1,871 signatures and that it expected a “general" challenge to its petitions as well.

4) Ben Schuldiner’s campaign stated it had been endorsed by Vassar College Democrats (a 500-member group) and that the campaign had filed petitions containing more than 2,800 signatures.

The 2nd quarter fundraising reports for candidates has just been released. As part of a coordinated look at NY state seats in play (for list of other blogs, see the end of this post), this report concerns the effort to retire Sue Kelly, the Republican House member from the 19th Congressional District (Northern Westchester, Putnam, Duchess, Orange and Rockland counties) See Map:

http://www.judy4congress.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie...

Kelly a key Bush ally and long time partisan of the War in Iraq, has voting record rated at 13% for a Grade of F from the Drum Major Institute http://www.drummajorinstitute.com/congress/outerenvelope_house.htm and for votes for the “USA Patriot Act and others, her opposition to civil liberties has earned her a life-time score of 21% from the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Freedom Scorecard http://action.aclu.org/site/VoteCenter?page=voteList .

Kelly won re-election in 2004 easily, even though New Yorkers voted for Kerry:

U.S. House -- New York District 19
Updated 11/24/04 1:59 AM ET
Precincts:100% Incumbent* declared winner

Candidates Votes %

Sue W. Kelly * (R)
164,356 67

A progressive Democrat is running for the State Senate in a traditionally Republican area. Brian Keeler, a Daily Kos blogger (NYBri) is running in NY's 41st District, an east of the Hudson district which includes Columbia and Duchess County voters.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/26/9036/13742

Is this the year that a progressive program can win? It feels like it to me. Yesterday's NY Times, you may recall, included an article suggesting Democrats were disarray on State Senate candidates. As I read it, it appeared based on demoralized party insiders. What can grass and net roots do here?

Congratulations to Hudson Valley Democrats. Those of us who want Joe Bruno to experience the joys of minority leadership may want to help Keeler out. Brian Keeler's campaign web site and blog: http://www.keeler2006.com/

[Update]: Way to go Daniel! Keeler is front-paged on Daily Kos, here. Seriously, New Yorkers, show the man some love, right here.

New York City Progressive activists are looking beyond the five boroughs to winnable legislative races around the state. The reason for this is simply the enormous local disparity between the resources available and the small number of targets.

One such winnable race is in the 19th Congressional district, currently represented by Sue Kelly.

Kelly is vulnerable on a number of fronts. The 19th district, when it was drawn in 2000, was already trending Democratic; today, the republican registration advantage has shrunk to under five percent, due in part to an influx of new voters from the City and to general disaffection with republican rule. On that issue, Kelly is perhaps most vulnerable: her votes are cast in lockstep with Tom DeLay's in 90% of cases, and she has taken $12,020 from ARMPAC, the indicted Texan's primary fundraising vehicle. Kelly's race, along with those of the other downstate House republicans being targeted – Fossella and King – is a prime candidate for issues nationalization.

One leading indicator of winnability for this race is the number of contestants on the Democratic side. There are presently five candidates in the primary:

- Judy Aydelott
- John Hall
- Jim Martorano
- Darren Rigger
- Ben Shuldiner

The 19th district race is going to be interesting on several levels. The local Progressive coalition has established a blog dedicated solely to this race, Take 19, which will make it a test case for the use of grassroots blogs as information and activism platforms in local races. On another level, Kelly's district overlaps with other districts featuring vulnerable, targeted incumbents – "Landslide Nick" Spano comes to mind – which in turn likely will create synergy effects between the various campaigns being run in the area in 2006.

Stay tuned.