The race is in the news everywhere today

Take Back NY's 24th has a good run down on some of the Lobbyists and Bush Administration Insiders that Sweeney had invited to the Lake Placid ski vacation which we, the people, paid for. Go read it here.

Rep. Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) held a fund raiser for several endangered Republicans yesterday. Sweeney is on the list. When Boehner was running for majority leader, he claimed he was going to reform the lobbyist problems in Washington. Now that he's in Delay's shoes, he hasn't done it and in fact is raising funds faster than Tom DeLay did. Of course we know why he wants to keep Sweeney around - they both say one thing and do another.

The 20th is on the list of Republican districts where Democratic groups are working on winning back the house. Read the full story in today's The Hill.

Kirsten Gillibrand is quoted in this report about the 5 day non-partisan Women's Campaign School she attended.

The TU Blog has photos of the Sweeney Campaign and Official House websites which both used the same photo and text in another House ethics violation on Sweeney's part. As with the ORDA issue, Sweeney's spinners just deny the violations. Of course the photo has disappeared from Sweeney's campaign site. So if it wasn't an improper use of the photo, why the jump to remove it? The Post Star covered the ethics violation and Gillibrand's debate challenge in today's paper:

U.S. Rep. John Sweeney has violated ethics policies by using the same photograph on his congressional and campaign Web sites, his Democratic opponent's campaign said Wednesday. Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign also said there was duplicated text on the two sites. The House Ethics Committee's campaign booklet states that official House resources may not be used for campaign purposes, a press release stated.

"Sweeney has difficulty drawing the line between taxpayer-funded items and campaign assets and needs to stop using his position in public service for self-serving measures," said Allison Price, Gillibrand's spokeswoman. ...

Last month, Gillibrand challenged Sweeney to a debate on Iraq issues, but the congressman refused to debate until after a Democratic primary. Since that time, two other candidates dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination, leaving Gillibrand as the party's only candidate. ...

Still no word from Sweeney on when he's planning to take her up on her challenge. (insert whatever noise an ostrich makes here.)