Capital Tonight Reports: Apparently, the anti-Lew Fidler ad that appeared today in a number of downstate Orthodox Jewish newspapers is just the tip of the iceberg for Nachman Caller, a wealthy real estate attorney who has been trying to break into politics for some time now.

The ad, first reported this morning by City & State blogger Chris Bragg, doesn’t mention the Democratic NYC Councilman by name. But it does urge Orthodox Jewish voters to repeat the “Kiddush Hashem” (sanctification of G-d’s name) of electing someone like Republican Rep. Bob Turner who shares “Torah values” and opposes “same-gender marriage.”

What Caller is essentially saying here is that it’s a miztvah to reject a fellow Jew who “tramples” on conservative Orthodox beliefs, and that G-d cares who represents Jews in government. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you’re on board with that one.

A source who spoke to Caller said there’s more where this came from. He’s apparently willing to spend some $50,000 of his own money to defeat Fidler and help his GOP opponent, David Storobin. That could entail buying as many as 10 newspaper ads between now and the March 20th special election for former Sen. Carl Kruger’s seat, or possibly spreading that amount between ads and mailers.

This source also said Caller will definitely be running for Senate himself if Fidler wins. He would be running in the so-called “Super-Jewish” district proposed by the Senate Republicans, assuming their redistricting plan withstands the Democrats’ court challenge.

According to this source, Fidler has a pretty good shot at winning the special election in the current 27th SD. But high percentage of Orthodox Jewish voters in the new district, as conceived by the GOP, would be an uphill battle for him.

Meanwhile, Hamodia, an influential Orthodox Jewish publication, printed a front-page opinion piece warning Fidler he’s treading on “thin ice” by throwing around words like “Nazi” and “white supremacist” in connection with the writings of his opponent, Storobin, whom the paper describes as a “regular shul-goer.”

Storobin’s campaign fought back today by releasing a photo montage of “family members who died fighting the Nazis in World War II and who were murdered by Soviet persecutors for being Jewish.”

Fidler’s campaign seemed to back away from the whole mess, saying through a spokeswoman: “With a long record of experience and results to run on, Councilman Fidler wants this campaign to be about what the community needs, not Mr. Storobin’s peculiar internet relationships.”

Read Full Article: Capital Tonight

Left: Allen West, Right: Adam Hasner

Daniel Treiman Reports in Capital J Blog: Freshman Republican Rep. Allen West, and, was one of the top 2012 election targets of Democrats, who are hoping to take back his South Florida district and take out an outspoken Tea Party favorite.

But it turns out West is a moving target.

West announced yesterday that he is abandoning Florida’s 22nd district to run in another, more Republican district. A prominent Jewish Republican will reportedly try to take West’s place in the district.

Adam Hasner, a former majority leader of Florida’s House of Representatives, was running for the Republican nomination for Senate, but he had been trailing badly in the polls ever since Rep. Connie Mack IV jumped in the GOP race. Now reports say he will be running in the 22nd.

Even with the high-profile and polarizing West out of the picture, the race to win Florida’s 22nd could be a hard fought.

Two Democrats had been vying to replace West: Lois Frankel, the Jewish former mayor of West Palm Beach, and construction company exec Patrick Murphy (who until last year was a registered Republican), both of whom have been raising real money.

West beat Democratic incumbent Ron Klein in the 2010 Republican surge in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, which hugs the coast in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Florida’s proposed redistricting map (drawn by the Republican state legislature, whose artistic license was limited somewhat by the state’s new redistricting reforms) has made it lean more Democratic.

On West’s decision to switch districts, CBS News reports:

West will run in the new 18th district in South Florida, which is mostly comprised of the current 16th district. Republican Rep. Tom Rooney currently represents the 16th district, but he announced earlier Tuesday that he would seek re-election in the open 17th district rather than the new 18th district.

“I have always believed the state of Florida would be best served by having both Congressman Tom Rooney and myself in the House of Representatives working to solve our nation’s most pressing problems,” West said in a statement. “It is my goal to continue the success Congressman Rooney has had in Florida’s 16th Congressional district in the newly proposed 18th district. I welcome the challenges and excitement that lie ahead.”

A Miami Herald blogger labeled the shifting around of Republican candidates a “musical-chairs game” and cautions that things could change if Democrats successfully sue to redraw the redistricting maps.

Read More: Capital J (JTA)

Councilman Charles Barron

City Councilman Charles Barron dusted off the campaign account from his last congressional challenge in 2006, and filed a year-end report last night for his current campaign against longtime incumbent Ed Towns.

Barron, who announced his second campaign for Brooklyn’s tenth congressional district in late November, reported raising $17,615 from five donors.

Barron contributed $8,625, and his wife, Assemblywoman Inez Barron, gave $4,100.

As expected, Barron’s fund-raising puts him at a distant third among the three candidates. Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries reported $235,000 in cash on hand yesterday, and Towns reported having $162,000.

The Tenth District also covers the Williamsburg Section of Brooklyn which is heavily populated by Ultra Orthodox Jewish residents.

Depicted in the photos are: Storobin’s grandfather, Pinchuf Storobin, who fought the Nazis in WWII (five of his brothers were killed in action); Storobin’s great uncle, Isaac Gokhman (also killed in action fighting Nazis in WWII); Storobin’s other great uncle, Myron Gokhman (murdered in the former Soviet Union in 1989 for being Jewish); the Hebrew gravesite of Storobin’s grandmother’s, Mira Gokhman (fled to Israel from the former Soviet Union); and a young David Storobin (age 11) with his mother Anna in the United States after fleeing the Soviet Union in 1991

Vosizneias Reports: One day after Democrat state senate candidate Lew Fidler doubled down on his false and malicious claim that his Republican opponent David Storobin has “ties to skinheads and neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist groups” (direct quote), Storobin fired back releasing a series of family photos showing relatives who were killed by Nazis and Soviet religious persecutors.

“Mr. Fidler, these are my true ‘ties,’” charged Storobin, invoking Fidler’s own words. “These are my family members who died fighting the Nazis in World War II and who were murdered by Soviet persecutors for being Jewish. These are the blood ties I share with so many other Jewish people in our community whose families were also persecuted and killed. This is what is real, Mr. Fidler. Not your false and outrageous claims that I have ties to neo-Nazis and skinheads.”

Storobin continued, “Once again, Mr. Fidler, I demand that you retract your offensive statements and apologize to my family and the broader community for using the memory of murdered Jews to spread an untrue attack rumor for your own political gain.”

Storobin, who’s vying for disgraced Carl Kruger’s vacant state senate seat in Brooklyn, is a devout Jew whose family escaped the former Soviet Union from religious persecution and whose extended family were victims of the Holocaust.

Despite Storobin’s well documented faith and support for the zionist movement, Fidler has been falsely attacking him for alleged ties to neo-Nazi groups. Those claims are baseless and were made in an effort to try and undermine Storobin’s candidacy and score political points with the Brooklyn Jewish community.

Read More at: Vosizneias.com

This Morning the Fidler Campaign released the following Statement:

Brooklyn, New York – Last night, Councilman Lew Fidler accepted the endorsement by “No Bad Apples” for his candidacy for the State Senate.  Started by Senator Liz Krueger, No Bad Apples’ mission is to help elect “good apples” to the State Senate.

“This endorsement is especially meaningful to me.  I’m honored to have the ‘Good Apple’ Stamp of Approval and to be endorsed by my friend Senator Liz Krueger,” said Councilman Fidler.  “She and I have been partners in our commitment to cleaning up government, and I am so pleased to run on the same kind of platform that she did 10 years ago: reforming Albany.”

“I could practically hear a sigh of relief coming from Brooklyn when Lew Fidler decided to run for State Senate and I can understand why,” said Senator Liz Krueger.  “As a Council member, Lew Fidler has a strong track record of service to his constituents. He speaks his mind and ensures his constituents and those around him always know where he stands — something voters in the 27th District have not seen in a state senator in quite some time. I would be honored to serve with Lew in the Senate and look forward to helping him win this election.”

No Bad Apples was formed by Senator Krueger to elect “good government” leaders to the Senate.  This is the first endorsement by No Bad Apples.  The endorsement follows Councilman Fidler’s endorsement by former Mayor Ed Koch for the Special Election for State Senate on March 20th.

Nachman Caller

City & State Reports: A potential candidate for Brooklyn’s “Super Jewish” state Senate seat is using an organization he runs to bash Democratic Senate candidate Lew Fidler’s position in favor of gay marriage.

The potential candidate, a wealthy Orthodox Jewish real estate attorney named Nachman Caller, is placing the below ad in several of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish newspapers this week, including the prominent daily Hamodia, according to a source close to Caller. Caller is doing so through an organization he chairs called Family First, though I couldn’t immediately track down any tax or incorporation records for the group.

Caller’s ad says the election last summer of Republican Rep. Bob Turner, who opposes same sex marriage, upheld “Torah values” – and calls for the Orthodox community to do the same in the same in the special election to replace convicted State Sen. Carl Kruger. The ad does not mention Fidler or his anti-gay marriage Republican opponent, David Storobin, by name, but it does prominently display Caller’s.

Once the general election for Kruger’s seat is finished on Mar. 20, the victor will have to run again in a primary and a general election in a district that will likely be drawn far more heavily Orthodox. Neither Fidler nor Storobin are Orthodox Jewish.

Caller ad

Read More at: City & State

Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky

NYO Reports: A Brighton Beach rabbi sent an open letter to City Council Lew Fidler telling him to tone down his attacks on David Storobin, his GOP opponent in the State Senate.

“Right from the outset, you have made it clear that you are determined to stake your campaign in the shifty foundation of negativity and fear mongering, ” writes Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky of the Jewish Center of Brighton Beach.

“You did so when you not once, but many times falsely accused a member of my congregation, your opponent David Storobin, of (and I quote) “having ties to skinheads and neo-Nazi groups and white supremacist groups.

Let me first state unequivocally that your outrageous claims are totally baseless and untrue. I know David; and I must insist to you and everyone that the one thing David Storobin is not, is a neo-Nazi or skinhead sympathizer.”

Lew Fidler Camp released this today afternoon:

Today Councilman Fidler’s campaign for State Senate called on his opponent, Mr. Storobin, to release all writings, interview transcripts, and links to white supremacist and skinhead sites that have been wiped from the internet since Mr. Storobin announced his candidacy for State Senate.

As soon as questions started swirling regarding his writings, Mr. Storobin’s entire internet archive was wiped clean, but his interviews and articles on hate websites remain. Additionally, Mr. Storobin held a smoke-and-mirrors press conference hours ago where he offered no denial or explanation as to the connection between himself and why these writings appear on hate websites.

“Mr. Storobin should stop hiding his true beliefs,” said campaign spokeswoman, Jenn Krinsky. “If there was nothing offensive in any of these writings or interviews, then why did Mr. Storobin delete them from his website, and leave us only the writings that still exist on white supremacist and hate sites, such as Stormfront, American Renaissance or Phora?”

Stormfront is a white nationalist and supremacist internet forum, described as the first internet hate site. American Renaissance is a monthly racialist magazine. Some of Mr. Storobin’s writings appear on these websites, which are inherently sympathetic to the causes of the white separatist Afrikaner Independence Movement, the Minutemen and other extremists. The website of Phora proclaims to “discuss racialism, eugenics, nationalism, holocaust revisionism, history, philosophy, science, politics.”

All of the archived documents are reproductions of Mr. Storobin’s original writings. The originals have been deleted from where they were hosted in the wake of Mr. Storobin’s announcement that he would be running for the State Senate against Mr. Fidler.

Randy Altschuler

Chris Bragg Reports: Republican businessman Randy Altschuler, who is running a rematch this year against Suffolk County Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop, raised a solid $215,000 over the past fundraising quarter, according to a disclosure filed yesterday. But he still is far behind the Democratic incumbent in total dollars in the bank.

Altschuler retains $583,000 in cash on hand, and still owes himself $500,000 for a loan he took out during his extremely narrow loss to Bishop in 2010. Bishop’s last filing in October showed $998,000 on hand, and his January filing is not yet available.

Altschuler, who won a divisive three-way Republican primary in 2010, now has most local establishment Republican support behind him, but still will face a challenge from one of his 2010 opponents, George Demos, who continues to lob attacks about Altschuler’s past career that involved outsourcing jobs.

The January filing for Demos shows only $12,800 raised over the last quarter, and $86,000 on hand.

Dov & Yoni Hikind

There are conflicting reports in the orthodox Jewish news outlets on whether Yoni Hikind the son of Assemblyman Dov Hikind is going to run for the new Super Jewish Senate District or not.

The Yeshiva World News ran the following piece earlier today:

YWN sources revealed over the weekend that New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind is considering running his son, Yoni, for the newly created Super-Jewish Senate Seat. The seat was created by the Republican party in hopes of attracting a serious Republican candidate and Hikind’s son may be that candidate. “Dov feels like he has made a come-back over the last couple of years,” said one of our sources. “What better way to complete that come-back than by electing his own son to the New York State Senate.”

One veteran political observer noted, “it’s hard not to look at Dov’s new district and the new Super-Jewish district and wonder what the heck happened. These districts are supposed to be drawn separately by the Assembly and the Senate. Somehow, these two districts are virtually identical. That has to be the single biggest coincidence this year.”

Hikind’s son, Yoni, is a political unknown. However, sources say that Hikind may be willing to spend much of his own campaign money to promote the Hikind brand. With the two new districts overlapping, according to one campaign finance expert, Hikind could legitimately spend his campaign money to promote the Hikind name which would also help his son who may be running at the same time.

However, that expert cautioned that “what Dov is doing is quite risky. On the one hand if he wins he will cement his legacy as a Jewish power broker. If he loses, however, it may be the end of his political career.”

Assemblyman Hikind did not respond to YWN’s request for comment on this story.

Several Hours Later Assemblyman Dov Hikind gave an exclusive interview to  Vosizneias.com and vehemently denied the reports, the following is the piece that VIN ran:

Reports that Yoni Hikind, son of New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, is contemplating a run for the senate seat that will serve the proposed newly created “Super Jewish” Senate District have been dismissed as completely unfounded by the senior Hikind, who says he has no idea how the rumors regarding his son got started.

“I wish I could convince Yoni to run for public office,” said Hikind in an exclusive interview with VIN News.  “They don’t make them more sincere, more honest and more passionate than Yoni and I hope that one day I can encourage him to use those abilities as a public official.  But he has only one interest at this point in time – devoting his life to saving Jewish kids. Yoni has no interest in any political office at this point in time.”

Thirty one year old Yoni Hikind, a Brooklyn therapist, is heavily involved with Yeshiva Simchas Chaim, a school that serves at risk teens.  The school is now in its third year and Assemblyman Hikind had nothing but praise for his son.

“He brings kids home to my house on Shabbos all the time.  What he is doing is truly remarkable and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Politicker Reports: In an interview with Shimon Gifter, Republican State Senator Marty Golden praised the new district, which will neighbor his. “I was very happy with my seat, obviously,” he said. “A new Jewish seat will  be a good seat for the future for the state, and I thought that was well-designed as well.”

“When you take a look at the swath of the Brooklyn, when you take a look at the Hasidic, you take a look at the Sephardic, you took a look at the Russians, you take a look at the community of Brooklyn, it’s a large, tremendous a large, tremendous Jewish community and — rightfully so — should have their own representation,” he said. “I believe we’ll hopefully see a Republican in that seat in the near future and representing them in the majority in the Senate.”

Republican Congressman Bob Turner, who won his seat in an upset last year with heavy support from the Orthodox Jewish community, supported the new district as well, saying the new seat would  ”be in the community’s interest, as well as mine.”

On the other side of the partisan coin, Democratic Councilman Lew Fidler, who’s running in a special election for the seat the new map chops up to create its Jewish-dominated district, also supported keeping these communities intact. “Neighborhoods should be brought together by their commonality of interests, the type of people that live there. Russian voters shouldn’t be divided up into three different districts. Othodox voters shouldn’t be divided up,” he said.

However, unlike the Republicans interviewed, Mr. Fidler blasted the redistricting process in the harsh terms, saying it “was one of the reasons people are so cynical about politics.” He interestingly used Mr. Golden’s awkwardly-shaped district to describe a district that is part of this cynical process. “There’s no reason that — we’re in Marine Park this morning — why Marine Park is part of the Senate District that’s in Bay Ridge. It makes no sense unless you’re looking at in in a partisan, political way. People are tired of that and it should stop. It’s gotta stop.”

Ken Lovett Reports: “I believe it’s a Democratic seat and would be won by a Democrat,” Silver said.

Insiders say they expect one Republican seat and one Democratic seat to be redistricted out of existence.

Democrats are now looking at the upstate seat belonging to Maurice Hinchey, who recently announced he will retire at the end of his term.

Forward Reports: Wendy Greuel, who as Los Angeles city controller oversees the city’s  finances, is the only one of four Democratic candidates in the 2013 race for  mayor who isn’t Jewish, a detail that did not prevent Greuel from attending  services at no fewer than four synagogues during last year’s High Holy Days.

The synagogue shuttling, as well as Greuel’s penchant for showing up at  events like the Jewish Federation’s “Imagining Our Future” seminar in December,  might be seen as simply good politics in a city where the 6% of the population  that is Jewish delivers an outsized 16% to 18% of the vote.

But Greuel says it’s a genuine passion — and, after all, she married into the  faith.

Read More

News Times Reports: Looking to rekindle the political fire that earned him favor among  Rockefeller Republicans, Reagan Democrats  and independents in a swing district that went to Barack  Obama in the last presidential election when he was swept out of office,  Republican former U.S. Rep. Christopher  Shays formally embarked Wednesday on his U.S.  Senate run.

Shays, 66, chose the Old  State House in Hartford, an 18th-century landmark just a few blocks from  where he served in the General  Assembly, for a belated campaign kickoff event that drew a mix of Republican  leaders and former aides.

A casualty of the 2008 election who represented the 4th Congressional  District for 21 years before losing his home city of Bridgeport, Shays touted  himself as an independent-minded public servant who is willing to put his  principles ahead of his party to balance the federal budget, create a national  energy policy and build consensus in a town known for  partisan gridlock.

“The madness in Washington cannot continue,” Shays said. “Washington is  broken, the Senate isn’t working. Nothing is getting done.”

ALBANY — The state Senate GOP wants to bring to Queens the chamber’s first Asian-majority district to go along with an Orthodox Jewish-majority district in Brooklyn, the Daily News has learned.

The proposed changes — including the creation of a new Senate district in the Albany area — will be part of the once-a-decade redrawing of legislative district lines, which both houses of the Legislature will unveil Wednesday.

With the Asian population in Queens having grown by more than 120,000 over the past decade, the new Senate lines would create a district that would be 52% Asian, a source briefed on the plan said. The district would be based in Flushing.

Since an incumbent lawmaker does not live in the proposed district, the community can “elect a candidate of their choosing,” the source said.

Presently there are no Asian members in the Senate and just one in the Assembly.

On the Assembly side, the new lines are expected to keep Assemblywoman Grace Meng’s Queens district largely intact while creating an Asian-majority district in Queens that will cut into the districts currently represented by Rory Lancman and David Weprin, a second source said.

The Senate GOP will propose an Orthodox Jewish-majority district in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, the first source said.

The new district would consolidate the Orthodox Jewish community into one district, rather than spread the population out over five as is now the case, the source said.

“Legally, we’re keeping communities of interests together, which is what we’re required to do,” the source briefed on the plan said.

The GOP will also propose to create a 63rd Senate seat that would cut across five upstate counties and, for the first time, divide the Democrat-dominated Albany region. The GOP says that would do away with the current possibility of a 31-to-31 logjam.

Democrats in the Senate said they have expected that the GOP majority would come up with an “abusively partisan” redistricting plan so they can keep their one-seat edge.

“Any claims of fairness will simply be a smokescreen,” said Democratic Senate Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens).

Cuomo has been negotiating with the Legislature to come up with a compromise.

Read more: NY Daily News

Politicker Reports: Special election candidate David Storobin, who already has the Republican and Conservative lines in his campaign to replace former State Senator Carl Kruger, will likely be unsuccessful in his efforts to be on a third “School Choice Party” line, a Democratic source told Politicker.

The Democrat explained that 2,387 valid signatures were needed for an independent ballot line in this State Senate district — an awkward number as it’s calculated from the number of votes the district cast in the last gubernatorial election. Apparently Mr. Storobin fell several hundred signatures short of this goal.

Mr. Storobin’s bid to be on the School Choice line will still be successful if his signatures remain unchallenged, but the Democratic source suggested strongly that they will be challenged, additionally arguing that the lack of signatures shows a lack of organization for the aspiring State Senator.

“We wanted David Storobin’s name to appear with the School Choice emblem on the ballot so that the voters would know where David stands on that issue. We wouldn’t expect a whole lot of votes on the School Choice on the line, but it would be information for the voters,” School Choice Party Chair Gary Popkin said in an interview.

Politico: “I think it will be nearly impossible” for Democrats to win back the House in  November, Boehner said. “I think our freshmen members are doing a good job  preparing themselves for the upcoming election. I would also note that  redistricting across the country has helped those freshmen members and others in  tough seats who will now have better seats. So I think we’re in pretty strong  shape for the year ahead.” Boehner said he thought it “quite likely” the party  would maintain control of the House through at least 2020, “as long as we listen  to the American people and follow their will.”

With his party controlling much of the redistricting process this go round,  Boehner pointed to his home state of Ohio as an example of Republican success in  using line-drawing to bolster potentially vulnerable members by shoring up their  districts. Republicans hold 13 of Ohio’s 18 seats and Democrats have few  opportunities to make significant inroads there, Boehner argued.

The Hill Reports: It would be hard to find a newer face in Congress than that of Rep. Bob Turner (R-N.Y.).

Still somewhat of a stranger even to the House freshmen, Turner triumphed in a political coup last fall to replace scandal-ridden former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D), whose Brooklyn-Queens seat had not been held by a Republican since 1923.

The news of Turner’s win was largely overshadowed in Washington by the Solyndra loan controversy and the launch of the House GOP’s fall agenda. In New York, however, stories ran for weeks.

Recently, in the spacious Rayburn office he inherited from Weiner, Turner said of politics: “I’m not really in this business.

“I had never even attended a political fundraiser before,” he told The Hill. “I sent checks to people — that’s it.”

Still, the lifelong Queens resident and retired media executive — he was a producer on “Jerry Springer” and “Baywatch” — was not totally green when he became the GOP nominee.

In 2010, he had mounted what he termed a “not exactly quixotic” run against the then-congressman, collecting 39 percent of the vote.

“In running media companies, you’re dealing with popular culture and popular psychology in a way that is not much different from politics,” he said.

“Still, we were well out of gas by those last two weeks of the [2010] campaign. When they really put the heat on, it didn’t turn out to be much of a contest.”

Soon enough, however, Turner saw he might not have to wait until 2012 for another opportunity.

“I watched [Weiner] on television and he said his [Twitter] account was hacked,” Turner said. “As soon as he said that, I knew where this was going … one way or another, he was not in good shape.”

Turner’s campaign hardened around his conservative approach to Israel. Specifically at issue was a May 2011 speech by President Obama calling for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders.

“I was interested in painting my opponent (Democratic State Assemblyman David Weprin) as a supporter of the president’s policy, which he was,” Turner said.

The campaign effectively made the link, and as a result Turner landed a heady endorsement from former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Koch, a Jewish Democrat who is heavily pro-Israel, said that in endorsing Turner, he wanted to “send a message to the White House.”

Turner said the former mayor’s support helped sway the more secular Jewish community to his side.

A framed letter from Koch dated Sept. 2 — the day before the special election — hangs prominently in Turner’s office.

“It says: ‘I know you’re going to win,’” Turner said. “He was convinced, and so was I.”

Turner has continued to emphasize Israel during his first four months in the House.

During the most recent House recess, he traveled there as part of a delegation sponsored by an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, visiting strategic sites and meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“You’d think that with all of the problems they’re ringed with, it would affect their attitude,” he said.

“But at all levels, from the guy on the street to the government ministers, I saw confidence and optimism.”

He added that the troops and security checkpoints that defined the landscape a decade ago, during the second Palestinian uprising, have vanished.

“You could have been in Miami as you walk around,” he said.

Back in Washington on Wednesday, Turner voted with his GOP colleagues to pass a resolution disapproving Obama’s request for another increase in the debt ceiling.

But with the Senate expected to defeat it, the increase will likely take effect — even Turner called the vote “theater.”

“If you vote ‘no,’ [the debt limit] will be raised $1.2 trillion. If you vote ‘yes,’ it’ll be raised $1.2 trillion … this is just nonsense,” he said.

His two priorities now are to support future efforts for a federal balanced-budget amendment and to “be in the fight in ‘12.”

The second goal could prove challenging: Before the voters handed Turner his win, many believed the 9th district would be eliminated during the state’s redistricting process.

Those new maps have not been drawn, even in rough draft, but Turner said he is not concerned about the outcome.

“No matter where the lines end up, I’ll be ready to compete,” he said.

Read full Story at; The Hill

Digitiral Journal Reports: The Christian Baylor University of Texas has completed a study  that shows if a person votes or completes a survey near or in a church location,  they will usually be more politically conservative.

FoxNews: In a letter dated Thursday, Wilson says the analysis  found 953 ballots cast by voters listed as dead. In 71 percent of those cases,  ballots were cast between two months and 76 months after the people died. That  means they “voted” up to 6 1/3 years after their death.

The letter doesn’t say in which elections the  ballots were cast.

The analysis came out of research for the state’s  new voter identification law. The U.S. Justice Department denied clearance of  that law.