Ball Makes New York Congressional Run Official

By Emily Cadei | May 9, 2009 6:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Greg Ball

Republican Assemblyman Greg Ball is officially in the race for New York's 19th Congressional District seat.

Ball, who joined the New York Assembly in 2007, had been exploring a race against second-term Rep. John Hall since earlier this year and has already conducted extensive outreach in the district.

"This is going to be a positive campaign to reclaim the American dream for blue collar families in the Hudson Valley," Ball pledged Saturday in Westchester County. "Blue collar folks like my family and friends feel shafted by elitist politicians on both sides of the aisle. The unsustainable spending, the bailouts, the corporate welfare, the runaway defense contracts; all of this must stop."

Ball, a former Air Force captain, is seeking to position himself as a reformer, something Hall did successfully when he upset Republican Sue Kelly in the Republican-leaning district in 2006. Ball made a name for himself early in his Assembly career by speaking out against more seasoned Albany veterans.

Kieran Lalor, the 2008 Republican nominee for the seat, highlighted that record in backing Ball on Saturday. "Assemblyman Ball has shaken some sense into Albany and I think he's the man to knock a little sense into the elites in Congress."

Hall defeated Lalor 59 percent to 41 percent in November. His defeat of Kelly in the longtime Republican district was one of the biggest surprises of the 2006 cycle which swept Democrats to power in the House.

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Comments

If Assemblyman Ball is indeed a reformer and a defender of blue collar families, great. If he is not a far-right conservative, however, the Republican Party may not welcome him. The GOP is, after all, the party of woefully out of touch knee-jerk ultra rightwingers. If former GOP incumbent Sue Kelly was still around she probably would have either defected to the Democrats by now or have been challenged (and possibly defeated) in her own primary by a ultra rightwinger. Ball can run all he wants, but unless he also wants to shake some sense into his out of touch party, he will just be another useless rightwing obstructionist...and do we really need more of them around?

Posted by: mag_amberson | May 11, 2009 7:47 PM