Election season heating up, power plant in Rensselaer up and running, frat's purchase of former church OK'ed, protecting kid critic from spotlight's glare

The two candidates for the 21st Congressional District -- incumbent Democrat Paul Tonko and Republican Ted Danz -- debated last night on WMHT. They differed on a range of issues -- the stimulus bill (Tonko: it helped locally; Danz: it didn't), the health care reform bill (Tonko: aiming for perfection, got progress; Danz: what a bunch of baloney), the economy (Tonko: "failed policies brought this economy to our knees"; Danz: "We don't even have knees anymore.") [WMHT] [Daily Gazette] [Fox23] [TU]

Whoever's elected governor, it looks like state spending cuts are on the way. [Bloomberg via Daily Politics]

Andrew Cuomo's business and political relationship with Andrew Farkas, a businessman investigated by HUD when Cuomo was housing secretary, is continuing to draw attention. [NYT]

Chris Gibson, the Republican challenging Scott Murphy for the 20th Congressional District, has suggested that unemployed people might be steered toward farm work. [TU CapCon]

State senator Hugh Farley and challenger Susan Savage continue to sling mud at each other, somewhat awkwardly. [WNYT]

Bob Domenici, the Republican challenger to Neil Breslin for the state Senate: "I'm not for gay marriages because I'm Catholic, but, dammit, you know I had people in my unit who were gay. I never turned them in because they were the best damn soldiers I ever had." [TU]

The two candidates for the 105th state Assembly district -- incumbent Republican George Amedore and Democrat Angelo Santabarbara -- seem to agree on most topics (well, except for who should be elected). [TU]

A TV spot for incumbent Democratic assemblyman Bob Reilly (Colonie) touts how his donated legislative salary is helping "find a cure for cancer." [TU CapCon]

Update: Due to Greg's inability to copy and paste correctly, the rest of today's Morning Blend was lost. A few of the links have been added after the jump.

A new power plant that can supply electricity to 750,000 homes is up and running in Rensselaer. [Troy Record]

Columbia Development presented the master plan for the redevelopment of the downtown Troy block that includes the old Proctor's Theater. [Troy Record]

The Troy planning board gave the OK for an RPI fraternity to buy the former St. Francis de Sales church. [Troy Record]

The family of kid film critic Jackson Murphy is trying to shield him from criticism. [TU]

Says medical illustrator -- and Albany resident -- Bill Westwood: "I see surgery as a graphic novel." [TU]

Comments

Please, anyone with some extra knees, send them to Ted Danz. He's run out.

I think the LCJ story as well as some others didn't make the post.

Amedore couldn't answer any questions presented to him at the Schenectady Co Chamber forum. Jim Tedisco was forced to assist Amedore to reply to several questions presented to all the candidates. Very amusing to see who are elected officials are.

@Ceceila: Erp. There was a copy/paste fail. And now the rest has been lost to the digital void. I'll try to add back some of the links.

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