Comments on: Ball has a friend in RACC

By: zzzz

zzzz — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:25:53 +0000

No actually voter makes their decision just from lohudblogs comments, you can stop the astroturfing. All the lies you’ve been spreading about Mr. Ball haven’t fooled anyone.

By: Melissa H.

Melissa H. — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:00:26 +0000

Mr. Ball sounds like an opportunist for his own personal gains. Maybe this is what politicians are about but people are upset with elected officials with our economy and will vote for change.

We need a new representative in the 99th, one that does not thrive on the weakness of other people. One that does care about the people they represent and not pick and choose just to gain attention.

Ball must go.

By: JB

JB — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:11:37 +0000

The key point here is Greg Ball wanted the Democratic Party nomination in 2006. He was denied the endorsement and now he citizens Degnan for considering accepting the nomination. Why can’t Degnan be a man of the people? I would hope that all our elected officials represent all their constituents and not just those of their party affiliation. Being a man of the people is a good thing, I think we need a well balanced Assemblyman in the 99th District and not a man who runs around like Greg Ball acting bizarre and trying to intimidate those who disagree with him. John Degnan is a good man who will serve of all with dignity and pride.

By: Kathi

Kathi — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:27:21 +0000

The Liberal Whiners post is a joke right? The Greg Ball from our district accomplished none of the above. In fact he voted against the budget to give vets college tuition. Get your facts straight. He had no one deported and did absolutely nothing clean up any streets or lower any one’s taxes. You have fallen victim to the Fraud Ball.

By: Jackie Hollman

Jackie Hollman — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:43:09 +0000

It in fact it is illegal to collect a state payroll check with all the benefits, why are the elected people permitted to do this????
Unethical…isn’t there an ethics board that would look into this?
Our taxes keep going up and we have people doing campaign work on our tax dollars. This is horrible.

By: DACC

DACC — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:30:04 +0000

RACC will pick up 2 seats in November – Janele Hyer-Spencer and Sandra Galef are extremely vulnerable and both have good Republican candidates who will win in November.

By: Political Director

Political Director — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:29:16 +0000

How about that fancy business card little Matty was handing out last year with ‘Political Director’ as his title?

Whether he’s called the political director or legislative director, little Matty is all politics all the time. Having him within 5 feet of a state office let alone on the payroll is a complete sham. At best unethical, at worst illegal.

By: Re:

Re: — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:03:33 +0000

It is the norm.

The legislative director functions in the Albany office, not the Brewster or Carmel offices.

As a volunteer, the campaign manager functions in the Pawling campaign headquarters, which is not a state office.

Willis Stephens’ employment of Independence party operatives with No-show jobs would have needed to be looked in to.

By: Jackie Hollman

Jackie Hollman — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:39:04 +0000

If having this Matt person working for Mr. Ball, he is permitted to do campaign work in Mr. Balls State Office in Brewster while collecting a state paycheck? What are the ethics limit on a case like this? Is this the norm? Does this need to be looked into? Just curious.

By: DeflateBall'08

DeflateBall'08 — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:59:15 +0000

Liberal whiners: “cutting spending”

How? By having Matt as his campaign manager (oops I mean Legislative Director) on our dime?

By: James

James — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:08:56 +0000

Greg Ball’s only friends and supporters are those who are on his payroll, i.e. “the payroll buddies” and Michael Rights who is loyal to Ball because he has his eye on the big picture.

Most sane, moral people have distanced themselves from Ball.

How many staffers has Ball gone through? How many friends?

By: Liberal whiners

Liberal whiners — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:46:13 +0000

I’m pretty sure Jacob is the Jacob from the blog I linked in my name. Not “G.Ball posting or one of G.Balls on the payroll buddies”, but nice try.

Funny how the phony Stephens & co. libs pretend to be Conservatives by advancing a big government opportunist like Degnan, and villify GBall for refusing to support tax increases; trying to end the exploitation of illegal aliens; deporting criminal aliens; standing up for the second amendment; providing free tuition to veterans; supporting a tax cap; cracking down on crime; cutting spending; etc.

By: cruise to nowhere.

cruise to nowhere. — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:37:01 +0000

Mr. Jacob…
the only place Ball should cruise to is out of the area. He is the worst elected official in the area. Perhaps you, Mr. Jacob are G.Ball posting or one of G.Balls on the payroll buddies.

By: Another VERY concerned resident

Another VERY concerned resident — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:26:16 +0000

i AM A CONCERNED RESIDENT TOO. Gone to Balls forums, thought he was going to be good. After attending a few of these functions, it became apparent that Ball was not someone I should have voted for. I did vote for him, but next time around will not.

By: Concerned resident

Concerned resident — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:20:19 +0000

I was wondering when Jeff/Rubin/Santos/Hansen/Harper/etc. where going to chime in with posts from 50 different names. I guess they had to wait for their monthly meeting to let out.

Note to the Journal News—never publish 3 Greg Ball articles i in the evening on the 3d Monday of the month, its an inconvenience for his opponents.

By: LIBERAL WHINERS????

LIBERAL WHINERS???? — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:17:45 +0000

Being a conservative republican, I am ashamed that G.Ball is representing the area I live in.
Never have I seen a more unscrupulous person pretending to do good for the community and our country. He should bury his head in the sand in shame.

By: DeflateBall'08

DeflateBall'08 — Tue, 20 May 2008 02:03:15 +0000

He only got 50.8% of the votes last time against somebody that most consider should have easily be beaten. This time he has to run on his record (which is nothing) rather than hope and empty promises. He won’t be “cruising” anywhere.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:48:52 +0000

Get over it liberal whiners: Greg is going to cruise to re-election this fall.

By: RACC

RACC — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:30:14 +0000

Say what you will about RACC, they are really just an extension of the Minority Leader (Tedisco), and all the money goes directly to him, which he does out to the candidates of his choosing.

Last time I checked, they supported Stephens in ‘06, and now Ball in ‘08. No surprises there. They were lukewarm to Ball, they never eviscerated Ball him they have done to Degnan today (and rightfully so, to an extent, from a Republican partisan position). If Degnan does win there will be some serious fence mending that will have to go on.

RACC is very good on the PR and OPresearch side, and since Tedisco’s taken over they are 1 for 1 on elections (Amedore). We’ll see how they do this year, they could stand to pickup at least 1 or 2 seats, as Janele Hyer-Spencer is extremely vulnerable, and Sandra Galef is rumored to be as well.

As for the 99th changing hands, extremely doubtful, whomever the Republican representative will be.

By: Ball's team

Ball's team — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:16:49 +0000

Who makes up ‘BALLS TEAM’?????
Anyone that has any common sense thinks Ball is ‘outthere’ so who does Ball have that he can control? It is all about controlling people around him to have power. But power is not leadership and Ball does not know the difference.
Didn’t all the staff that started with him in the beginning quit??? Several stories filtered around but never knew the reasons they left. The only one that stayed was the kid running for office in Brewster last fall.

Maybe Mr. Ball realizes that he is not well liked and the voters are realizing he is not true to his supporters and that is why he is feeling the heat as other poster says.

By: rj

rj — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:58:27 +0000

How important is RACC’s endorsement? Didn’t RACC endorse Balls last opponent? Check the financials and you will see RACC has no money. There initials should be RABC, the Republican Assembly Broke Committee. They can not do anything to help Greg Ball other then state that they back him. Ball and his team are feeling the heat and they are running scared. Ball is spending money that he does not have on radio and mailing, Ball is clearly showing signs of a man who is feeling the heat. It amazes me, Ball has no real heat being put on him as of yet, but he is running hard as if he is very scared. Maybe he is getting the feeling the rest of are getting that Balls days are numbered, he has committed political suicide with his sorry first term where he has done nothing. “The Ball has stopped rolling.” Ball is a phony and a fraud.

By: How much from RACC

How much from RACC — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:46:46 +0000

How much money will be thrown towards Ball for his campaign? Since he has NO campaign office other than his GOVERNMENT PAID FOR Assembly Office, how much money will he need?
He probably has all his old signs and can use those.
Why anyone in their right mind would want to have Ball re-elected is unbelievable.

By: Sara R

Sara R — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:35:05 +0000

I’ve followed MrPrada’s Wikipedia edits and contributions, and he clearly tries to be as objective as possible. Any bias you perceive is what you bring to the table, not him. If you see something NPOV, you can fix it yourself on Wikipedia. Of course, you’ll have to withstand the scrutiny of other editors.

Good luck.

By: rj

rj — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:24:42 +0000

Greg Ball did not receive the support of the Southeast Republican Committee; John Degnan received the endorsement of the Southeast Republican Committee. The Southeast Republican Committee unanimously endorsed John Degnan to be the next Assemblyman from the 99th Assembly District.

I had previously said that Ball had been endorsed by the Southeast Republican Committee, that obviously was a typo that I needed to correct.

Greg Ball is a fraud who must be exposed in 2008.

Support John Degnan for NYS Assemblyman.

By: Wikipedia

Wikipedia — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:19:49 +0000

Both Wikipedia articles seem fair to me: that same author has 10,000 other edits, including most of Eliot Spitzer, Andrew Saul, Kieran Lalor, George Oros, and hundreds of Civil War and Revolutionary war biographies. Wikipedia is a valuable resource, both the Ball campaign and the Degnan campaign are free to make edits. Editors like MrPrada are there to keep the balance between the two.

By: hidemyrealid

hidemyrealid — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:09:07 +0000

You want another example of Ball politics? The same User (MrPrada) that edits and maintains the Greg Ball Wikipedia page created and wrote almost all of the John Degnan Wikipedia page. Does anyone other than me see a conflict there? The John Degnan page is so full of Greg Ball newspaper quotes that it’s almost laughable except for the point that people think it’s true. Don’t trust anything you read on Wikipedia!!

By: Truth

Truth — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:55:28 +0000

Ball has never grown up. He is still acts like a spoiled little kid in a big persons body. From what people have seen of him lately, stories are floating around that his behavior is most unusual.
Ball is a phoney and does not truly care about the people of his district. He only cares about using anyone he can to move up his power ladder. Frightening is a word that can best describe a person like this.

By: OH, REALLY?

OH, REALLY? — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:05:22 +0000

Fitzpatrick said, “Assemblyman Greg Ball is a true Republican who has kept his promises”

OH, REALLY??? LIKE WHAT?

– HE HAS DONE NOTHING ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION EXCEPT TAKE CREDIT FOR THE HARD WORK OF OTHERS. THE VILLAGE OF BREWSTER REMAINS THE SAME AND THE CREDIT FOR ANY SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN THAT COMMUNITY BELONGS TO SEN. VINNIE LEIBELL AND THE LOCAL LEADERSHIP OF THEN-MAYOR DEGNAN AND NOW MAYOR SCHOENIG.
– BALL HAS DONE NOTHING ABOUT RT. 22 SAVE A FEW VENT SESSIONS THAT HAVE PRODUCED LESS THAN ZERO.
– BALL HAS DONE NOTHING FOR SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX REFORM, AGAIN, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF HOLDING VENT SESSIONS THAT PRODUCE NOTHING.
– HE HAS DONE NOTHING FOR ALBANY REFORM: HE ACTUALLY BROKE HIS PROMISE NOT TO ACCEPT MEMBER ITEM MONEY, TO RUN AROUND THE DISTRICT TAKING PICTURES WITH BIG CHECKS, YET HERE HE IS DOLLING OUT PUBLIC CASH AS IF IT’S COMING FROM HIS OWN POCKET.

GREG BALL HAS A RECORD OF DO NOTHINGNESS AND BROKEN PROMISES.

HE WILL NOT BE RE-ELECTED…

By: Laughable

Laughable — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:56:38 +0000

What’s really laughable is how Greg Ball shows a constant pattern of condemning what he himself does or has done. The pattern of hypocrisy continues in this press release.

They condemn Degnan for running as a Democrat last year in a local election but they fail to mention that Greg Ball actively sought the Democrat endorsement in 2006 when he was running a GOP Primary against Will Stephens (By the way, RACC supported Stephens – what a great help that was!) –

Ball met with the Putnam County Democratic Party executive committee on several occasions. They ultimately decided not to support Greg Ball, but if they had, make no mistake about it, Greg Ball would have run as a Democrat in 2006 in addition to running on the Republican line…

By: rj

rj — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:40:21 +0000

RACC must go through the motions and publicly claim they support Greg Ball, however insiders know that RACC would love nothing more then for Greg Ball to lose. Take a look at the home town republican committees and you will see that Greg Ball has already secured the support of the Southeast Republican Committee and he was denied the support of his own hometown Republican Committee in Dutchess County. The truth of the matter is the ice is cracking and Greg Ball is standing in the middle of the pond. People in the 99th Assembly District are tied of Greg Ball’s lies and his attack tactics where he will do anything to discredit people who take opposing views.

When Greg Ball is done with his dirty, nasty lowlife campaign he will try to destroy his opposition at any cost.

RACC is doing what they are supposed to do, watch how much money they place in Greg Balls race and you will see how much they care about him. They will give him token money and tell him to have a nice day.

Pay particular attention to the words of John Degnan and his campaign and you will find a man of compassion and a man who wants to do good things for the 99th Assembly District. John Degnan is a decent man and Greg Ball is a bizarre fraud!