Why Degnan did not make an issue of this we’ll never know, but the people are going to be selecting an absentee Assemblyman, essentially paying him to campaign for Congress.

Right now I am confident that John Hall would defeat Ball and that Ball could even be defeated in a Primary, but everyone needs to keep their eye on Ball because he is such a terrible person.

I think Ball could be more dangerous if he is defeated. That would allow him to campaign full time against Hall, Leibell, or whoever. He raised half-a-million dollars for an Assembly race in two years by going out of the district. That is more than anyone I think, except maybe the leadership. While I would love to see John Hall defeated, can we really stomach Ball as our Congressman??

We might be better off with Ball in a meaningless position where he’s playing defense, then giving him two years to regroup, raise money, and campaign non-stop…

But where does Ball go next? First off, he’s got some pretty high negatives coming out of this campaign: his attitude and positions towards women, his radical right-wing advocacy, being the focus of a Federal investigation, just to name a few… He can try and run against Sen. Leibell but he won’t beat him. Vinnie is too popular and is a perfect fit for the district. Besides, Ball can barely raise enough money to run an Assembly race, who’s going to finance his campaign for State Senate? He could run for Congress but John Hall would wipe the floor with Ball, and again, where’s the money coming from? County Executive? Ball’s not interested.

Really? Where does this guy go next? If he wants to remain in elected office, he should stay put. But he’ll probably run for Congress, so 2 yrs. down the road – he’s done.

You can’t shake 45% negatives. You just can’t.

He might have raised more money but look at his outstanding loans! Would you rather have $5,000 and owe $80,000 or have $2,000 and owe nothing?

Ball does have a great chance of winning, but that doesn’t make any of this right. Ball and his cronies are just bad for the area. He’s using all of you with his supposed caring about issues that are important to you.

Have you ever seen Ball behind an issue that what wasn’t at the height of emotion? Autism, illegals, taxes… he knows how to rile up support… but what has he done for any of you?

maybe a career in acting? he seems to be good at that.

he better start thinking about it, because he won’t have us taxpayers to take care of him after Dec. 31

You wrote, “Things like the Equal Rights bill scare me as a conservative”

Greg Ball, the self-described “Conservative Republican” voted for that bill and many other radical pieces of legislation.

Degnan is a proud moderate (read: liberal) and Ball is a phony (read: lying, disingenuous, flip-flopping) “conservative”

I would vote for Degnan on honesty alone but I might just skip this whole 99th election this year. I don’t want to be responsible for either of these guy being in office, especially Ball.

I find him to be a nasty campaigner. He leans so far right that I’m surprised he just doesn’t topple over. But that’s the Republican way this election . Negative campaiging is all we get from them.

Get used to a new dynamic – Putnam County is no longer so Republican. Plenty of Democrats up here in the north.

The common antipathy towards voting for John seems to be that no one knows what he stands for. It’s come out in the various editorial endorsements etc. and I have to admit his website is fairly blank.

I was suprised that John did not answer the Journal News, Putnam Courier, League of Women Voters, Smart voter, Project vote smart questions, etc., beyond providing biographical data.

Can any of you denizens/operatives that seem to post here constantly tell me why that is? Things like the Equal Rights bill scare me as a conservative. So far I know John wants tax cuts, and is pro-choice, but other than that… help!

No one has gotten mailers from anti-Ball or Ball because you are all partisans and they are only mailing to unaffiliateds. Also, Degnan raised only $500 since the primary, he has not sent a mailer to date, only Mike Santos anti-Ball stuff has gone out. Ball, in the meantime, raised $15,000 in the 32PG, and $16,000 in the 10PG, and has raised a similar amount going into election day. $45,000 for Ball to $500 for Degnan is not close.

It is statistically impossible for Degnan to win. His biggest mistake was running in the Republican primary, he should have said “I’m a Democrat” from Day One, because he is NOT drawing 100% of Democrats. That is why DACC hasn’t spent a single dollar on him. They don’t trust his Republican-Leibell credentials. All of the unions have endorsed Ball, they do free mailers etc. and get out their members, so Degnan is losing about 1/3rd of Democratic General voters right there.

In the end, it will be around 2,000 Repubs, 26,000 Dems, 100 working families votes for Degnan, to 34,000 Repubs, 3,000 Independents, 2,000 Conservatives, for Ball.

Degnan will lose by a similar margin as Kieran Lalor loses to John Hall.

but what you don’t understand is that ball has no money and hasn’t sent out a mailer or been on tv in weeks, at least since before the primary. by contrast, i’ve seen a couple of mailers from the degnan camp and some others from another group that were attacking ball, you should know the degnan mailers were positive and issue based. i’ve also heard that degnan is on tv but i haven’t seen it if he is.

degnan will probably get close to 100% of the dems who vote in this election. ball can’t say that about the republicans who degnan took 30% of in the primary. this is unprecedented and so it’ll be interesting to see what the gop voters do. regardless, most agree that the independents will be deciding this contest and degnan, with his more moderate positions, is a natural choice for them. ball’s radical positions on abortion, stem cell research and gun control make it difficult for him to win over this crowd. maybe if he were in north carolina, but not in north salem…

it ain’t over yet!

Sure, the $ are the big attraction for many friendships.

IF OLIVER STONE WERE A POLITICIAN HIS NAME WOULD BE GREG BALL.

VOTE THIS SCHMUCK OUT OF OFFICE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.

Now that’s funny!

what a life!