Politics on the Hudson

Newly minted Congressional candidate Greg Ball, a Republican from Patterson, has a campaign fundraising conundrum.

He is soliciting contributions for his challenge to U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, on the same website he has used to raise money for his state Assembly campaign.

A click on contributions at Ball’s ball4ny website, which bears the slogan “Your Voice in Albany,” turns up

Reference: Greg Ball for Congress (Ball4NY)

Campaign finance laws for federal and New York State candidates differ significantly and accounts must remain separate.

Ball did not return a call for comment.

As of this afternoon, there is still no mention of Ball’s candidacy on the Federal Election Commission website nor any filing concerning fundraising for the exploratory committee he formed.

So, according to a U.S. Postal Service receipt, the treasurer for Republican state Assemblyman Greg Ball’s Congressional challenge of U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, mailed Ball’s statement of candidacy to the Federal Election Commission by express mail on May 6.

Ball treasurer Maria DiSalvo, a Patterson horsefarm owner, reportedly got confirmation of delivery of Ball’s “statement of organization” today.

That may explain why Ball is nowhere to be found as a candidate on the FEC website. It doesn’t explain why Ball failed to meet an April 15 deadline for filing financial information about his “exploratory” committee.

Ball, R-Patterson, is expected to make the big announcement tomorrow but has been saying for weeks that his exploratory committee didn’t fall under the federal requirement to file once a $5,000 fundraising or spending threshold is reached.

No one wants to say how much Ball has raised or spent. DiSalvo has not returned calls.

But what is known is that Ball has hired some high price consultants to help with his as of yet non-existent campaign.

Ball4NY Congressional Exploratory Committee spokesman Christopher Arnold says soon-to-be-announced Republican Congressional challenger Greg Ball submitted his Federal Election Commission forms on May 1.

But the paperwork for the presumed Republican opponent to U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, is nowhere to be seen, according to Julia Queen, an FEC spokeswoman.

“We do not have a report,” Queen said from Washington, D.C. today. “I checked with public records and we have not received anything from the Clerk of the House.”

It would take no longer than 24 to 48 hours to post the information on the FEC website once it did surface, Queen said.

Candidates who are “exploring” a run for Congress are obliged to file with the FEC once they raise or spend $5,000. No one on Ball’s exploratory committee has been willing to say how fundraising efforts have gone.

But Roll Call is reporting that the Republican state Assemblyman from Patterson has a full consulting team in place. For polling and general consulting, Ball is using Mike DuHaime who ran former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as political director at the Republican National Committee.

Ball has also hired TV and direct mail fundraising consultants.

An amendment backed by Senators John Kerry, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, that would protect renters from being thrown out of their homes after a foreclosure, passed the Senate today as part of the larger housing bill, the Help Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.

The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act ensures that tenants and families nationwide have at least 90 days to find their next home if they are renting in a building that is foreclosed upon.

“More than 30,000 renters across New York, who dutifully pay their rent on time each month, may face eviction because they live in a building that is about to be foreclosed,” Gillibrand said. “These tenants have almost no rights when a bank seizes their home. Families without the means to find temporary housing or move into another unit can be kicked onto the streets because their landlord failed to meet his or her obligation to pay. This is wrong and I am proud to partner with my colleagues to pass new protections for these families.”

The nine-member Putnam County Legislature has unanimously voted to override County Executive Robert Bondi’s veto of additional funding for a popular septic repair program for homeowners.

The legislature wants to spend an additional $2 million in watershed funds designated for protecting the drinking water of 9 million people. Bondi vetoed the measure saying it constituted a gift to individual homeowners. To date, 130 such repairs have been made in Putnam at the direction of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

The Putnam board also sent a letter to the parties involved in the watershed agreement asking for permission to spend the money.

But the gridlock continues because under Putnam’s Charter the money can’t be spent without Bondi’s agreement.

Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, has launched a Shared Services Task Force made up of residents of the 90th Assembly District who will look for ways to cut costs by streamlining and possibly consolidating functions, departments, and purchasing in government entities and school districts.

Members of the task force include local taxpayer watchdog groups, statewide property tax reform groups, and a newly forming Ossining/Briarcliff shared services study group. Other members are school board trustees, municipal trustees, a representative from the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and people from private industry.

At the first meeting, participants said police forces, highway superintendents, purchasing, negotiations, tax assessments and collection and capital expenditures require further study.

Those interested in joining the task force should contact Galef’s Chief of Staff Dana Levenberg at (914) 941-1111 or levenbergd@assembly.state.ny.us.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, said more than 200,000 single parents across the state could be forced to pay a financial penalty just for receiving child support.

So Gillibrand has introduced legislation to eliminate the penalty which is a remnant of the Deficit Reduction Act, passed by the Republican Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2005. That legislation contained a provision requiring states to enact a $25 fee on child support enforcement payments that it collects for single parents.

“While $25 may not sound like a lot of money, for hardworking parents trying to bear the economic recession it can make a big difference,” she said. “For a single parent on a budget, $25 is more than a week’s worth of lunches, diapers or baby formula.”

In the Hudson Valley there are 23,856 single parents who could be forced to pay the penalty this year, Gillibrand said. Of that number 7,541 live in Westchester County, 3,147 live in Rockland and 981 live in Putnam.

The number of young voters nationwide rose for the third time in as many presidential election cycles, according to a new analysis by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Voters under 30 who voted in 2008 increased by about 11 percent, while the number of older voters increased by 3 percent, according to newly released U.S. Census Bureau turnout data.

Between 2004 and 2008, turnout rates among young voters also rose, while those of older age groups remained steady or decreased.

Factors from increased attention paid to young voters by candidates, to the proliferation of technology in the lives of young voters, to a rise in civic engagement among young people, contributed to this surge, said Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director for the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, said today he’ll make an announcement May 9 on whether he will seek the Congressional seat currently held by U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains.

What Ball won’t say is how his fundraising is going.

Ball didn’t file a report with the Federal Election Committee in time to meet its April 15 deadline. But he said it wasn’t necessary because he is still in the exploratory stage.

Federal Election Commission spokeswoman Julia Queen said under the “testing the waters” stipulation filing is required if $5,000 is raised or spent.

But Ball said since he isn’t a candidate yet, it doesn’t apply.

He won’t reveal how much he has raised or spent on his extended “listening tours” across the district that stretches over five counties.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched a new offensive of robocalls targeting U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains.

The blitz, which began this week, charges Hall with “endorsing a reckless spending spree in Washington.”

Here’s part of the script urging calls to Hall’s office although Congress is on recess.

Hello I’m calling from the National Republican Congressional Committee with an urgent message. Congressman John Hall and Nancy Pelosi are working together to create a massive budget deficit that could raise taxes…Congressman John Hall let Nancy Pelosi get away with passing a budget with a trillion dollar deficit…it’s been called the most fiscally irresponsible budget in the history of the federal government…..and that is saying a lot..Call Congressman John Hall at 202-225-3121 and tell them to put the brakes on spending. Paid for by The National Republican Congressional Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. W-W-W-dot-N-R-C-C-dot-O-R-G. 320 First Street, southeast Washington, DC 20003. 202-479-7000.