Just in the past few months, Speaker Boehner chose him to be one of the conferee’s of the payroll-tax bill (don’t get me started), and Politico named him runner-up of the Freshman classes “Most Likely to Succeed.”

As his sophomore year starts, Reed recently interviewed with National Journal to reflect back on his time so far in Washington…

My expectation coming to D.C. was that it was going to be a place where people tell you how to vote, tell you what you’re going to do, and rule over you with an iron-fist mentality. I have been pleasantly surprised by our leadership. They really do listen, they let us speak, and let us be an active part of the governing process.

The hardest part of the job is being away from my family. I have an 11- and 13-year-old. They have adjusted to me being a way a bit, but it’s still hard. I tell them that we are trying to do something so America is here for them. I’ve created an internal rule that Sunday is off-limits unless I put it on the schedule myself. That’s family time. I also got the kids iPhones. We’re learning FaceTime and Skype. It’s not the same as seeing them face to face, but being able to see their face is a lot better than just being on the phone.

We’ll all be paying closer attention to the entire New York delegation this year, but Tom Reed is definitely top of the list.

Of course we’re still waiting to see what the new redistricting map looks like, but this makes Westchester an interesting battleground. Yes, it’s a heavily Democrat area, and President Obama won with 60%+ last time. But let’s look what has happened since then…

2009 –Rob Astorino (R-NY) wins his county executive race
2010 – Nan Hayworth (R-NY) wins her congressional race
2011 – (R-NY) picks up two seats in the Westchester legislature.

2012 – Bob Cohen (R-NY) winning his state senate race? Maybe even Mark Rosen (R-NY), whose opponent has been rumoured to be considering retirement, winning in the NY-18?

As they say on teh internets, DEVELOPING…

He had been getting some national attention over his issues with the Obama Campaign’s HUD Department and his 2012 budget, and this will only help raise his profile…which is very convenient considering he’s one of small amount of names who might have a shot against Andrew Cuomo in 2014.

A little of the interview…

A year after Obama won more than 65 percent of the vote in the county, Republican Rob Astorino was elected as Westchester’s county executive by a margin of 16 points. Astorino highlighted the three issues he has emphasized as county executive, which he considers the key roles of local government anywhere: making sure property taxes are reasonable, maintaining essential services, and attracting businesses and economic development.

His combination of personal appeal and policy knowledge seem to suggest great political potential, but when I prompted him about future ambitions, he smiled and demurred, emphasizing his long-term commitment to reform in Westchester

He attributes his vigorous approach to government reform to his concern for the problems of his home county, and to his wider beliefs about the proper function of government: “The county is tangled with the state,” but Westchester, as a large county, can be “a model, a laboratory for the rest of the state and the federal government. If we can do it in Westchester, it can be done elsewhere.”

Like, say Albany and the state of New York as a whole? Astorino offered some of the few criticisms of Cuomo’s recent “State of the State” address, saying there’s was next to nothing on cutting spending…which could be an opening.

Cuomo has leaned right (at least by New York standards) in cutting income taxes and the MTA Payroll tax for a temporary increase on cats making more than two million, but all the political jiu-jitsu in the world (side note, legalize MMA in NY) won’t help him with a Democrat base who considers spending cuts a beyond the pale slur.

Astorino pull off one upset victory a few years ago (and picking up two legeislative seats in November wasn’t too shabby). If he can do it again when he’s up for re-election next year, could a hat trick in 2014 be that far fetched?

Unlike most of the other rumoured NY Senate candidates I left myself get excited by (::cough::dansenor::cough::), Mark Cendella seems more serious than the rest and while a definitive announcement hasn’t been made yet, he’s hired the guy who led Bob Turner to victory, and has been making the rounds talking to GOP heads and even grabbed some time with journalist Fed Dicker at the recent State of the State.

Cendella, who supported Ron Paul in ’08 and sits on the board of the club for growth, plans a jumping starting his own campaign with his own millions (a necessity if you’re running state wide in New York). He plans on drawing from his background as a young entrepreneur and job creator as the cornerstone of his campaign…

After Yale, according to the book The Intelligent Entrepreneur, which tells the story of three successful Harvard Business School grads, he moved to California and began a career importing and exporting, capitalizing on Japan’s interest in American pet food. He turned down Harvard Business School on account of his new company, but lying in a hotel bed in Tokyo one day, decided that even being the king of Japanese pet food wouldn’t exactly satisfy his ambitions. So he re-applied to Harvard Business School and ultimately enrolled. After Harvard, he rose to become a senior vice president at the employment site HotJobs.com, before it was sold in 2002.

But the cornerstone of Cenedella’s Senate campaign would be his own company, TheLadders.com, an employment site Cenedella founded in 2003 that now counts 270 employees.

“Marc is a populist scientist of employment,” reads his bio on the Ladders site, which also says that his “passion in life is jobs,” and calls him a “widely recognized thought leader on job search, career management, recruiting and business.”

As the say in the biz, DEVELOPING…

Politico.com has named it one of a few house districts to watch as a bellwether to see which direction the country is going in 2012. It’s one of the more conservative districts in the state, Bishop isn’t, and Altschuler house to economic background to appeal to more voters who are realizing the Obama might not have been the way to go…

Politico, hardly a shill for the right, recently characterized the rematch as one of the most contestable in the country — a national bellwether. They maintain that an Altschuler victory would signal a shift — namely, that Republicans will have regained the support of key suburbanites lost to President Obama in 2008. In any case, Bishop is extremely vulnerable. With a pro-growth, job-centric platform — not to mention his own record of creating jobs — Randy Altschuler can draw a sharp contrast against Congressman Bishop, who is part of the Washington culture so loathed by voters. Indeed, congressional job approval is at historic lows.

Polling trends aside, it is perhaps the poor state of NY-1′s economy that most undermines Bishop’s re-election chances. The non-partisan analysis of the Long Island Association (LIA) makes plain the state of play: for the fifth straight month, Long Island has lost jobs. And over the last year, nearly 13,000 jobs have been lost in all — over 8,000 of which were in the private sector. Similarly, the housing market continues to struggle. Median home prices fell over 4% since last year, while the foreclosure crisis lingers. Consumers and businesses are burdened with higher taxes and inflation. Under these conditions, the Bishop campaign may find it difficult to gain traction with issues they deem more favorable.

The same can probably be said about NY-18 (Mark Rosen) and NY-23 (Matt Doheny, in another rematch). As they say, DEVELOPING…

Think aboot it. Jobs are going to be the key campaign issue this year. People don’t have them. The Obama Campaign’s policies aren’t creating them, and in some cases are preventing them from being created. Enter Cenedella and Rosen. TheLadders.com is a job search engine. Adecco is an employment agency.

They not only have experience creating jobs, they have experience creating jobs for people whose job it is to help others find jobs of their own.

When the economy sucks, jobs are no where to be found, and no one in Washington seems to have a clue…who better that people from outside of Washington with private sector experience running successful companies, not only creating jobs but helping others find jobs?

Start drafting candidates who fit the same mold. Marc and Mark are mine!

Rep. Tom Reed was runner-up for Most Likely to Succeed: Ask those close to leadership who their favorite freshmen are, and this New York Republican immediately comes to mind. Ever since he won a special election to replace Eric Massa last year, Reed has been central to leadership’s dealings with the freshmen. And he was rewarded for that with a conference committee position on the payroll tax bill (though he may not thank them for it forever.) If Reed survives New York’s redistricting process, expect him to be a player in future sessions.

Nan Hayworth wins for Most Likable: The ophthalmologist from New York and first-time lawmaker runs all over the Capitol complex in pink heels, never breaks with the Republican Party message and probably could befriend a brick wall if she spent a few minutes talking to it.


Though the highlight on the article? The entire freshman delegation from New York was Most Important State Delegation: Even as they walk a tightrope in their home districts, the seven New York GOP freshmen — Reed, Hayworth, Beurkle, Richard Hanna, Michael Grimm, Chris Gibson and special election winner Bob Turner — have proven, for the most part, to be reliable voices and votes for their party.

Actually, I’ll let his Facebook page introduce him for me…

David Storobin is a Vice-Chair of the Republican Party in Brooklyn and a partner at the prominent law firm of Storobin & Spodek, LLP where he practices Family law. A zealous fighter for individuals’ rights, David is well-respected by the Bar for his oral advocacy skills and professionalism. He is an outspoken advocate for his community, giving speeches, writing articles and expressing his views. David is also a Vice-Chairman of the Brooklyn Republican Party – and one of the youngest members in the leadership.

Game on.

Never mind the fact that I’m not sure how much taxpayer money is being spent on a free service like Facebook, and never mind the fact that I recently criticized her on one of her supporters Facebook pages and had my comment deleted…it’s f’n Facebook. Did the Senator or his staff overreact? Probably.

But whining aboot it and crying to the media doesn’t make me feel sorry for you or take you seriously.

And if anyone is still curious aboot watching a Greg Ball related video…

I don’t mean to make today look like Paul Ryan day. It just so happened there were a bunch of stories aboot him. You had his response to Newt Gingrich. He was a runner-up for Time’s “Person of the Year.” He also announced a bi-partisan Medicare reform bill will Democrat Senator Ron Wyden. I don’t think there’s been this much attention paid to him since the last round of “Ryan for President” rumours.

It made me think about the people who actually decided to run for President, and the prevailing attitude that if nominated any of these people, that the “tea party” have failed. No one has failed. I think everyone just has to remember that most of our “heroes” have only been there for under two years.

Think about it. Paul Ryan may have been in Congress for a decade, but he only started to get any national attention over the past two years. Look at some of the other heroes that, for many of us, are the ones who motivated us and made us want to be activists:

Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, Nikki Haley, Mike Lee, Chris Christie, Allen West, Michael Grimm, Nan Hayworth, Tim Scott, Kristie Noem…I’m sure everyone reading this can add at least five extra names. These are the reason we do what we do. And I get just as frustrated when I look at any of them, look at who we have running for President, and proceed to write “#headdesk” until I run out of character’s on Twitter.

The problem is, none of them have the experience to run for President yet. It takes years and years to prepare someone to not only run for higher office, but to be hold up in the spot and be able to handle being the leader of the free world and Commander-in-Chief. And if you don’t believe me, look at who is in the Oval Office now and how well he’s doing with next to no experience.

I would love it if any one of the leaders I’ve been following over the past few years was running for President. I’d be coming to you from New Hampshire right now if they did. They just aren’t ready yet. That’s not a failure of the tea party or conservative activism. Just the opposite. The fact that they’re there in the first place, gaining the knowledge and experience to maybe one day run, is a sign of our success.

I am a Paul Ryan Republican. One day, I hope he does run for higher office. Until then, any of the candidate’s we have running now is better than the one who won in 2008.

Let’s not forget that.