Did a little sniffing around ... and uncovered what each of your New York Congressional delegates' homes are worth - as well as the the median value of homes in their districts.  Let's just say that some members live a bit phatter than their constituents (hence, the Phat Index, the difference between the two).

Also, for a kick in the ol' transparency ass, I put an asterisks next to each member of Congress who made me work extra hard for their home address.  Not that I mind working, but these folks now list themselves at a post office box rather than their home address on FEC filings - thing is, when they first started in Congress that wasn't the case (with the exception of Rep. McHugh who apparently has always been living out of a PO Box).  Not nice!

	Rep	Home Val	Dist Median	Phat Index
*	Nita Lowey	$2,170,000	$346,500	$1,823,500
	Eliot Engel	$1,460,000	$230,600	$1,229,400
*	Sue Kelly	$1,190,000	$188,800	$1,001,200
	Tim Bishop	$1,170,000	$176,700	$993,300
	Gary Ackerman	$1,000,000	$341,000	$659,000
	Vito Fossella	$997,252	$217,800	$779,452
	Nydia Velazquez	$922,824	$189,700	$733,124
	Randy Kuhl	$791,928	$87,700	$704,228
	Steve Israel	$684,292	$204,200	$480,092
	Ed Towns	$539,082	$193,900	$345,182
*	Carolyn McCarthy	$485,500	$224,700	$260,800
	Greg Meeks	$366,769	$180,000	$186,769
*	Maurice Hinchey	$365,090	$98,500	$266,590
	Peter King	$363,200	$224,500	$138,700
*	Sherwood Boehlert	$307,200	$75,300	$231,900
	John Sweeney	$275,310	$110,600	$164,710
	Tom Reynolds	$242,000	$97,600	$144,400
	Jim Walsh	$210,000	$89,000	$121,000
*	Brian Higgins	$124,900	$84,500	$40,400
*	Mike McNulty	$75,000	$100,500	-$25,500
	Louise Slaughter	N/A	$76,900	N/A
	Major Owens	Co-op	$214,800	N/A
	Carolyn Maloney	N/A	$252,500	N/A
	Joe Crowley	N/A	$204,900	N/A
	Jerry Nadler	N/A	$260,000	N/A
	Jose Serrano	N/A	$155,600	N/A
	Anthony Weiner	N/A	$246,000	N/A
*	John McHugh	PO Box Only	$71,900	N/A
	Charles Rangel	N/A	$314,700	N/A

Note:

• Home values brought to you by Zillow
• Co-opsters' home values are harder to uncover; hence the plethora of N/As (I'm accepting help from anyone who has access to comparables)
  
• A handful of the home values listed are the tax assessed values, or averages of the area; simply click on a particular home value to find out.
  
• District median values brought to you by the good peeps at the Census Bureau

Always good to know what your Congress Member is up to.  So thought I'd shed a quick bit of light on who's been doing what...

Here are New York's top five congressional vote missers from January 2005 to the present (umm ... hmmm ... seems like someone has some explaining to do):

Sweeney	John	18.43%
Meeks	Gregory	9.06%
Towns	Edolphus	7.55%
Slaughter	Louise	5.59%
Rangel	Charles	5.59%

And kudos to New York's top five congressional vote casters... 

Lowey	Nita	0.30%
Kuhl	John	0.45%
Bishop	Timothy	0.60%
Israel	Steve	1.21%
Engel	Eliot	1.21%

Update: John Sweeney missed 60 out of 555 recorded votes in 2005, and 62 out of 107 votes in 2006. 

Daily Gotham coups this sneak peak of the yet-to-be-published New York Times local political blog ...

Liza Sabater, DG's culture cook and outspoken Times critic, takes this opportunity to offer the Grey Lady a blogospheric welcome.

The very day President Bush declared the Iraqi Mission Accomplished, 1st Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff started "Chasing Ghosts" in one of central Baghdad's most volatile and dangerous neighborhoods.

On that day, and for the following 10 months, Rieckhoff led a Platoon of 38 soldiers through 1,000+ mounted and dismounted combat patrols.  Eventually, his would be the first reserve component unit in the Army to be awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge since the Korean War.  All thirty-eight of his men returned home alive; and so did Rieckhoff's fiercely independent desire to connect policy failures in Washington with events on the ground in Iraq.

I recently interviewed Rieckhoff, no holds barred.  He left no Party or New York elected official behind.

For sitting squarely in the bulls-eye of the Democratic machinery, this Republican seems not to have a care in the world. Here's how James Walsh defends the hold he has over his Syracuse congressional seat:

Walsh: Well, you know, I ran for election when President Bush’s father was elected, and he, I don’t believe he carried my district. I ran twice when President Clinton ran, and he did carry my district, and I ran when President Bush — the current president — ran, and he didn’t carry my district. So, people know me very well. I’ve been in elected office a number of years. My poll numbers are really, really solid, and so, I understand that this is sort of the formula that the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] is following, because the Republican president’s numbers are down and because Republican presidential candidates haven’t carried the district, and that makes it targetable, but really it’s not the key to this race.

Read the entire interview with Marie Horrigan of Congressional Quarterly here.

In case you had any lingering doubts, the reality on the ground is this: people have little faith in government.  The level of distrust has risen to an all time high; so high, in fact, that work-arounds to government's opaqueness are popping up all over the place.  And today, popped congresspedia.

Everything you ever wanted to know about your member of congress: their contributors, lobbyist reports, personal financial disclosures, travel records, government contracts, and more.

Here's an entertaining and partisan look (GOP-types, you have been warned) into the making of Bush-speak.  Apparently, it's all about awkward silences, lots 'o blinking and putting food on your family.

Enjoy!  Makes for a fine Wednesday morning lecture!

Four-term NY Republican Rep. John E. Sweeney seems to be losing the confidence of The Congressional Quarterly.  CQPolitics.com just announced that his seat has been downgraded from Safe Republican to Republican Favored. 

The reason?  Challenger Kristin Gillibrand's latest campaign filings. Gillibrand recently reported $761,000, making her the 14th most well-funded House challenger this cycle.

Indeed, Texas is like a whole other country.  Just compare the campaign ads of Kinky Friedman, the independent, rockin' Jewish Texan running for Governor of the State of Texas to those of our statewide candidates.

Paper or plastic?

 

Windows Media Player or Quicktime

In case anyone was still under the impression that the Mayor would even think about supporting Staten Island Council Member James Oddo to replace State Sen. Marchi ... here's an exchange from today's Staten Island Advance.

"Replacing John Marchi with Jimmy Oddo is like Babe Dahlgren taking over for Lou Gehrig," a high-ranking City Hall source told the Advance.

In case you missed it...

Of a recently introduced City Council resolution (by Council Member David Yassky) supporting the censure of President Bush, here's what Staten Island Republican Council Member James Oddo had to say:

"I think it's such a stupid resolution I'm encouraging a vote on it, so New Yorkers can get a look at the mental health of the members of the council.  Lets see where people stand on this dopey idea. ... This is partisan politics. And I like David, but this is so partisan, so pointless, this is the type of resolution that embarrasses the council."

Apparently NOT in Durham.

Folks in the Carolinas are a wandering ... will the Rev. Al Sharpton show up this Easter Sunday to talk rape allegations (as in, those on the Duke University campus), or not?

Reporters Michael Biesecker and Jim Wise of The News & Observer placed many calls to Sharpton's office, but to no avail.

I know.  I know.  The prophetic title of this piece is NOT what many of you want to read first thing on a Monday - nor, I imagine, on any other given day of the week.

But, I am here to speak truths, and this is one of them:  The Harlem Success Academy, a new charter school led by former Upper East Side Council Member Eva Moskowitz, is bound to produce extraordinary results.

And I make this prediction with great confidence, not because I have so much faith in Eva (we'll save that story for a rainy day), but because I sense that the brains and money behind this operation, Joel Greenblatt (not Klein), is on to something big.

Speaking to a standing room only crowd at  a town hall forum organized by East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney this morning, persistent-Bush-thorn PA Rep. John Murtha had many choice words for the President.

He began by cracking jokes around Bush's campaign pledge to pursue an "humble" foreign policy, summarizing, "This is the most arrogant administration I have ever seen."

It appears, and you can quote me, that the Trump loving, somewhat brash ad guru, Donny Deutsch, has finally settled on a run for Mayor in 2009. Thaaaaat's right!  Mayor of the City of New York.

Seemingly bolstered by the phenomenal success of his monied buddy Mayor Mike, sources say Deutsch let loose some thoughts on his campaign for Mayor at a forum last night sponsored in part by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.