“Made any decisions on this year?” I asked.
Hinchey paused for a moment. “You know I’ve had a tough year (with two cancer operations) and another scheduled for next week,” he said. “It’s been difficult, very difficult.”
He quickly assured me that the third operation was “routine, something that had been scheduled.” I wished him well.
“You know, I’ve been in Congress almost 20 years,” he said. “I was in the state legislature for 18. That’s a long time.”
And the answer is? … Don’t believe everything press spokespersons tell you.
Hinchey may be leaning. A nudge from a hard-charging mud-in-your-eye county executive could be a factor in his ultimate decision. Another could be the ultimate configuration of his district in the reapportionment due in late winter from the state, which must figure in two fewer seats in Congress.
Suddenly, Susan
Neither reporters nor public are invited into the inner sanctums where the real political decisions are made, but thanks to some recent changes in the law we at least get to observe legislators at their once sacrosanct party caucuses.
I sat in on the Republican legislative caucus last week. Legislators discussed the pros and cons of hiring Orange County Attorney Langdon Chapman to represent the legislature for the next two years. Unbeknownst to most observers, the deal had been done. All legislators were doing was discussing ways to defend it should rival Democrats raise the issue at the organizational meeting that night. (They didn’t.)
