Times Union Reports: Following population data from the 2010 census, the state will lose two U.S.  House seats from its current 29. The redrawing of those districts is close to  completion, according to members of LATFOR, the legislative panel that controls  the once-a-decade redistricting process.

State records show six potentially imperiled representatives paid a total of  $169,527 to lobbyists for work on redistricting in 2011: Democrats  Joseph Crowley of Queens, Eliot  Engel of the Bronx, Brian  Higging of Buffalo, Kathy  Hochul of Genesee County and Carolyn  McCarthy of Long Island, plus Republican  Richard Hanna of Oneida County.

But what are the elected officials getting for their money? It’s not  something they like to talk about in depth. Read more »

Doug Bloomfield Writes in The Jewish Week: When Joseph P. Kennedy III announced his candidacy for Congress, an ultra-Orthodox Web commentator decided to portray him not as the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, who was assassinated by a Palestinian Arab for being too pro-Israel, but as the “Great grandson of Jew-hating Hitler admirer.”

That has to be the most outrageous example of hate speech I’ve seen in a long time. Read more »

Reports the NYT: It appears Mr. Turner’s prospects of preserving the district, which stretches from southern Brooklyn to southern Queens, are improving. Just last week, he went to Albany and made his case before Dean Skelos, who, as the Republican majority leader of the State Senate, is a crucial figure in drawing the new lines. He told Mr. Skelos what he had done in Washington during his time there and expressed his desire to keep the position. Mr. Skelos, in turn, offered encouragement — but no promises.

What is helping Mr. Turner’s chances, according to people monitoring the discussions in Albany, is the symbolic power of his victory to the party nationally.  Mr. Turner defeated David I. Weprin, a scion of a Democratic family in Queens, in a race in which Democrats mobilized some of their biggest names and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Turner turned the race into a referendum on the policies of President Obama.

“What Bob Tuner showed is that Republicans can win in a Democratic district,” said Representative Peter T. King, a senior Republican from Long Island who has taken Mr. Turner under his wing. “He’s got this reputation as a giant killer now. And the giant was not just David Weprin. It was the entire Democratic Party apparatus.”