Kudos and Forehead Smacking: How Satisfied Are You With Your Representatives?

So, it's a basic rule of thumb that the people dislike the progress made by the overall legislative body, but happen to think their individual representatives are doing well, or at least like them enough to keep voting them back into office.

We New Yorkers might have a somewhat different take on things, especially with our State Senate, and especially right now.

Who will you be re-electing in the next election? Who won't you be re-electing? Why?

Great site for reviewing info on all reps:
http://www.votesmart.org/index.htm

While you are probably familiar with your DC representation, you might not know how they vote on certain bills:

http://thomas.loc.gov/
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm

You might not know who your Albany Representatives are, and likely do not know how they vote on many bills:

http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/
http://www.nysenate.gov/districts/map

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menuf.cgi
http://www.nysenate.gov/openleg/

You may want to look up lobbying group's opinions on your reps for further insight, like Empire State Pride Agenda:
http://www.prideagenda.org/IssuesExplained/LegislativeInformationCenter/VotingRecords/tabid/100/Default.aspx

Sam Hoyt is a great guy, a great rep, and an awesome local advocate.

I don't know much about Antoine Thompson, but his voting record seems solid. Congressman Higgins and Senator Schumer likewise overall seem to be on the right track, although I do disagree on some issues.

I look forward to seeing Tasini run against Senator Gillibrand.

Don't like any of them and I DETEST Engel.

I don't really know enough about the locals. They seems like 'finger in the wind' types. ( Much like the aforementioned, come to think of it.) They're pretty interchangeable.

I'd like to be represented in the State Senate by someone with some edge and moxie... like Tom Duane, for instance. Instead I have either Klein or Schneiderman.. not exactly sure. Is there a difference between the two?

As you can probably tell, I've got a Republican congressman.

the system is set up for two people to run the show regardless of what anyone else in the legislature wants or needs. It even marginalizes the Governor and makes him one of the waekest in the country.

Schumer, Gillibrand and Tim Bishop I'm OK with. Schumer is a bigmouthed hot dog more interested in publicity than anything else, but he does eventually get the job done. I hope Gillibrand will be an effective Senator once she gets further into the job and the current craziness slows down-- I don't want to see a primary battle just because Tasini needs a job. Tim Bishop is a reliable vote and does OK for the district.

Congressman Dan Maffei, I like him so far but he is new to the job. Dave Valesky is our state senator and again, a freshman.

The County Executive, Joanie Mahoney is an R but so far I think she is doing well, definitely works well with Democrats. Can't complain, she speaks in complete, easy to understand sentences and does not need to degrade her communication with winks and simpers. She is smart and very capable.

State Senator John Defrancisco (R), I have some differences of opinion, obviously. However, he is responsive to his voters and has answered every letter I've sent him.

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand? I don't have a problem with either of them.... yet.

If I lived in the city of Syracuse, I'd be voting for Stephanie Miner at the mayoral election.

which isn't really surprising since I'm significantly to the left of both of our Senators, can't seem to get a straight answer on who my House Rep is and have no use for my State Senator.

Throw the bums out.

Edit: I take back the comment about my State Senator...I was misinformed as to which district I am in. I like Stewart-Cousins just fine.