Also at The Albany Project
Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco was chosen by county party bosses as the Republican candidate for the March 31 special election to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20, after she was appointed to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.
Tedisco lost in a squeaker to Scott Murphy, gave up his Assembly leadership post under pressure, and sulked for a few months.
But he came out of his funk, and started campaigning for a NY-20 rematch with his usual shtick of faux-populist press releases, ready availability to print reporters, call-ins to conservative talk radio shows, and, in a nod to how media have changed, a blog on the Albany Times Union website.
How the Times Union is helping Tedisco get to Washington, below.
The Times Union is evidently comfortable with hosting political candidates on their site, as long as they have not formally announced.
And it gives obvious candidates like Tedisco campaign blogs where never a discouraging word is heard, since the candidate gets to moderate comments.
I found that part out when I made some comments under Tedisco's posts, and none of them got posted.
The TU's comment policy is brief, and weirdly passive:
All comments are read and approved before they display. Comments with profanity or personal attacks will be rejected.
Comments under Capital Confidential, the TU's premier and highest-traffic blog, are moderated by TU reporters and editors.
I've written hundreds of comments there over the years, and on the rare occasion that one didn't get posted, I contacted a TU reporter or editor to inquire why.
We didn't always agree, but at least there was a way to discuss the range of appropriate comments with a journalist.
I didn't bother to do that when my non-profane, non-personal-attack comments under Tedisco's posts disappeared into the ether.
Because it is obvious that Tedisco is moderating his TU blog, and deleting any comment that was not singing in his choir.
Tedisco launched his campaign TU blog on October 1, stating that:
this blog must be interactive in nature. Whether we agree or disagree, civil debate and discussion on state issues of concern may just lead to a more responsive state government.
Tedisco is running for Congress, and really does not give a whit about "state issues of concern," other than how his demagoguing those issues will help him win in NY-20.
And he will not allow any disagreeable comments.
The TU can give free blogs to whomever it wants, and many of its local blogs are worthwhile and interesting.
But Tedisco's blog is obviously related to his NY-20 ambition, and it is shameful that the major newspaper in the district is subsidizing a candidate, and allowing him to censor comments, for his political benefit.
That said, Tedisco was a lousy NY-20 candidate before, and will likely be a lousy, losing candidate again in 2010.
But whatever happens next year, the TU's subsidy of Tedisco's Congressional campaign blog now sucks.