While candidates were more than likely hitting the streets this week with Election Day just over a month away, headlines were rather slim in the local political arena, as the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney dominated the news.
In the race for New York's First Congressional District, sides continued to square off in the race between Tim Bishop and Randy Altschuler.
The two faced off in a debate in Smithtown on Monday night, though before the two met, Bishop's campaign reacted to recent news that House Speaker John Boehner is coming to the district for a Republican fundraiser.
“For all of Altschuler’s ‘outsider’ rhetoric, he certainly has powerful friends in Washington,” Bishop's Campaign Communications Director Robert Pierce said. "It seems that Altschuler has no problem criticizing the Republican Congress at night and cashing their checks by day.”
Meanwhile Republicans continued to paint Bishop as corrupt, seizing on a story picked up in August centered around a Bishop staffer asking a constituent for funds after the Congressman helped him gain fireworks permits. The National Republican Campaign Committee released a statement Thursday, calling Bishop "this week's most corrupt Democrat."
Pierce told the New York Daily News: "The NRCC is in a tough spot. They can't cut an ad praising Altschuler's business experience, because his business is outsourcing American jobs."
The plays from out-of-state groups are nothing new to the race and will likely continue over the next month.
Altschuler defended himself in a blog post on Patch this week, saying, "Bishop’s campaign is predictably getting more and more desperate with their personal attacks against me. In short, he’s just going to make things up and hope to fool you."
