Maurice Hinchey

Tonight is the first debate between freshman Democratic Representative Kirsten Gillibrand and her well-funded Republican challenger, Sandy Treadwell.

Treadwell says he will elaborate on his plan for a moratorium on earmarks.

Both candidates in this heavily Republican district are likely preparing for questions about how they line up with respect to their party's presidential nominee.  read more »

Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual list of congressional earmarks (they actually call it the Congressional Pig Book list).

Of course, what one person calls wasteful spending, another person calls bringing home the bacon, and now that Democrats are in the majority, New York was supposed to be getting more federal money.

The state made out with a good portion, particularly in the Catskills, where Maurice Hinchey brought in $43.7 million.

Here is a list of what some members from New York, and a few from elsewhere, brought their districts, according to the list. (It's in numbers of millions):  read more »

In what must have been an exhausting exercise, some academic wonks and good-government-type journos (namely, grad students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and CPB's Marketplace, American RadioWorks) spent months combing the travel records of our members of Congress since 2000, detailing who travels the most (Louisiana's former Senator John Breaux) and who foots the bill. And New York's got two Congressmen - Maurice Hinchey and Greg Meeks - in the top 10!

Here are the top frequent flyers in New York's current and former Congressional delegation since 2000:

Maurice Hinchey ($152,169.25) Gregory Meeks ($126,690.08) Joseph Crowley ($79,807.23) Eliot Engel ($67,471.23) Amo Houghton ($44,539.43) Nita Lowey ($43,452.95)

... and the rundown of some of the rest:

Hillary Clinton ($31,047.74) Carolyn Maloney ($26,157.72) Major Owens ($25,049.02) Charlie Rangel ($18,821.00) Anthony Weiner ($16,756.71) Steve Israel ($14,556.24) Chuck Schumer ($13,738.00) Vito Fossella ($9,588.78) Pete King ($9,311.82)

... including a few stay-at-home types:

Nydia Velazquez ($766.64)

Among the priciest excursions were Maloney's $12,665 trip to Doha, Qatar, and Meeks' $17,194 trip to Mumbai, India.  read more »

And who could turn down NASDAQ's March 2003 meeting in Miami (not Vito or Greg) or the Aspen Institute's February 2000 conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico (not Eliot or Gary Ackerman)?

And Nita must really be a fan of the Aspen Institute - over the years, she's been to its summits in Helsinki, Finland; Punta Mita, Mexico; Great Exuma Island, the Bahamas; and Honolulu.