Dave Mejias

DENVER--During the speeches leading up to Hillary Clinton’s primetime address to the Democratic Convention last night, the New York delegation seemed distracted.

"We don't need McCain here -- put them down!," Maria Luna, a Clinton delegate from Manhattan, screamed at her delegation, which was waving "McCain More of the Same" signs above their heads. She jumped out of her aisle seat and onto the steps. "Down," she screamed. "Down!"

"Maria. Calma," said State Senator Bill Perkins, who sat in the second row. “Calma.” Then he saw a friend trying to pass through the convention’s clogged main corridor just below the delegation. "Guillermo, Guillermo, como vas?" Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was telling his life story on the stage.  read more »

Pete King says he is completely confident that he will win reelection tonight, and he is still trying to figure out why, aside from a couple of questionable polls, anyone ever thought he was in trouble.

His answer: It was Newsday.

"It's five hours to the polls, but based on everything I know, as of 4:35 this is a campaign totally contrived by Newsday," he said.

He said the reports of his fund-raising were greatly downplayed in the paper while the reports of money raised by his opponent, Dave Mejias, were inflated. He pointed out that neither MoveOn.org, NARAL or any other national liberal organizations even got behind Mejias, as far as he could see.

"And also you haven't seen any poll released by him," King said. "And I know he has taken polls."

So, in King's calculations, that leaves Newsday. "I have something to say tonight about Newsday , and it is not going to be a rant, it is going to be something fairly thoughtful, I hope, on what they have done here."

When told about King's comments suggesting that Newsday exaggerated the competitiveness of Mejias' campaign, John Mancini, the paper's editor, said, "We disagree strongly."

"All we have done," Mancini said, "is cover a Congressional race on Long Island."

--Jason Horowitz

Dave Mejias recieved some good news last week when the DCCC added his race against Rep. Peter King in the 3rd Congressional district to their "red to blue" program.

I'd heard a rumor since then that the Mejias campaign had actually receieved less money from the DCCC than they were expecting. But campaign manager Mike Premo said that wasn't the case, and that they were receiving "tens of thousands of dollars" plus logistical support to help the candidate in the final week before the election.

"Since we have been targeted there is a heavy influx of support to help us pay those final bills," he said.

In addition, Mejias received the endorsement today of Newsday, which King recently suggested to a crowd of security profesionals in Manhattan isn't a real newspaper.

--Jason Horowitz

Pete King has spent the last couple of weeks dismissing the notion that he's in a close race, an impression that stems largely from a poll that showed him leading little-known challenger Democrat Dave Mejias by only two points. He argued that the polling firm, Constituent Dynamics, was unreliable because it used automated pollsters, and that his internal polling, conducted by human beings, had him up by well over 20 points.

The firm defended the accuracy of its data in a discussion last week.

Now, after Constituent Dynamics released another poll earlier today showing King up by a mere 49 percent to Mejias' 48 percent among likely voters, the congressman is even more convinced that the numbers are a fiction.

"There is no credibility to those polls," King said.

By way of contrast, he shared what we said were his internal polling numbers -- from the firm McLaughlin & Associates -- which showed that as of October 18th, he was up 55 percent to 32 percent. A subsequent polling of 400 people taken Friday October 27th showed a 54 percent to 27 percent advantage.

Meanwhile, Mejias is plugging away, releasing another ad today taking King to task for his support of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

--Jason Horowitz

Peter King is worried that his fellow Republicans are turning into wimps.    read more »

Peter King is worried that his fellow Republicans are turning into wimps.  read more »

Pete King still contends that his son has never lobbied despite his inclusion in the state commission's lobbying register as an "additional lobbyist" for Al D'Amato's Park Strategies.

"I told you the other day he's not a lobbyist, I still say he has never lobbied," King just told me. "He had no idea he was listed. Al D'Amato had no idea that my son was listed."

The Politicker noted earlier this week that Sean King worked for Park Strategies, which represents several companies with Homeland Security contracts. Congressman King is the Chairman for the House Homeland Security committee. Newsday subsequently noted that one of the companies with such a contract is the computer firm SAP America.

"Apparently when they attained SAP as a client they put down, they listed everyone who could potentially be involved in the dealings," King said. "In an overabundance of caution they put his (Sean's) name. He had no idea he was down there. He has never had any dealing with SAP, he has never lobbied."

King said everyone involved was surprised to hear that Sean King was registered. He called D'Amato, ("he said 'no he is not'") and then his son, ("He said it and I believe him and he certainly has never lobbied for them.")

King said that his son represents the home delivery pizza chain Papa John's in Taiwan and has no role in lobbying for clients with Homeland Security business. The Mejias campaign dug up one of the strangest, Casio-scored pieces of video footage I've seen in an effort to assert that Sean King, who is apparently the speaker in the film clip, does in fact represent companies like Lockheed Martin. But according to the clip, he only mentions them as one of the firm's publicly disclosed clients.

"This is a very desperate act by a very desperate politician," said King. "It is as low as anything I've seen."

Dave Mejias, King's opponent, phoned in to respond.

"What is low is the cultural of corruption in Washington, how family members are able to sell their influence to clients that get access to government and contracts," he said. "Peter is trying to name call to divert attention from the facts. His son is a lobbyist who is peddling his father's influence."

--Jason Horowitz

The much-anticipated debate yesterday between Rep. Peter King of Long Island and his Democratic challenger Dave Mejias is online over here. Warning. It's an hour long. But it's also worth watching, at least for a couple of minutes, if you're at all interested in this stuff.

Like the Times wrote today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have that option, and doesn't sound like he'd want to take it if he could.

Quick highlights:

Mejias, around the 3:20 mark:

"Five years later, after September 11th, we still have not hunted down and killed Bin Laden. That's a crime."

King talks about Iraq around the 4:45 mark:

"There are parts of the country that are stable. There are parts of the country that are deadly...I was on a convoy along the highway when a bomb went off. A bomb went off [and I] was almost killed. Then we went through the city and the city was perfectly stable. It shows how dangerous it is and how stable it is at the same time."

-- Azi Paybarah

The much-anticipated debate yesterday between Rep. Peter King of Long Island and his Democratic challenger Dave Mejias is online over here. Warning. It's an hour long. But it's also worth watching, if only for a couple of minutes (unless you live in the district).

Like Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenburg noted today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have the option, and doesn't sound like he'd want to take it if he could

Quick highlights:

Mejias, around the 3:20 mark: "Five years later, after September 11th, we still have not hunted down and killed Bin Laden. That's a crime."

King talks about Iraq around the 4:45 mark: "There are parts of the country that are stable. There are parts of the country that are deadly...I was on a convoy along the highway when a bomb went off. A bomb went off [and I] was almost killed. Then we went through the city and the city was perfectly stable. It shows how dangerous it is and how stable it is at the same time."

-- Azi Paybarah