Anti-Kelly Blog Paints Congresswoman With Scarlet Letter - No, Not THAT Scarlett Letter

Take19, the blog that makes no secret of the fact that its whole reason for being is to defeat New York Republican Congresswoman Sue Kelly this fall, has an amusing post today.

But one with a point.

With virtually every poll over the last several months showing that voters prefer Congress be controlled by Democrats when all is said and done in November, Republican candidates seem to be shying away from their party label. Many of them anyway.

The point is made in a recent story in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper. The story centers on the fact that even the man running the Congressional campaign effort for the Republicans on a national level, Rep. Tom Reynolds of the Buffalo area, is running a TV ad that doesn't mention his party affiliation.

Take19, spurred by the article, took a look at Kelly's campaign Web site and claims not to have found the word "Republican" anywhere on the site. There's no search engine on the site but I did a quick review of all the pages and I couldn't find a party identification mentioned.

Taking things a step further, I looked at Kelly's official Congressional Web site and couldn't find her party affiliation there either. I must admit, that site was too large to search every page, but I did check the biography page, the home page and several recent press releases and no party affiliation was mentioned on those Web pages.

The same issue has cropped up several times in the 20th District, where it has been noted that incumbent Republican John Sweeney has failed to mention his party affiliation in campaign literature and his TV advertising. Both Sweeney's campaign Web site and Congressional site readily identify his party affiliation.

Back to The Hill article for a second. The publication notes that Reynolds' seat outside of Buffalo is among the least likely New York seats to change party hands this fall. It makes no mention of Kelly's seat and identifies Sweeney's seat as one that could be ripe for a change.