The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has come out early in saying that Democrat Jonathan Powers will get its financial support in the 26th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Thomas Reynolds.

The campaign committee is putting Powers on its Red To Blue program, which means money and assistance for Powers’ campaign.

“Jon Powers has assembled a strong and dynamic campaign with strong grassroots support, local labor leaders, and all seven Democratic committees,” said Chairman Chris Van Hollen. “Jon Powers will bring the leadership skills he used in Iraq to the issues facing western New York – bringing good paying jobs to the district and fighting to reduce gas prices for middle class families.”

In 2006, Syracuse Democratic candidate Dan Maffei got the committee’s support, helping him to come within just a few thousand votes of beating Rep. James Walsh, R-Syracuse.

Gov. David Paterson today pledged “no more phony deadlines’’ about when Ground Zero may be rebuilt, and gave the head of the Port Authority another 90 days to come up with a workable schedule.

“It’s not possible to give any dates and timetables at this time,’’ Paterson said at a Manhattan news conference of the oft-delayed project to redevelop the former World Trade Center site that was destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

He said a report prepared by Port Authority Executive Director Christopher Ward found that 19 separate agencies are involved in the process, with no one organization in charge. He also said there are “15 unanswered questions’’ that have to be addressed before the projects can move forward.

Paterson declined to assign blame for the long delay, but promised to be more open about the projects’ prospects from now on.

“In the future we will be as transparent and as honest as possible,’’ he said.

After business groups today started website to promote a property-tax cap, the Working Families Party announced its own site to promote tying taxes to income—instead of a cap.

The union-backed party launched its online tax-cap calculator to show that a circuit breaker as its called is a better solution than a cap.

“A unworkable, one size fits all cap would simply limit the amount that your property taxes could go up,” said Dan Cantor, Working Families Party executive director. “The Working Families Party plan for tax relief would give millions of homeowners an immediate tax cut the fair way, based on your family’s ability to pay.”

The calculator includes a petition calling for property tax relief through the circuit breaker model, and the party plans an advertising campaign around the calculator.

Hillary Clinton joined Barack Obama last week on the campaign trail and now Bill Clinton and Obama have spoken.

Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton said the former president and Obama spoke by telephone this afternoon. (They are seen left in 2005 after Hurricae Katrina.)

“Senator Obama had a terrific conversation with President Clinton and is honored to have his support in this campaign,” Burton said.  “He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation’s great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come.”

It’s called “Dignity” and is airing in 18 battleground states and focuses on Obama’s efforts on behalf of children and families.

Here’s the script:
OBAMA: I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message.
Announcer: He worked his way through college and Harvard Law. Turned down big money offers, and helped lift neighborhoods stung by job loss. Fought for workers’ rights.
He passed a law to move people from welfare to work, slashed the rolls by eighty percent. Passed tax cuts for workers; health care for kids.
As president, he’ll end tax breaks for companies that export jobs, reward those that create jobs in America.
And never forget the dignity that comes from work.

The anti-Bush movement comes to Fairport Wednesday to knock Rep. Randy Kuhl’s voting record and his close ties to the Bush administration. Kuhl represents the 29th Congressional District, which runs from the Rochester suburbs through the Southern Tier.

The Bush Legacy Bus Tour, sponsored by unions and Moveon.org, has been making its way across the country, and 10 a.m. stop in Fairport, a Rochester suburb, at 220 Packetts Landing in front of Kuhl’s office is the first stop in New York.

Kuhl is considered one of the most marginal Republican incumbents in New York, and Republicans are worried that his seat, as well as two open congressional seats in western New York, could turn Democratic in November.

New Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos plans to visit Binghamton next week, the second stop on an upstate tour for the state’s most powerful Republican, a spokesman said today.
Skelos, 60, a 24-year veteran lawmaker from Rockville Centre, Nassau County, was elected last week to succeed Joseph Bruno, who stunned the Capitol by suddenly quitting the leadership post.
Skelos, who has pledged to make solving upstate’s economic problems his second-most important priority (behind controlling property taxes) is starting his tour Wednesday in Buffalo and then visit Rochester Thursday. Then he plans to visit Utica, Binghamton and Syracuse next week.
NO day has been set yet for the Binghamton visit, But while there he will almost surely will appear with Sen.  Tom Libous of Binghamton, who also wanted the top job but has gone out of his way since Skelos wax elected to show support for the new leader.
The Republicans now have a mere 32-30 majority in the Senate, which they have controlled every year but one since 1938.

Republican Assembly candidate Rob Biagi made a property-tax cap the first issue of his campaign when he announced his candidacy Sunday against Democratic Assemblyman George Latimer.

Biagi, a resident of New Rochelle, said a cap is critical, indicating what will be a fight in many races this election year as lawmakers left town last week without addressing property taxes.
“We’re getting crushed by massive property tax increases that keep going up and up. We need to stop the unfunded mandates, which cause our county and towns to increase property taxes, and deliver effective tax relief to Westchester families by capping taxes,” Biagi said.

Latimer said this morning that a cap may be an answer but more discussion is needed on a remedy to the state’s high taxes. He said mandate relief is also needed.

“Legislation of that nature needs to be analyzed and vetted,” he said. “The push to do the property-tax cap alone and not looking at the circuit breaker and mandate relief seems to be as being opportunistic.”

The 91st district includes the towns and villages of Mamaroneck, Rye, Larchmont, Port Chester and Rye Brook as well as the cities of New Rochelle and Rye.

Gov. David Paterson today provided some interesting statistics about the state’s agriculture industry when he announced he wants the federal government to declare 23 counties disaster areas because of the July 16 hail storm. Such a declaration would make farmers in those counties eligible for low-interest loans.

Paterson pointed out that the state has about 35,000 farms that encompass 7.6 million acres, or about a quarter of all land in the state. It generates $3.6 billion annually.

The state produces more cottage cheese than any other state, is second in cabbage and apples and third in the production of milk, maple syrup, grapes, sweet corn, snap beans, and cauliflower.

The counties he says needs help are Albany, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Columbia, Dutchess, Erie, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Orange, Orleans, Putnam, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schoharie, Schuyler, Seneca, Ulster, Wayne and Westchester.

Business groups around the state are starting the New York Property Tax Cap Coalition, which they say is a “broad-based group of individuals, businesses, taxpayer groups and other associations who support the proposed property tax cap.”

The group includes chambers of commerce and other business groups from Long Island and upstate, including Unshackle Upstate, Rochester Business Alliance and the Rockland Business Association.

The website includes a FAQ, studies about a property-tax cap and how to join the group.