Viewsday

If any member of the State Legislature can be said to have risen organically from his community, it was Jim Conte. He was deeply rooted in Huntington Station, where his family ran a hamburger stand for 47 years until 2008, and that community kept returning him to the Assembly election after election, starting with the special election he won in 1988. Conte was a staunch advocate for Long Island...

A Republican lawmaker from Westchester County is banking on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s "muscle" for help in his re-election bid.

And judging from the Democratic governor’s comments, you might think he was backing a Republican -- but don’t call it an endorsement.

Assemb. Robert J. Castelli, a Republican whose district includes Cuomo’s New Castle abode, says he not only shares an...

As the countdown to Tuesday night’s presidential debate at Hofstra runs, it’s interesting to look back at the nation’s first look at the town hall format, 20 years ago, and how it went down.

In 1992 Bill Clinton was an underdog candidate running against an incumbent, President George H.W. Bush, who had piles of experience and a blessedly short and successful Middle East war on his resume.

What...

A Bronx tale: I first did business with Pedro Espada in August 1989. I was an editorial writer at New York Newsday and Espada was a health care impresario and candidate in the upcoming primary for a City Council seat. He had a complaint.

The Bronx Democratic machine, wracked by a spectacular run of rolling scandal, was trying to knock him off the ballot, he said. I’m sure it was, because that’s...

Paul Ryan and Joe Biden did one really well-advised thing in their vice presidential debate in Kentucky on Thursday: They kept the focus on Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the men at the top of the tickets.

The stakes were high for this vice presidential debate. But nobody votes for the No. 2 man on the ticket. They are surrogates for their running mates and neither man forgot that important...

Martha Raddatz made tonight's debate a three way.

With her assertive and sharp questions, she kept the first and only vice-presidential debate fast paced and on track.

In her pointed challenges to Joe Biden on the withdrawal of troops during the surge, she finally wiped the strange smile off the vice president's face, prompting him to lean forward in his reply to her and say "Be...

For some odd reason, maybe his hair or maybe the smile, as I watched Paul Ryan during the vigorous exchanges with Joe Biden, I kept thinking of Harry Potter’s classmate and nemesis, Draco Malfoy.

Maybe because his math is magical. But I have to admit, though his numbers weren’t any more convincing on this stage in Kentucky than they have been on the campaign trail, Ryan did hang in there reasonably...

Martha Raddatz is no Jim Lehrer.

He was savaged as a moderator for losing control of the presidential debate last week. Raddatz clearly got the message.

She’s been understated and focused. There’s no doubt she’s the one in control of the content and flow. But she’s on her home turf too. She’s a foreign correspondent at ABC News and knows of what she speaks.

Her followup questions...

Gentleman. That was no Jack Kennedy moment.

Debate watchers of a certain age can recite the line by heart: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy... Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's takedown of Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice president match-up was one of the great debate zingers of all time.

So give Joe Biden credit for trying --...