1 Go for it.  At the least, it'll make an interesting addition to your resume.

2 You are joking, right?  The moron population of the world hovers between 92 and 95%.  Chances are very good that would be the same in upstate New York.  But, I heard that is a conservative district.  The word conservative doesn't really mean much anymore in regards to politicians though.

3 Well, John Murtagh (yes, that John Murtagh) replied to me on Twitter and said that John Faso had a better chance at winning the primary and the general than Tedisco did.  I don't want to change my life so drastically just to lose in the primary. 

I asked Karol if she had any thoughts on the potential GOP candidates.  I'm waiting to hear back. 

4

I'm a refugee from upstate NY, I've lived in Albany and Schenectady more than once, as well as downstate and in lovely Utica. (I call it lovely Utica because in my head I use a different adjective that starts with "fucking" and ends with "!").

I wouldn't do it if I were you unless you already have a good job besides working for a GOP politician who has no chance of winning.  That's not a conservative district.

NY taxed businesses out of the state so they did what politicians always do when revenue goes down, increase taxes. Then, when revenue went down farther, they raised taxes again. Naturally, NY voters did what voters always do when politicians screw things up, re-elected them.

The town I grew up in, about 50 miles south of Albany, Kingston, had maybe 25,000 people and the IBM just outside of town in a "suburb" employed around 5,000 and various businesses that supplied IBM with stuff were in the area too. Naturally, they taxed the crap out of them so they left. Kingston went from high-paying IBM jobs to mall jobs.  

Cuomo finally got too ridiculous so they elected Pataki, who then turned into Cuomo-lite in about 2-3 years.

GOP and Dems are indistinguishable except in the Albany Times Useless newspaper. Seriously, read the Albany Times Union. Just make sure you either have something you can throw or keep everything out of your reach. I would suggest you tie your hands behind your back before reading that. Spitzer used the State Police to go after a Republican, the Times Useless never mentioned that, they regularly mentioned some lies that Spitzer put out about him though.

Albany has the state government and lots of state-wide offices (The SUNY offices are in Albany for instance), so they're less hit than the rest of the state, but it's still pretty ugly there.

Plus, IMO, upstate NY has a very large population who hate life and want you to hate life too, they're the ones who didn't have the brains or gumption to get out of Dodge or even stop voting for the party that destroyed what was once one of the great industrial states in our nation.

I used to get all excited to go visit but after a couple years I started to wonder why I was getting excited. Now? I dread it.

Except for August, then Saratoga is open for thoroughbreds. That's a fun place. They have a nice are with lots of picnic tables and they let you bring your own coolers and whatnot.

5 This is the best article I have ever read.