Wow, either this guy is suffering from sheer exhaustion or there's not all that much of a bulb in the socket. This is stunning given his near perfectly executed campaign for Congress, where he racked up a 15 percent win by honing in on local issues and well-placed ads and ad buys.

Informing people of what a Congressman does, that would be fine if his constituancy consisted entirely of third graders. The fact that he's also saying that he'll have an "open-door" is pretty absurd, that's what he should be doing the entire time that he's there.

Congressman Chris "Bingo" Lee.

Two things for Chris Lee:

(1) All representatives have an open door. That open door is called a taxpayer-funded office. So this open door business is nothing. Even Tom Reynolds had an open door. Big deal.

(2) We should not have to go to the representative. The representative should come to us. I'm not talking about every problem we have the representative should be at the door. I'm saying that the representative should be traveling the district when the opportunity presents itself. Whenever you're not in Washington, hop on the Thruway and take a ride. It's that simple.

Daniel, I think you're being unfair. As much as I disagree, for multiple reasons, with the nature of Lee's campaign, strategically (not excusing it ethically) it was correct.

It would be a logical leap to conclude that his campaign signals anything about how he will conduct himself in office.

There is much that he could tell us -- in being completely transparent -- about his day-to-day life in congress.

Our job -- and I don't just mean The Batavian, but all of us -- is to hold him to that promise ... to publicly hold him to that promise, which is why I posted this link.

It's time to put partisanship aside and figure out how we can all work together for the good of Genesee County. Chris Lee is our conduit to the Federal government. Let's work with him and hold him accountable, and if he fails to do the job he should do, then we have a chance to fire him in two years. I for one intend to give him every chance to succeed, just as I'll give Barack Obama every chance to succeed.

Robert, as to the second point -- we can use The Batavian to help monitor and accomplish point #2.

Chris Lee is a minority member without any potential of becoming a majority member in the next few years, it doesn't appear that, given the mandate of Barack Obama (attaining over 50 percent of the vote) that there will be another 1994 or 2006, he's going to be in this posiition for at least 2 terms if he survives his next re-election.

This is facing reality, like Mike Ranzenhofer I wish him all the best and I hope that he can secure investments for Batavia and Genesee County, but given this statement I wonder how effective he will be. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Hey Robert do you believe the same should hold true for Sen. Clinton and Shumer...How often are they here in Batavia..Do they just show up for photo ops..Or do they spent most of there term running for President .Or just running around around the country trying to get some one elected..Both sides do it..I dont think its hop on the thruway for those two.....

well mark as for sen schumer he was in batavia 2 or 3 times this last summer, one was with the farmers and gov patterson where he ans many question from local farmers, defintly not a photo opt, the other time was at the vet home those two i was at, and i believe ther was one more so sen schumer is around in gen and orleans county often and not for photo opts, the only thing your right on is sen schumer dosent hope on the thruway he flys his 2 enging plane himself when he traveles up state ande as for sen clinton she is around now that she not running for president but as for tom renynold photo opt only the only q@a he does gets handled by stafeer that cant ans anything