Election Campaigning in New York

New York -- surprise, surprise -- is not a swing state.

Neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney come here to make big speeches, volunteer in a soup kitchen or shake hands. Well, they probably do plenty of the latter, but likely only at $1,000-plate fundraising dinners.

We don't see commercials, we don't get mailings and we don't have a land line, so we don't get phone calls. No volunteers knock on our doors, and yards sprout surprisingly few signs for the presidential candidates.

Local candidates, however, are a different story. It seems like I throw out a different mailing every other day. And it's probably even worse because Paul and I have different party affiliations, so we get something from everyone.

I try to make an educated vote for these state and congressional seats, but it's difficult when I read so many stories in the newspaper about how so-and-so has done such-and-such shady deal.

But thanks to these mailings and yard signs, I know their names almost as well as Obama and Romney. And while I know how my vote will be cast for president, I now have only a little more than a week to decide who to choose for these other races. Happily, there will be no robocalls to "help."