King Gets First '08 Challenger

No, it's not one of the Daves. Massapequa resident Bill Corrigan is looking to throw his hat into the ring for '08.
Corrigan has a blog and made an announcement there and at MassapequaNews.com that he has formed an exploratory committee for a third party or independent run.

The first blog post says "The Bill Corrigan Congressional Exploratory Committee organized in accordance with the Federal Election Commission's Guidelines.
We will be conducting much more research and are looking for smart, honest folks who want to join the committee.
We will be focusing intently on economics, polling and surveys, quantitative analysis and marketing. We are hoping to also develop a systems design team and welcome college and gradute students!"

I haven't found any committee listing with the FEC but we'll have the info when it comes available.

Corrigan's second blog post was the press release about his intentions. Corrigan writes "We’re in a fact finding stage. We are testing the waters for a new process that will allow for a more accurate representation of our district’s wishes.” said Corrigan.

The committee is seeking feedback as to whether constituents would be more likely to favor a third party candidate that will utilize this new technology to allow voters to vote their conscience on specific topics. “In serving the community it is essential to make their voices heard in congress. Before that happens their representative needs to hear their voice first. He needs to hear it accurately and from a broad range of constituents, not just the most powerful.”

An admirable undertaking. Getting more people involved and making their voices heard by elected officials is important. We already know how King has problems with constituent opinions (See here, here, here and here.)

Corrigan explains his system "Essentially the patent pending system will allow a representative to publish to constituents what bills are in committee, what their impact will be to the district and how the representative would vote and why. The voters will then have the option to tell the representative to vote as he would, vote as Republicans would, as Democrats would, or how they wish to vote specifically. Voters will also be able to weigh a topic as to how important it is to them. This way if there are two conflicting bills the representative will vote for the higher weighted issue. Voters will get real-time results of how the district is leaning and can therefore go out and encourage more participation by their fellow constituents."

Is he suggesting that the representative (maybe himself) would vote for a bill because constituents voted American Idol-style? I think that needs a little more clarification.
Corrigan does seem to be saying what I think he is saying "It keeps the representative and the district honest by increasing accountability. It lessens the influence of powerful special interests and allows the representative to truly represent his district by voting how they want.”
Why not do away with the representative and just go to a government by referendum? That is what it looks like Corrigan wants to happen except that we will have one person push the 'yea' or 'nay' button after the votes are tallyed.

And apparantly there was a survey in the disrict that emboldens Corrigan "An overwhelming majority of survey takers in the third district have suggested that Corrigan himself run. “True, my background, successes and recognition would make me a strong third party candidate, but I’m not at that stage of determination yet.”

When, where and how was this survey conducted?
I'm not trying to knock Corrigan down but he does need to address many tough questions if he is going to run.
I'll keep updating on Corrigan '08 as info becomes available.