MyDD :: "Shotgun Senator" Republican Randy Kuhl-gate update

"Shotgun Senator" Republican Randy Kuhl-gate update

by Jerome Armstrong, Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 06:06:08 AM EST

The AP has finally opened up the story on Randy Kuhl outside the blogosphere & political junkies. For a recap, the local media in the 29th CD has refused to talk about the contents from Republican Randy Kuhl's divorce filings. Raw Story broke the report public with in-depth reporting that included reproductions of the documents in the filings. Here's what the AP (NY's Newsday as well) has finally reported, Divorce papers say New York House candidate threatened wife with shotguns:

In the Kuhl papers, Jennifer Kuhl asked for a divorce on grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. Kuhl, first elected to New York's state Senate in 1986, later countercharged, accusing her of abandonment. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the court-stamped papers and verified their accuracy. Both Kuhl and his former wife declined several requests by the AP to address the contents of the court papers. "In or about 1994, while the parties were hosting a dinner party at their home, the defendant (Kuhl) took out two shotguns and threatened to shoot plaintiff (Kuhl-Peterson)," the papers charge...

Kuhl-Peterson filed for divorce in late 1998, charging that Kuhl "endangered (her) mental and physical well-being and rendered it unsafe and improper for the parties to continue to reside together." After Kuhl was arrested in 1997 for drunken driving, he refused his wife's requests "to attend counseling to deal with his excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages," she said in the papers. As a result of that arrest, Kuhl had his driver's license suspended for six months. He launched his congressional campaign bid by publicly discussing the arrest.

The New York Post online edition today screams, SHOTGUN' SENATOR FIRES BACK with Kuhl and his ex-wife together calling this "ugly politics". What's ugly is that the local print and TV media refuse to cover the parts of Randy Kuhl's past that are ugly.

Kuhl and his ex-wife, Jennifer Kuhl-Peterson should discuss the claims in the divorce filing. Are they true? Because if so, the people of the 29th CD should know. But to this date, the local media refuses to disclose the facts to the people of the 29th CD in New York. The blogs have talked about it, Congress Daily and the National Journal's Hotline have covered it this week, but the press inside the 29th refuse to cover the facts of story.

Update: The Star-Gazette in Elmira has the AP story today: (Kuhl pulled shotguns on wife, papers say Web site runs details of divorce allegation; both condemn disclosure). Will others follow? You can ask if they plan on covering the details of Kuhl's recent-past for the voters of the 29th district:

ABC's affiliate WENY is in Elmira, here's the contact page.

NBC's affiliate WETM is in Elmira, here's the contact page

Contact the newspaper Corning Leader through this online form.

Contact emails for the Hornell Evening Tribune are here.

Email contact for the Olean Times-Herald is here.

The Canandaigua Reporter has an online contact form.

Kevin Frisch and Julie Sherwood are the political reporters for Canandaaigua's Daily Messenger, here's the contact page with emails.

For those of you who want to vent. Joe Dunning is managing editor for The Leader. He can be reached at jdunning@the-leader.com or (607)936-4651, Ext. 362. Dunning has written that the divorce record's contents, I've been told, don't remotely come close to Ryan's sexcapades. Tell Joe to look at the facts, and stop smearing the Democratic Party and Samara Barend for the faults of his Shotgun Senator. Let Bob Rolfe, a retired Leader reporter/editor (1965-2002), who can be reached at theinsider1@aol.com, also co-host of WENY-TV's "Voice of the People" public affairs program, which airs at midnight and 11:45 p.m. on Sundays, that this isn't as he writes, "gossip" on websites. If you have still more, Steven Poyzer owns the rightwing Canandaigua News.

Rochester apparently has a big media presence in the district, so here are a couple of the contact pages there:

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Rochester TV

ABC Affiliate
IKnowRochester
WROC
10NBC

Rochester Alternative Weekly Rochester City News

Tags: House 2006 (all tags)

Permalink :: 8 Comments :: Post a Comment

I so have to reblog this! (none / 0)

Hey Jerome,

Thanks so much for the work. I'll try to get you homeschooler traffic this way. Kuhl is behind the effort to codify homeschooling in NYC and a lot of people are against it.

He's had money thrown at him by HSDLA which is a tool of Michael Farris, a strong proponent of strict constitutional constructionism. The fact that he sells himself as a quasi-religious leader is just ... well ... don't these people ever learn?!?!

Liza Sabater
www.culturekitchen.com

by liza on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 11:04:47 AM EST

I Could Not Understand (none / 0)

Why that reporter said it didn't even come close to Ryan's "sexcapades." He's right--in fact, it's much worse.

Do we really want someone like Kuhl casting a vote on laws that affect victims of domestic violence or laws in regard to women's rights?

I certainly don't.

Ryan was motivated by sexual fantasy; Kuhl was motivated by alcoholism and rage.

I can't believe his ex-wife is standing by him. Sounds like she has the whole battered wife syndrome down pat as far as she probably blames herself in part for Kuhl's actions or excuses it and is unwilling to recognize that the man is disturbed and responsible for his own actions.

by Cat M on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 12:13:02 PM EST

My Letter to the Daily Messenger (none / 0)

Dear Editor:

I wonder why you have not had coverage of Randy Kuhl's divorce filings, posted on-line, which show that he pulled shotguns on his ex-wife, threatened to kill her and treated her in an abusive and degrading fashion.

I realize his ex-wife is standing by him but it's not uncommon for victims of domestic violence to blame themselves in part for the actions of the abuser. Perhaps she has fallen into that mindset.

I find it disturbing to think about Randy Kuhl as a congressman voting on pieces of legislation that affect victims of domestic violence.

It's true that his actions are nowhere near the level of bad conduct reported in Jack Ryan's divorce papers--they're far worse.

Your publication owes it to women in New York and the nation to tell the truth about Randy Kuhl.

Consider these facts:

About three women are killed by domestic violence every day and in 2000, there were 1,247 women killed by an intimate partner.

Kuhl's actions are serious and egregious and should disqualify him from public office if true. Unless his ex-wife disavows her prior statements submitted under oath to the court, we have to assume, as a judge concluded, that they were true.

I hope you will do the right thing and let New Yorkers know what kind of man Randy Kuhl is--one who uses violence to intimdiate women and openly sexually harasses other working women.

by Cat M on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 12:28:47 PM EST

The more I see about this, the more I'm outraged (none / 0)

Don't forget, a good portion of the 29th is in the Rochester media market. The Democrat and Chronicle and the local TV networks really have shown appalling judgment on this one. Don't these documents raise the fundamental question of Kuhl's fitness for office? This is more than painful divorce proceedings; this is criminal behavior in front of witnesses. This is also a pattern of abuse, of both people and substances.

by Historical Pessimist on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 12:31:45 PM EST

District is 53% female (none / 0)

And Kuhl is not well-liked.

by Matt Stoller on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 01:06:33 PM EST

Re: Can you elaborate? (none / 0)

I don't know why Kuhl seems to get a pass from the media and many voters; he's really nothing special. But if he's not well-liked, then why hasn't the media aired this story? Why did his conservative opponent (Assini) not go ahead with his previously announced determination to go through November just on the Conservative line if he didn't win the GOP primary? Why was Kuhl given the chance to absent himself from the State Senate vote on the minimum wage so he, in turn, got the AFL-CIO's endorsement? What am I missing here?

by Historical Pessimist on Sat Oct 16, 2004 at 04:00:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Kuhl - NY (3.00 / 1)

I live in upstate NY, and can report that politics here are every bit as medieval and retrograde as they are in other rural parts of America. Our big cities (NYC, Albany) are Democratic strongholds, but in the provinces we've got more than our share of wingnuts. I happen to live in the Congressional district of Rep. John Sweeney, who led the band of Republican thugs that was banging on the doors of county election offices in Florida 2000. His predecessor was Gerry Solomon, who spent most of his career making sure that General Electric got whatever it wanted. NY will go for Kerry/Edwards, but not because of any enlightened politics in our upstate region.

by global yokel on Mon Oct 18, 2004 at 05:14:36 PM EST

Your definition of "enlightened" is crap (3.00 / 1)

So, you live in Upstate NY? So do I.
And how do you pay for your living?
Do you raise all your own food on a farm?
Or probably more likely with your liberal
arts degree, you work for some state agency
as a social worker, etc. You make fun of a guy
who gave GE everything it wanted. You forget
that these guys (and the Kodaks/Xeroxs of my particular area) are either all gone, or moving
out in droves.

Who do you think is paying your taxes for you
so you and all the liberal NYC wheenies can get their bread buttered by government money? Go back to Sheldon Silver's part of the country and lick his boots some more. When everyone who has had enough of your B"llsh't has moved out of NYS for places where the government gets something done (like a budget on time)and all their taxes aren't spent trying to "modernize" dead downtown areas where the resident don't take much more pride in their homes than the people in Kabul, mabye you'll see that a common sense middle ground is where it is at, not your fairyland.

by johhnyx on Mon Nov 01, 2004 at 06:21:15 AM EST

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