Erin Kelly of Gannett News Service reviews Rep. Mike Arcuri’s first seven months on the job in the Ithaca Journal. The first-term Democrat from Utica, N.Y., is soaking up some good press at home this month. He’s been doing some hands-on work at local businesses during his August vacation and even found time to get married on Friday.

The article portrays Arcuri as a moderate who is a perfect fit for the 24th District in upstate New York. (The district was carried by President Bush in 2000 and 2004 and hadn’t elected a Democrat in 50 years.) Nonetheless, Arcuri declares himself a perfect fit:

“The district is not liberal or conservative,‚Äù said Arcuri, an Italian Catholic who was born and raised in Utica and still makes his home there. ‚ÄúIt is middle of the road, reasonable, open-minded and independent. I think I fit its profile.‚Äù

Too bad his voting record doesn’t correspond. Despite his membership in the moderate coalition of Blue Dog Democrats, Arcuri has already established a liberal voting record that makes him hard to distinguish from San Francisco liberal Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. In fact, he’s voted with Pelosi 99% of the time.

Kelly’s article cited Arcuri’s support for the massive expansion of SCHIP and the bloated farm bill as positions in line with former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, but she fails to mention that Arcuri has voted consistently with the defeatist anti-war crowd. Before heading home for his vacation, Arcuri chose to side with the liberals of his party to vote against giving our intelligence community new tools for terrorist surveillance. He also appealed to the left when he sponsored a resolution calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Regardless of where you stand on the war or Gonzales, there’s no denying Arcuri has stood with liberals instead of moderates. Fortunately, Kelly gave space to Ken Spain of the National Republican Congressional Committee to point out his liberal tendencies.

‚ÄúMike Arcuri is a classic example of saying one thing at home and doing another in Washington,‚Äù Spain said. ‚ÄúHe claims he’s a Blue Dog at home and he’s Nancy Pelosi’s lap dog in Washington.‚Äù

The real goods in the article, however, were delivered by Boehlert, who represented the district for 24 years. I really like Boehlert, but he’s probably the last person I’d ask for an honest assessment of Arcuri. The moderate Boehlert practically campaigned for the Democrat last year when he let Arcuri call himself a “Boehlert Democrat.” So it’s not surprising that Boehlert thinks Arcuri “is off to a good start.”

One friend quipped: “Arcuri is off to a quick start, it only took him 100 hours to go from the people’s pol to Pelosi’s pet.” I couldn’t have said it any better myself.