It's the little things in life, really.

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise has posted a poll asking readers whom they prefer for the north country congressional seat: Democratic incumbent Rep. Bill Owens, Republican challenger Matt Doheny, someone else, or none of the above (so far).

Since I believe that polls represent not much more than smoke and mirrors (particularly self-selecting polls like this one), I point this out not to highlight the results, but to point you to an opening salvo in the race for the yet-to-be-configured district.

Democratic sources have forwarded along to me the results of this poll, which currently has Mr. Owens winning the all-important, non-scientific poll (again, I urge great caution in reading into polls like this, for reasons that will be explained in the next sentence).

And on his Facebook page, Mr. Doheny posted a link to supporters, probably to urge them to vote and make up the gap (It's like the Ames straw poll for the north country, apparently).

You'll also see, if you look at Mr. Doheny's Facebook page, that the yet-to-REALLY-officially-announce-or-fundraise-or-talk-to-the-media candidate has been making the rounds in the north country, attending chicken dinners and county fairs. The first post since a November 2010 appeal to voters is a July 19 Lewis County Fair picture extravaganza.

The focus, it seems, is on courting Republican and Conservative party supporters in the early stage here. We also saw that in Mr. Doheny's donation file; he gave $20,000 to Rs and Cs in the most recent filings.

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