"We don't need McCain here -- put them down!," Maria Luna, a Clinton delegate from Manhattan, screamed at her delegation, which was waving "McCain More of the Same" signs above their heads. She jumped out of her aisle seat and onto the steps. "Down," she screamed. "Down!"

"Maria. Calma," said State Senator Bill Perkins, who sat in the second row. “Calma.” Then he saw a friend trying to pass through the convention’s clogged main corridor just below the delegation. "Guillermo, Guillermo, como vas?" Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was telling his life story on the stage.

"How can we get a few more tickets to Invesco?” one delegate called up to another who touched his ear to say he couldn’t hear. “Tickets!" the first delegate repeated.

The governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, came on the stage and talked about American values and pumped most of the convention center up. Delegate David Mejias, an elected official from Long Island, not so much.

"A lot of time for the governor of Montana," he said.

Most people were watching the traffic jam in front of them.

A convention worker asked Luna to sit down, because they needed to clear the steps.

“You with the D.N.C.?” Luna asked. The woman, who was wearing an official looking fluorescent green vest, gave a noncommittal answer. “Who are you? Why you telling us what to do?”

The jam got worse and the convention workers called for reinforcements to physically move people along. "I'm by New York on the floor, we need more security," one D.N.C. worker name Eureka said into her walkee talkee. When security came, she pointed to the New Yorkers milling around their seats. “Security I need you to push them, I need this area clear. In addition we can't move the signs up the aisles."

That proved to be a problem, because when the lights dimmed, the delegations knew something was afoot. "Signs!" screamed one member of the delegation. "Get us the signs!"

A movie about Hillary Clinton playing on the convention’s jumbo screen, and the delegation exploded out of their seats. During the lengthy video, the delegation had somehow procured scores of white signs. So had everyone else. When Chelsea Clinton introduced her mother, she did so to a convention center blanketed in white.

Perkins, who supported Barack Obama, observed with a note of exasperation that the signs were paid for by the Obama campaign. “Obama paid for it,” he said.

In unison the delegation screamed “Hill-a –ry, Hill-a-ry.” Perkins countered with “U-ni-ty U-ni-ty.” Robert Perkins, a Clinton delegate and city councilman sitting to Perkins’ right, chimed in: “Barack-O-Bama, Barack-O-Bama.”

On stage Clinton took a sip of water. As she gave her speech, many in the delegation were visibly stirred. Sitting in the upper rows, former public advocate Mark Green clutched the crutches he was using for an injured foot. When Clinton quipped about the “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuit,” Kathleen Donahue, vice president of the New York State department of teachers, bawled. When she concluded, Mejias said she “single-handedly brought the party together.” Perkins said she had accomplished her mission, “and then some.” City Councilman Robert Jackson, zen-like, talked about how a fist was stronger than five individual fingers. Luna wiped tears from her eyes.

“Awesome,” she said. “That woman is just awesome. It’s such a shame.”

His answer: It was Newsday.

"It's five hours to the polls, but based on everything I know, as of 4:35 this is a campaign totally contrived by Newsday," he said.

He said the reports of his fund-raising were greatly downplayed in the paper while the reports of money raised by his opponent, Dave Mejias, were inflated. He pointed out that neither MoveOn.org, NARAL or any other national liberal organizations even got behind Mejias, as far as he could see.

"And also you haven't seen any poll released by him," King said. "And I know he has taken polls."

So, in King's calculations, that leaves Newsday.

"I have something to say tonight about Newsday , and it is not going to be a rant, it is going to be something fairly thoughtful, I hope, on what they have done here."

When told about King's comments suggesting that Newsday exaggerated the competitiveness of Mejias' campaign, John Mancini, the paper's editor, said, "We disagree strongly."

"All we have done," Mancini said, "is cover a Congressional race on Long Island."

--Jason Horowitz

I'd heard a rumor since then that the Mejias campaign had actually receieved less money from the DCCC than they were expecting. But campaign manager Mike Premo said that wasn't the case, and that they were receiving "tens of thousands of dollars" plus logistical support to help the candidate in the final week before the election.

"Since we have been targeted there is a heavy influx of support to help us pay those final bills," he said.

In addition, Mejias received the endorsement today of Newsday, which King recently suggested to a crowd of security profesionals in Manhattan isn't a real newspaper.

--Jason Horowitz

The firm defended the accuracy of its data in a discussion last week.

Now, after Constituent Dynamics released another poll earlier today showing King up by a mere 49 percent to Mejias' 48 percent among likely voters, the congressman is even more convinced that the numbers are a fiction.

"There is no credibility to those polls," King said.

By way of contrast, he shared what we said were his internal polling numbers -- from the firm McLaughlin & Associates -- which showed that as of October 18th, he was up 55 percent to 32 percent. A subsequent polling of 400 people taken Friday October 27th showed a 54 percent to 27 percent advantage.

Meanwhile, Mejias is plugging away, releasing another ad today taking King to task for his support of President Bush and the war in Iraq.

--Jason Horowitz

“I find it frustrating sometimes with the Republicans—you want to shake them and say ‘Let’s do this,’” said Mr. King, the pugnacious Long Island Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. “A lot of Republicans, when they get thrown off their game, they are scrambling to find a new message. To me, if you believe in what you are saying, you continue to say the same thing.”

Mr. King is perhaps the last unapologetic Iraq hawk in the entire New York State delegation in Washington. More than any of his beleaguered local Republican colleagues, he is sticking with the original G.O.P. game plan and talking in unrelentingly tough terms about the war. Never mind that the teetering war effort has other Republican candidates across the country changing the subject and has forced even President George Bush to abandon his “stay the course” rhetoric.

“If you know what you are talking about and believe in what you are saying, go forward; otherwise, what the hell?” Mr. King said Friday afternoon in the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South, where he had addressed a luncheon for security professionals minutes earlier. “Not just from the sanctimonious side. I mean, it works. It does resonate.”

Mr. King, a disarmingly down-to-earth caricature of a gruff, 62-year-old blue-collar Long Islander, has earned himself a reputation during his 14 years in Congress as a philosophical conservative but a political maverick, counting among his allies John McCain as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Now, some polls suggest that he too is susceptible to the noxious political climate that’s having such a worrying effect on the country’s Republicans. He is facing a serious challenge from Dave Mejias, a Nassau County state legislator, who is doing everything possible to paint Mr. King as a right-wing war enabler and lackey of the profoundly unpopular President. An RT Strategies and Constituent Dynamics poll conducted between Oct. 8 and 10 showed Mr. King’s lead down to only two points, 47 percent to 45 percent.

Mr. King has suddenly become a living test case for the G.O.P.’s worst-case scenario.

“It says a lot that he is in trouble; it is testimony to the toxic nature of Iraq in this election cycle,” said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. “In New York, Pete King is the best example of Bush’s weakness and Iraq’s weakness for Republicans.”

Mr. King, a devoted amateur boxer reared by Irish immigrants in Sunnyside, Queens, has always identified himself with the tough guys in the room.

His longtime support for the Irish Republican Army proved useful when the Clinton administration called on his help to broker Ireland’s landmark peace agreement, leading to an unusually cordial relationship with the Clintons.

Even as Republican representation on Long Island dwindled over the years, Mr. King kept winning with an eclectic mix of hawkish foreign policy, conservative social values and an often liberal economic philosophy.

His career reached new heights last year, when he ascended to the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee, a perch he often uses to criticize other Republicans who are competing with New York for federal money and resources.

True to form, Mr. King has refused to soften his act in the current campaign, which promises to be his most competitive since first running for Congress seven terms ago in 1992. He shows no sign of reining in the innate combativeness that he likens to that of another popular Republican, Rudy Giuliani.

“We are much from that blue-collar, neighborhood-oriented, law-and-order hard-hat background, and we just feel you have to kick ass—you really do,” Mr. King said.

Lately, he has been taking American Muslims to task for not speaking out against Islamic terrorism, charging that as much as 85 percent of the country’s mosques are run by extremists and that civil liberties, such as the right of habeas corpus, should be denied to suspected terrorists. On Friday afternoon, he expressed his high regard for the Nassau County Police Department for having “quite a few mosques” under surveillance.

“He’s using terror the same way Republicans in the Southwest are using immigration,” said Mr. Sabato. “This is a way to tap into fear, which is one of the primary emotions of politics.”

Mr. King counters that he isn’t trying to scare voters; he’s just trying to remind them of the frightening realities that threaten New York in a post-9/11 world.

“People do want to hear this,” he said. “They do want these issues discussed.”

Last Friday, Mr. King was invited to appear as the guest of honor at a gathering of law-enforcement officials and security professionals at the Athletic Club. Large, stern men in dark suits sat around drinking liquor, checking BlackBerries and eating ham in a room overlooking Central Park. The placards on the table read “ADT” and “Universal Security Systems.” Police commissioners were on the guest list. Mr. King, a Twin Towers pin on his lapel, darted his dark eyes around the room and buttered a roll.

Before he rose to speak, the security professionals around the dining room described Mr. King in heroic terms. He was a “great American” and a “straight talker.”

“Peter King is right on the ball,” said Joseph Levy, an account executive at Universal Security Systems, a Long Island–based company which has sought Mr. King’s help at the Homeland Security Committee. “The guy is a professional.”

Mr. King climbed to a podium in front of gray, rain-splashed windows. The room went quiet except for fork tines touching plates as Mr. King spoke about Islamic terrorism.

“Very literally and quite frankly,” he said, America needed “to kill them overseas before they get here.”

He received hearty applause when he expressed support for the Patriot Act and the prosecution of newspapers that reveal secret government programs in wartime.

“We can’t afford political correctness or to look the other way,” he said.

Mr. King got a standing ovation, and for more than 45 minutes afterward he was greeted by well-wishers saying things like “I’m glad we got guys like you looking out for us” and “Here’s my card—I’m certified in homeland security.” He asked after friends’ families and signed a copy of his novel, Terrible Beauty. ( It was criticized in Kirkus Reviews as a piece of agitprop for the I.R.A., Mr. King’s preferred cause before 9/11 converted him into the committed foe of international terrorism.)

In between congratulations and appreciations from cops and friends, Mr. King acknowledged that he was an endangered breed of New York hawk.

“I am what I am,” he said. “My speech today is what I am.”

So Mr. King gets points for self-actualization. But does it amount to a winning campaign strategy?

His opponent, for one, thinks not.

“This guy is just so out of touch,” said Mr. Mejias, a 36-year-old Nassau County legislator from North Farmingdale.

He pointed to Mr. King’s recent comment that traveling through Baghdad “was like being in Manhattan,” and quoted from a letter Mr. King wrote to a constituent last year which included the line about thanking God every night that George Bush is President.

Long Island is no longer a hospitable environment for politicians who make those kinds of statements—particularly in a year in which Democrats Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton are likely to pile up huge margins over the Republicans at the top of the ticket.

“I’m very lucky,” admitted Mr. Mejias. “There is a perfect storm happening here. There is a tsunami, and I know that he’s nervous.”

But Mr. King says that the much-discussed October poll was flawed and that his internal polling shows him up 23 points, even as it shows his district overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Spitzer for Governor. And anyway, he wants to make clear, this is no time for a poll-tested campaign.

“We are at war. We are at war,” he said, sounding genuinely angry and perplexed. “I mean, you can’t say we are going to have Americans dying every day if there is no purpose for it. And we have to show that and say why we believe it. If people disagree, then fine.”

“I find it frustrating sometimes with the Republicans—you want to shake them and say ‘Let’s do this,’” said Mr. King, the pugnacious Long Island Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. “A lot of Republicans, when they get thrown off their game, they are scrambling to find a new message. To me, if you believe in what you are saying, you continue to say the same thing.”

Mr. King is perhaps the last unapologetic Iraq hawk in the entire New York State delegation in Washington. More than any of his beleaguered local Republican colleagues, he is sticking with the original G.O.P. game plan and talking in unrelentingly tough terms about the war. Never mind that the teetering war effort has other Republican candidates across the country changing the subject and has forced even President George Bush to abandon his “stay the course” rhetoric.

“If you know what you are talking about and believe in what you are saying, go forward; otherwise, what the hell?” Mr. King said Friday afternoon in the New York Athletic Club on Central Park South, where he had addressed a luncheon for security professionals minutes earlier. “Not just from the sanctimonious side. I mean, it works. It does resonate.”

Mr. King, a disarmingly down-to-earth caricature of a gruff, 62-year-old blue-collar Long Islander, has earned himself a reputation during his 14 years in Congress as a philosophical conservative but a political maverick, counting among his allies John McCain as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Now, some polls suggest that he too is susceptible to the noxious political climate that’s having such a worrying effect on the country’s Republicans. He is facing a serious challenge from Dave Mejias, a Nassau County state legislator, who is doing everything possible to paint Mr. King as a right-wing war enabler and lackey of the profoundly unpopular President. An RT Strategies and Constituent Dynamics poll conducted between Oct. 8 and 10 showed Mr. King’s lead down to only two points, 47 percent to 45 percent.

Mr. King has suddenly become a living test case for the G.O.P.’s worst-case scenario.

“It says a lot that he is in trouble; it is testimony to the toxic nature of Iraq in this election cycle,” said Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia. “In New York, Pete King is the best example of Bush’s weakness and Iraq’s weakness for Republicans.”

Mr. King, a devoted amateur boxer reared by Irish immigrants in Sunnyside, Queens, has always identified himself with the tough guys in the room.

His longtime support for the Irish Republican Army proved useful when the Clinton administration called on his help to broker Ireland’s landmark peace agreement, leading to an unusually cordial relationship with the Clintons.

Even as Republican representation on Long Island dwindled over the years, Mr. King kept winning with an eclectic mix of hawkish foreign policy, conservative social values and an often liberal economic philosophy.

His career reached new heights last year, when he ascended to the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee, a perch he often uses to criticize other Republicans who are competing with New York for federal money and resources.

True to form, Mr. King has refused to soften his act in the current campaign, which promises to be his most competitive since first running for Congress seven terms ago in 1992. He shows no sign of reining in the innate combativeness that he likens to that of another popular Republican, Rudy Giuliani.

“We are much from that blue-collar, neighborhood-oriented, law-and-order hard-hat background, and we just feel you have to kick ass—you really do,” Mr. King said.

Lately, he has been taking American Muslims to task for not speaking out against Islamic terrorism, charging that as much as 85 percent of the country’s mosques are run by extremists and that civil liberties, such as the right of habeas corpus, should be denied to suspected terrorists. On Friday afternoon, he expressed his high regard for the Nassau County Police Department for having “quite a few mosques” under surveillance.

“He’s using terror the same way Republicans in the Southwest are using immigration,” said Mr. Sabato. “This is a way to tap into fear, which is one of the primary emotions of politics.”

Mr. King counters that he isn’t trying to scare voters; he’s just trying to remind them of the frightening realities that threaten New York in a post-9/11 world.

“People do want to hear this,” he said. “They do want these issues discussed.”

Last Friday, Mr. King was invited to appear as the guest of honor at a gathering of law-enforcement officials and security professionals at the Athletic Club. Large, stern men in dark suits sat around drinking liquor, checking BlackBerries and eating ham in a room overlooking Central Park. The placards on the table read “ADT” and “Universal Security Systems.” Police commissioners were on the guest list. Mr. King, a Twin Towers pin on his lapel, darted his dark eyes around the room and buttered a roll.

Before he rose to speak, the security professionals around the dining room described Mr. King in heroic terms. He was a “great American” and a “straight talker.”

“Peter King is right on the ball,” said Joseph Levy, an account executive at Universal Security Systems, a Long Island–based company which has sought Mr. King’s help at the Homeland Security Committee. “The guy is a professional.”

Mr. King climbed to a podium in front of gray, rain-splashed windows. The room went quiet except for fork tines touching plates as Mr. King spoke about Islamic terrorism.

“Very literally and quite frankly,” he said, America needed “to kill them overseas before they get here.”

He received hearty applause when he expressed support for the Patriot Act and the prosecution of newspapers that reveal secret government programs in wartime.

“We can’t afford political correctness or to look the other way,” he said.

Mr. King got a standing ovation, and for more than 45 minutes afterward he was greeted by well-wishers saying things like “I’m glad we got guys like you looking out for us” and “Here’s my card—I’m certified in homeland security.” He asked after friends’ families and signed a copy of his novel, Terrible Beauty. ( It was criticized in Kirkus Reviews as a piece of agitprop for the I.R.A., Mr. King’s preferred cause before 9/11 converted him into the committed foe of international terrorism.)

In between congratulations and appreciations from cops and friends, Mr. King acknowledged that he was an endangered breed of New York hawk.

“I am what I am,” he said. “My speech today is what I am.”

So Mr. King gets points for self-actualization. But does it amount to a winning campaign strategy?

His opponent, for one, thinks not.

“This guy is just so out of touch,” said Mr. Mejias, a 36-year-old Nassau County legislator from North Farmingdale.

He pointed to Mr. King’s recent comment that traveling through Baghdad “was like being in Manhattan,” and quoted from a letter Mr. King wrote to a constituent last year which included the line about thanking God every night that George Bush is President.

Long Island is no longer a hospitable environment for politicians who make those kinds of statements—particularly in a year in which Democrats Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton are likely to pile up huge margins over the Republicans at the top of the ticket.

“I’m very lucky,” admitted Mr. Mejias. “There is a perfect storm happening here. There is a tsunami, and I know that he’s nervous.”

But Mr. King says that the much-discussed October poll was flawed and that his internal polling shows him up 23 points, even as it shows his district overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Spitzer for Governor. And anyway, he wants to make clear, this is no time for a poll-tested campaign.

“We are at war. We are at war,” he said, sounding genuinely angry and perplexed. “I mean, you can’t say we are going to have Americans dying every day if there is no purpose for it. And we have to show that and say why we believe it. If people disagree, then fine.”

"I told you the other day he's not a lobbyist, I still say he has never lobbied," King just told me. "He had no idea he was listed. Al D'Amato had no idea that my son was listed."

The Politicker noted earlier this week that Sean King worked for Park Strategies, which represents several companies with Homeland Security contracts. Congressman King is the Chairman for the House Homeland Security committee. Newsday subsequently noted that one of the companies with such a contract is the computer firm SAP America.

"Apparently when they attained SAP as a client they put down, they listed everyone who could potentially be involved in the dealings," King said. "In an overabundance of caution they put his (Sean's) name. He had no idea he was down there. He has never had any dealing with SAP, he has never lobbied."

King said everyone involved was surprised to hear that Sean King was registered.
He called D'Amato, ("he said 'no he is not'") and then his son, ("He said it and I believe him and he certainly has never lobbied for them.")

King said that his son represents the home delivery pizza chain Papa John's in Taiwan and has no role in lobbying for clients with Homeland Security business. The Mejias campaign dug up one of the strangest, Casio-scored pieces of video footage I've seen in an effort to assert that Sean King, who is apparently the speaker in the film clip, does in fact represent companies like Lockheed Martin. But according to the clip, he only mentions them as one of the firm's publicly disclosed clients.

"This is a very desperate act by a very desperate politician," said King. "It is as low as anything I've seen."

Dave Mejias, King's opponent, phoned in to respond.

"What is low is the cultural of corruption in Washington, how family members are able to sell their influence to clients that get access to government and contracts," he said. "Peter is trying to name call to divert attention from the facts. His son is a lobbyist who is peddling his father's influence."

--Jason Horowitz

Like the Times wrote today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have that option, and doesn't sound like he'd want to take it if he could.

Quick highlights:

Mejias, around the 3:20 mark:

King talks about Iraq around the 4:45 mark:

-- Azi Paybarah

Like Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenburg noted today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have the option, and doesn't sound like he'd want to take it if he could

Quick highlights:

Mejias, around the 3:20 mark:
"Five years later, after September 11th, we still have not hunted down and killed Bin Laden. That's a crime."

King talks about Iraq around the 4:45 mark:
"There are parts of the country that are stable. There are parts of the country that are deadly...I was on a convoy along the highway when a bomb went off. A bomb went off [and I] was almost killed. Then we went through the city and the city was perfectly stable. It shows how dangerous it is and how stable it is at the same time."

-- Azi Paybarah