New York's 23rd Congressional District's Democratic Primary

Since my wife and I moved to Ithaca -- more than a dozen years ago now -- it has been represented by a Democrat, Representative Maurice Hinchey. He's a quite progressive Democrat, and I've always been happy with him as our Congressman. Sadly, after the 2010 census, New York lost two Congressional seats, and, since Hinchey is 73 and has just dealt with a case of cancer, he's decided to retire, letting the Democrats try to save other seats through redistricting.

So as of this upcoming election, Ithaca, New York will no longer be part of the 29th Congressional District, but will instead be part of the 23rd District. Tom Reed, a Republican first elected to Congress in 2010, is an incumbent in the district -- which is to say, even though Ithaca's not been represented by him before, he's running for reelection. And there's a primary, with three Democrats running, to be his opponent in the newly-organized district. The primary is a month from today -- Tuesday, June 26.

So I thought I'd ask if anyone knows anything about any of the three. Any thoughts?

Here's a set of brief interviews with each of the three on Ithaca.com. The three candidates are (in alphabetical order) Leslie Danks Burke, Melissa Dobson and Nate Shinagawa. (The links are to their official campaign web sites.) My slight bias is towards Shinagawa, because he's cross listed on the Working Families Party ticket, so I'm guessing that he might be the most progressive of the three. But that's not a great heuristic and my preference is weak. So I'd love some more information, if anyone has nay.