Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Samara "Sam" Barend was the 2004 Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 29th Congressional district of New York State. She lost with 41 percent of the vote against Conservative Mark Assini and the winner, Republican Randy Kuhl, in the race to succeed the retiring Amo Houghton. At 26 years old, Barend would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Barend, who had never run for public office before, raised more than $750,000 in her contest against a Randy Kuhl, a Republican state senator who served in the NY State Assembly and Senate for more than 25 years. The heavily Republican nature of the 29th district, covering the Southern Tier in rural upstate New York, worked against her. Barend was also hurt when she failed to fire campaign manager Jonah Siegellak after it was revealed he leaked to the media documents relating to Kuhl's divorce. Barend's campaign first denied any involvement in the leak of the supposedly court-sealed documents.
