With this week's run on blog topics, here's one that I nearly forgot to write about. On Wednesday, Scott Murphy called a press conference at the Shen school district in Clifton Park, where he was slated to talk about aid for school contained in Obama's recovery bill.

The only problem? The high school at Shen is one building in an enormous complex, and political campaigning is not permitted on school grounds. If Shen were similar to most other schools, Murphy could have safely stood "in front" of the high school, while keeping both feet planted solidly on non-school grounds. Not at Shen.

At Shen, Murphy, his aids, suporters, and the bevy of reporters who trundled out to hear the stump speach, were forced to relocate off of school grounds before Murphy began the event.

Shen security was on hand, mostly, it seemed, to ensure that the dozens of vehicle parked on the side of their access road didn't cause an traffic problems, but one also has to wonder if word to vacate school grounds came from security, or if the Murphy campaign itself realized their perilous perch on school grounds. A WNYT reporter annoyed all the other reporters at the press conference by houding the issue of who had caused the relocation. While it was a mildly interesting point, it didn't really have much to do with the substance of the press conference.

Dr. Oliver Robinson, superintendent of the distrirct was also on hand, and said that he had only learned of the press conference through the media. While he did make sure to introduce himself to the candidate, he was careful to keep his distnace during the conference, so as not to create the appearance of any kindf of partisanship on his part.

In the end, I don't think the press conference's location bothered anybody (aside from the WNYT reporter), but I sure hope the Murphy campaign will be more careful in selecting future locations.