After the tour, according to a press release from Hochul's office, Hochul and Davis will "discuss America’s manufacturing strategy and the need to stop supporting companies that ship jobs overseas, as well as how to replicate Davis’s American success story throughout Western New York."

The owner of a red Corvette involved in a single-car rollover accident at 1 a.m., June 20, has been cited for allegedly leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, according to State Police.

The driver is allegedly Robert R. Davis, 50, of 1355 Main Road, Corfu. Davis is the son of Jack Davis, four-time candidate for Congress in the 26th District and president of I Squared R Element Co., in Akron.

After the accident in the area of 871 Gabbey Road, Pembroke, local law enforcement conducted a search for Robert Davis in the area and on South Lake Road, Pembroke, speaking with residents about his possible location. At one point, an investigator noted that at least one homeowner he spoke with had "honesty issues."

Davis was reportedly with his girlfriend. 

According to Sgt. Kurt Schmitt, the female passenger was eventually treated at Suburban Hospital in Erie County, supposedly taken there by a friend.

The Corvette was impounded at Jim and Bob's Service in Pembroke until Robert Davis surfaced. The car was released to Davis yesterday morning and Davis was issued citations for leaving the scene of a personal injury accident among other alleged infractions.

Jack Davis said he had heard his son was involved in an accident and tried finding out more about it last week, being concerned about his welfare, but hadn't gotten much information.

"He's not gotten back to me," Davis said. "I'm sure he's disappointed in what he's done. It's embarrassing, but all families deal with situations like this."

This isn't the younger Davis' first run-in with the law. In 2009, he was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, 4th for allegedly possessing a switchblade knife. Information is not immediately available on the disposition of that case.

Photos submitted anonymously by a reader.

Corwin picked up 44.2 percent of the vote to Hochul's 39.2.

Jack Davis, who garnered only 9 percent of the vote throughout the rest of the district, picked up 14.5 percent in Genesee County.

Here are the final vote totals.

Total ballots: 8,247

Corwin: 3648 -- 44.2 percent

Hochul: 3239 -- 39.2 percent

Davis: 1195 -- 14.5 percent

Murphy: 100 -- .012 percent

Write-in: 43

Blank: 22

These are unofficial numbers and they may not yet include absentee counts.

We don't have the turnout percentage yet.

Even before the Genesee County vote has been counted, the Buffalo News, along with other media outlets, have declared the race for Kathy Hochul.

According to the Buffalo paper's numbers, with 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Hochul has 48 percent of the vote to Corwin's 42 percent. Jack Davis picked up 9 percent and Ian Murphy 1 percent.

Corwin conceded the race shortly after 10 p.m.

It's unclear what will become of the court order Corwin obtained earlier today barring certification of the election results before a court appearance on Thursday.

Ad from Jack Davis

Ad from Kathy Hochul

And that's all that I could find on YouTube.

More than an hour into our chat on Sunday afternoon, Jack Davis looked at my iPhone and said, "That's probably made with Gorilla Glass."

It is.

Davis, founder and president of I Squared R in Akron, then explained that his very first customer was Corning, the inventor of Gorilla Glass.

The recipe for Gorilla Glass -- a very tough, durable type of glass -- sat on a shelf for decades until high-tech electronics such as flat-screen TVs and smart phones needed just such a product.

In order to manufacture the glass, Corning turned to Davis, whose company makes just the kind of silicon carbide heating elements Corning needed to start manufacturing Gorilla Glass for Apple and other companies.

When it came time to ship the elements, Dave found out they were going to Japan.

"It broke my heart," Davis said. "We don’t make those (iPhones) here, we don’t make the TVs, we don’t make flat screens. (The elements are) just another product we ship over there and they can back engineer it and that business will be gone."

Jack Davis is making his fourth attempt at winning a seat in Congress -- this time to replace Shirtless Chris Lee in a NY-26 special election -- for one reason, and one reason only: To save American jobs.

"We have to grow, dig or manufacture to produce wealth," Davis said. "Unless you do that, you’re just growing your debt. We have to make everything we use or consume."

Davis knows Batavia and knows what losing a manufacturing base can do to a community. Among his company's early customers were Sylvania and Doehler Jarvis.

"Batavia has been hit like many of the industrial cities have been," Davis said. "You have a lot of farms, but you did have a big manufacturing base.

"Cities and communities that have lost the jobs are a lot more receptive to my message of saving jobs and getting out of those free trade agreements," he added.

Davis isn't against all trade with foreign countries. He just thinks it should be fair trade. If we trade with another country, he said, that country should buy as much product from the U.S. as we buy from them. If not, they get slapped with a tariff on the difference.

A tariff that targets trade imbalance, he said, would address the uncompetitive practices of countries such as China, where the Yuan is artificially lowered by 40 percent against the dollar.

“Give the guy down the street a 40-percent advantage on you and you’re screwed," Davis said.

On top of that, the Chinese government gives its own corporations tax breaks not available to U.S. manufacturers and labor is 1/20th the cost that in the United States.

The U.S. needs to level the playing field, Davis said.

"There are plenty of entrepreneurs left in this country," Davis said. "Right now they're spending money overseas, rather than in this county, but if given a level playing field, they will come back."

Bring up just about any topic with Davis, and the conversation soon turns back to jobs and fair trade.

Asked about how he could help counties such as Genesee address its crumbling infrastructure problem, he said the solution is jobs, just as it is for most of the problems in the United States.

"Obama shouldn’t be talking about cutting services and increasing taxes," Davis said. "He should be addressing this trade imbalance. We have about $2 billion per day going overseas. That’s our wealth going off shore. Until that’s addressed, we’re going to continue to have problems, problems with Social Security, problems with Medicare, problems with the budget, problems with the deficit."

And if that wealth continues to flow overseas, Davis said, eventually China is going to own the United States.

"I’m a patriot. I love America," Davis said. "I see what’s happening to it. I think  what kind of future are we leaving our children? We’ve got a $14 trillion national debt, half of it’s owed to the Asians, and if we’re not manufacturing anything, we have no way to pay this debt, so they’re going to own America."

He says once the Chinese own all the multinational companies, they'll also own all the lobbyists in Washington.

“We already know (the government) is for sale to the highest bidder and the Chinese are going to have all the money," he said.

Davis came to his anti-unfettered trade position through 56 years of working in international trade, he said, and seeing more and more companies that he did business with shipping jobs overseas.

He didn't think, and still doesn't believe, that's a sustainable path for the United States.

And he doesn't buy the pro-free trade arguments that globalization of trade benefits the United States, too. The U.S. won't have anything to trade, he points out, if all of the manufacturing plants -- as 53,000 of them have already done -- keep shutting down.

In pointing to my iPhone, he raised the issue that even new technology depends on products manufactured in the United States. His heating elements are used not only for Gorilla Glass, but for manufacturing all sorts of flat glass, from window panes in skyscrapers to the windshields of cars as well as an essential tool for manufacturing solar cells.

The high-tech industry needs a strong manufacturing base in the United States to remain competitive globally.

"There was one guy, I think he was with the Commerce Department, who said there’s no difference between computer chips and potato chips and I’m like, 'Man, how stupid can you be?'" Davis said.

Davis believes both the Republicans and Democrats are selling out the United States. Both parties are beholding to the multinational corporations and even big labor -- traditionally a stalwart in the Democratic corner protecting American jobs -- has sold out the American worker. Their national leaders in Washington, he said, are more interested in organizing in foreign countries now.

"The managers for these large multinationals, they’re not loyal to America," Davis said. "They’re loyal to their stockholders and they’ll just take their business to the cheaper place to manufacture with no thought of American workers. They have all the advantages of being in America, but they’re not taking care of it."

Toward the end of our conversation, Davis talked more about the campaign. 

He is disappointed most of all in the Republicans.

He said he registered Republican when he first could vote. He's voted for Eisenhower, Reagan and both Bushes. He's given the Republicans money, and now they just lie about him.

"To have them come after me so viciously and tell so many lies about me, it was a big, big disappointment," he said. 

"I always thought they were the integrity party," he added. "They’re the party of the thugs. They even sent a thug after me."  (A reference to Jane Corwin's chief of staff, Michael Mallia, harassing Davis following a veterans' event in Greece, allegedly calling the former Marine a "coward" (a charge the Corwin campaign has made no attempt to refute.))

But even as some polls show Davis losing ground and coming in third, he's not giving up the fight. It's too important to him. He clearly thinks he's needed in Washington to save American jobs, even if Washington doesn't seem to want him.

"The lobbyists, they don’t want me in Washington, because I’m going to make changes," Davis said. "When I get there, I’ll be one of 435, but I will probably have the biggest mouth. I’m going to call these people out and they don’t like that."

NOTE: We were previously privileged to have Kathy Hochul visit The Batavian. Jane Corwin has been invited numerous times but has pretty much ignored the invitation. Ian Murphy was invited, but said he didn't have a car to make the trip to Batavia.

From my perspective, to be qualified for office, it's not just about your policy positions, it's also about what you know, how you think and how you learn, because elected officials are asked to deal with problems that aren't always easily grasped by political ideology. Being intellectually curious is important to any job that's essentially a job of the mind.

The deadline for questions was Thursday at 11 a.m. None of the candidates, perhaps understandably, met the deadline. Kathy Hochul and Ian Murphy turned in answers Thursday evening.

In effort to get answers from either Jane Corwin or Jack Davis, I waited until Friday afternoon to post the questions and answers, but then we had a big breaking news story.

Jack eventually turned in partial answers. Jane Corwin, despite repeated calls and emails to Matthew Harakal, including one conversation in which he promised the answers "soon," we have yet to receive any answers. We requested them again today.

Below are the questions, after the jump, answers in the order received.

Perhaps write-in candidates Jeff Allen and JoAnne Rock would like to provide their answers in the comments.

What three books first published in the past 100 years have been most meaningful to you?

Name your three favorite songwriters and pick one song from one of those writers and tell us what that song has meant to you?

If you were asked to read a poem on the floor of the House of Representatives, what poem would it be and why?

Tell us about a museum you’ve visited any time in your life and how it had a lasting impact on your intellectual life or imagination.

Who is your favorite Western New York writer, musician or artist (any genre/style/medium)?

Do you have any hidden artistic talent? What is it (sing, draw, photography, etc.)?  If not, is there anything along those lines you aspire to -- ‘I really wish I could .... ?’

Kathy Hochul:

Q: What three books first published in the past 100 years have been most meaningful to you?

A: The three books that have been most meaningful to me are “American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, and “Profiles in Courage” by John F. Kennedy.

Q: Name your three favorite songwriters and pick one song from one of those writers and tell us what that song has meant to you?

A: I actually have four favorite songwriters - Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Simon & Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence” always reminds me of people less fortunate who don’t have a voice.

Q: If you were asked to read a poem on the floor of the House of Representatives, what poem would it be and why?

A: I would read “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. I have an independent streak and identify with the individualism of the poem.

Q: Tell us about a museum you’ve visited any time in your life and how it had a lasting impact on your intellectual life or imagination?

A: When I was 10-years-old I visited the National Archives on a trip to Washington with my family. I remember seeing the Constitution and The Declaration of Independence and being inspired by the tremendous challenges faced by our forefathers as they created the foundation for our country.

Q: Who is your favorite Western New York writer, musician or artist (any genre/style/medium)?

A: My favorite Western New York playwright is Tom Dudzick, who wrote the “Over the Tavern” series.

Q: Do you have any hidden artistic talent? What is it (sing, draw, photography, etc? If not, is there anything along those lines you aspire—‘I really wish I could…?’

A: I aspire to write short stories about the lives of the fascinating people I have come to meet in my life.

Ian Murphy:

What three books first published in the past 100 years have been most meaningful to you?

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins, and Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein.

Name your three favorite songwriters and pick one song from one of those writers and tell us what that song has meant to you?

Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, and Tampa Red. Anything by Tampa Red means something to me because he plays the kazoo. There has never been a more perfect folk instrument than the kazoo.

If you were asked to read a poem on the floor of the House of Representatives, what poem would it be and why?

I would read Carl Sandburg's I Am the People, the Mob:

I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.

Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world’s food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.

 ----

I'd read that piece to remind all the corporate flunkies who they really work for, and to remind the American people that they are ultimately in charge.

Tell us about a museum you’ve visited any time in your life and how it had a lasting impact on your intellectual life or imagination.

The Kazoo Museum in Eden, NY, sparked my life-long appreciation for the kazoo.

Who is your favorite Western New York writer, musician or artist (any genre/style/medium)?

Folk-blues singer Jackson C. Frank.

Do you have any hidden artistic talent?  What is it (sing, draw, photography, etc.)?  If not, is there anything along those lines you aspire to -- ‘I really wish I could .... ?’

I really wish I could play the kazoo.

Jack Davis

What three books first published in the past 100 years have been most meaningful to you?

Atlas Shrugged, the engineering textbook from UB are the first two. I'll get back to you on the third.

Do you have any hidden artistic talent?  What is it (sing, draw, photography, etc.)?  If not, is there anything along those lines you aspire to -- ‘I really wish I could .... ?’

I play trombone. (Though I admit I'm a bit out of practice.)

In the words of the Davis campaign press release, "it appears support for Jane Corwin is collapsing."

The Davis campaign claims that Corwin's numbers have dropped to 17 percent, with Hochul polling 44 percent. Davis, in the Davis poll, is at 27 percent.

According to the press release, 4,602 "frequent voters" were surveyed. The poll was conducted between May 18 and May 19.

Seventeen percent were undecided.

From the press release:

“It’s clear that if conservatives, Republicans and Tea Party patriots want to keep Kathy Hochul, a Nancy Pelosi Democrat, from representing this district, they must vote for Jack Davis,” said Jack Davis campaign manager Curtis Ellis.

Late last night, I emailed both the Corwin and Hochul campaigns for a response.

Fabien Levy, with Kathy Hochul, replied but has not provided a response for publication yet and we haven't heard from Matthew Harakal with Jane Corwin's campaign at all. This post will be updated with any responses.

UPDATE 8:16 a.m.: Statement from Levy: "Every poll shows Kathy Hochul garnering the support of more and more voters in the 26th District. Voters here know Kathy is the only candidate in this race fighting to protect both Social Security and Medicare, which is why they are running away from her two conservatives opponents."

New from Jack Davis.

New from outside money group American Crossroads.