The Star-Gazette has a few more details about Massa's in-district recovery czar. I agree with Dragonflyeye that keeping a database of what's spent would be a good job for Mr. Heenan.
Stu Rothenberg at the Rothenberg Political Report has a couple of posts for those of us who can't wait for the next election. First, he's got the 29th ranked as "Democrat Favored", the safest rating for a competitive race. However, he says that Massa could be vulnerable if Republicans come up with a "strong challenger".
Comments
A tough contender could be young Tom Reed, Mayor of Corning...or Bath Mayor David Wallace...or--THIS would be intriguing--a race undertaken by the son of Randy Kuhl, the one who worked in his office and who had been his campaign manager.
James Kuhl didn't impress me a whole lot when he ran Randy's '06 campaign, and last I heard all of Randy's sons were living out of state.
I hear good things about Tom Reed. He'd be a quality opponent if he was willing to do the fundraising and Monroe County politicking involved.
Haven't heard anything about David Wallace.
Randy's son James lives and works in DC. He's be a mess. You need more than Tom Reed or the mayor of Bath, or Randy's and/or Amo's old Chief of Staff to win a race. My guess is that a strong Republican, maybe a woman, out of Monroe County or the Western part of the district could give him a run for his money. Or someone younger, in better physical shape, and perhaps a self-funder. The problem is that no one will want to go through the trouble when redistricting is just going to carve up the district in the next four years anyway when NY loses at least two seats if not three. They state legislature is not going to knock all three Republicans out of office, so they'll have to match up sitting Members unless someone retires. I'm sure it's Massa's seat until then.
oh, and it's great to see that Massa's put the recovery of the district in the hands of what looks like a 12 year old who is not even from the district where he's supposed to be "czar" -- too funny.
I agree with you that the looming re-districting will keep people out of the race.
Most Congressional staff are in their 20s. I don't know where Heenan's from.
How bad is it to have someone looking at how the stimulus money is being spent? I'm sure that a lot of commenters (here and at S-G) would rather have the money watched over by a middle-aged local who is out of work but has lots of connections (roots) in the district. A familiar face, so to speak.
Of course, who watches over it is completely irrelevant -- it's the quality of the watching that matters.
One of the interesting facts about this district is that something that might upset people living in the Southern Tier (Heenan's not from here) means absolutely nothing to those living in the Southeast Rochester suburbs. There are a hell of a lot of people in my town (Pittsford) who didn't grow up in Rochester, but came here to work for a Rochester corporation.