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Archive (2007)

Drivers' Licenses Revisited

Mon, 10/08/2007 - 10:09 — Rottenchester
The Associated Press has a good round-up of reaction to Governor Spitzer's move to issue licenses to illegal immigrants.  Randy Kuhl has made this an issue, and Eric Massa also opposes it.  According to the AP, they have a lot of company.

Kuhl, Spitzer Talk

Mon, 10/08/2007 - 08:24 — Rottenchester
This morning's New York Times' S-CHIP story leads with Randy Kuhl saying he's unlikely to change his position, despite a phone call from Eliot Spitzer urging him to "come over to the dark side."  The Times also puts a price tag on the Americans United ad campaign, which will spend $1 million on a combined national (generic) and local (targeted) ad campaign.

Introducing CongressDB

Sun, 10/07/2007 - 22:30 — Rottenchester

I'm happy to announce the first public beta of my new site, CongressDB.  Its goal is to make the charts and graphs that I use available for every Member of Congress.  CongressDB has its own blog, and I'll be posting there on topics related to the technology of CongressDB, and my views on open source journalism.  This post is cross-posted to both the Fighting 29th and CongressDB, but I won't be cluttering up the Fighting29th with information CongressDB postings.

CongressDB is in its infancy, but it contains two features that I wasn't able to find on the other great services on the Internet.

The first is cohorts.  CongressDB is built to allow the comparison of a
given legislator's votes with others.  In the current version,  I've
included a couple of demonstration cohorts, such as members of the same
party, the complete chamber, and, in the case of the House, close
races.  So, for example, Randy Kuhl is a member of cohorts "Entire
House", "House Republicans" and "Close Republican House Races".  

Vote groups is the second feature of CongressDB.  For the House, the current example groups include "All House Votes", "Close House Votes", and "Significant Votes".  That last group is my hand-picked set of votes that is available for Randy Kuhl on the Fighting 29th.  (By the way, that page is now auto-generated from CongressDB, and I hope to offer the same feature to other bloggers.)

CongressDB allows the user to view stats for any combination of cohort and vote group.  Those stats include the usual (votes for, against, absent or present) as well as the one I find most interesting: votes against party.  This is the number of times the voter was on the other side of the tally from the rest of his party.

kuhl_against_party_close_races_2007_10_09.pngCongressDB has one basic graph, but it's also one I haven't seen anywhere else (perhaps because it only makes sense to me).  It places the chosen legislator in context with his cohort.  The example graph on the right shows Randy Kuhl's votes  against party on significant votes, compared to all other Republicans in close races.  The green line shows the average voter in close-race Republicans, who voted against party 17 times.  Kuhl's value of 20 votes against party shows that he's a little more independent than average.  

I'll be posting more on where I'd like to take CongressDB, but right now I'm interested in just getting it out there and working out the inevitable bugs.   If you notice anything amiss, please drop me a note in the comments or via email.

Changes

Sun, 10/07/2007 - 12:40 — Rottenchester

If you're reading this entry, you've reached the Fighting 29th on a new server. I've moved the blog and upgraded the version of blogging software. There are a couple of changes:

  • The look is slightly different.
  • The comment block is hidden, and you need to click "comment anonymously" to reveal it.  Or, you can sign in using an OpenID, Livejournal or Typekey account to leave comments.  If you don't have one of those accounts, don't worry -- just sign in anonymously.
If you have any problems viewing or commenting on the blog, please drop me a comment or an email.

This should be a minor upgrade.  I have a bigger announcement to make soon.  Stay tuned.

Americans United Ad Campaign

Fri, 10/05/2007 - 19:41 — Rottenchester

The Albany Project reports that a coalition of unions, under the auspices of America United for Change, have announced that they will sponsor a targeted ad campaign. Though the details of the ad buy are not clear, it appears that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) will both sponsor targeted ads in the 29th.

I've included a sample ad after the break, though this is a generic ad and it's not clear what, exactly, will air in local media markets.

Kuhl on CNN

Fri, 10/05/2007 - 19:33 — Rottenchester

Reader Rich sends a CNN video report which includes Randy Kuhl's view of the S-CHIP dust-up (at about 1:15). The CNN reporter says: "Kuhl calls the ads 'crass politics' and says his constituents won't buy it." Then Kuhl says:

It's not affecting me now, and I don't think it will. I believe in basic things, and one of them is a private health care plan where people have a choice. That is one thing this bill will not do.

CQ Story on the 29th

Fri, 10/05/2007 - 13:17 — Rottenchester

Congressional Quarterly has posted an in-depth story on the 29th. One interesting fact: Kuhl's CQ-calculated rating of votes with the President has fallen from 90% in his first term to 66% so far this year.

S-CHIP Protests

Fri, 10/05/2007 - 07:48 — Rottenchester

Local bloggers, and both Rochester and Southern Tier television stations, covered protests against the Bush S-CHIP veto yesterday. Rochesterturning carries video interviews with a couple of the protesters. Rochester's channel 13 has a short story with pictures documenting the protest at Kuhl's field office in Fairport. And Elmira's Channel 34 36 has a story about a protest in Elmira.

Update: The Ithaca Journal has more coverage, and Eric Massa has a letter about S-CHIP in the Elmira Star-Gazette.

Kuhl Op-Ed and Massa Calls Out Limbaugh

Thu, 10/04/2007 - 08:41 — Rottenchester

Reader Elmer sends Randy Kuhl's S-CHIP op-ed [pdf] from the Corning Leader. Kuhl calls S-CHIP "backdoor socialization". Kuhl also made the Bloomberg article about S-CHIP this morning.

In the red-meat-for-the-base department, reader Vincent sends a video of Eric Massa "calling out" Rush Limbaugh. You can see it after the break:

Massa Press Conference

Wed, 10/03/2007 - 17:33 — Rottenchester

Today's Massa press conference made the short trip from S-CHIP to rubberstamping and back again.

Massa began by saying that the Republicans are trying to frame the S-CHIP conversation as one about national health insurance, "when in reality it's an argument over the tobacco companies versus toddlers. It's about whether or not kids, no matter how much money their parents make, should be allowed to see a doctor." Massa characterized Kuhl as "two-faced", pointing to the Time magazine article where he said that he's not voting against it, he's actually voting for it.

Noting that Kuhl has been denying that he's a "rubberstamp", Massa said that reminded him of "a child with a baseball bat [...] who says he didn't break the window". Massa pointed to Kuhl's Star-Gazette op-ed, which included a list of votes that Kuhl claimed were against the President. "The vast majority of those votes were supported by the President -- [for example] Raising minimum wage was supported by the President. On every vote that matters, Randy Kuhl is super-glued to George Bush."

Massa said that today's veto of S-CHIP gives Kuhl a choice: "flip-flop or be super-glued to the President. A man who said he'd bring home the bacon is voting against kids in the district."

Massa also pointed out the inconsistency between Kuhl's complaints that Congress isn't getting things done, and his taking credit for things that do get done. "This kind of disingenuousness [...] serves no one."

I asked Massa a couple of questions. First, I asked him what he thought about Kuhl's view that the cigarette tax that partially finances S-CHIP is unfair to the poor. He said that, in his experience, "even people who are hardened smokers say that if the cost of cigarettes are part of getting children to the doctor, they're worth it."

I also asked Massa about his take on New York issuing illegal immigrants drivers' licenses. He noted that Kuhl is only raising this issue because he doesn't want to talk about his voting record, and that Kuhl often responds on other matters by saying that something is a state issue. That said, Massa disagrees with Governor Spitzer. He thinks it is wrong for the government to "recognize status with legal documents". However, "we need true immigration reform. I believe I stand with the Governor on that."

Julie Sherwood from the Messenger-Post, the other person on the call, asked Massa to quantify the number of children in the 29th helped by S-CHIP. Massa said that he didn't have those numbers, but his press secretary is going to find them.

As part of the call, Massa mentioned his appearance in Time and Esquire, which he said surprised him. It also surprised his Mother, who called to ask him why he was in a risqué magazine like Esquire.

Massa Says Kuhl Committing "Political Suicide"

Wed, 10/03/2007 - 10:00 — Rottenchester

Time Magazine has posted an article on the political ramifications of S-CHIP. It leads with a quote from Eric Massa:

Democrat Eric Massa happened to be in Washington last week for a fundraiser for his bid to challenge Rep. Randy Kuhl (pronounced "cool"), a Republican from upstate New York, for his seat next year, and he couldn't believe his good fortune. As his potential opponent voted against the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Plans (SCHIP), Massa felt like he was watching Kuhl commit "political suicide" for all to see on C-SPAN.

The article also says that Massa is making S-CHIP his top priority.

Veto Threats

Wed, 10/03/2007 - 09:53 — Rottenchester

Today's McClatchy newspapers carry an interesting analysis of the current veto threats issued by the White House. There are 10 domestic spending bills under veto threat by the White House. That's a good percentage of the domestic spending legislation before Congress. So, Kuhl's argument that he isn't a Bush rubberstamp is enabled by the Bush administration's new-found spending restraint.

The story also questions Kuhl's claim that S-CHIP is a "Democrat Bill":

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, for example, said the proposal was put together without input from Republicans.

That isn't true. Senior Republicans such as Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and a fiscal conservative, and Orrin Hatch of Utah helped draft the bill, and 18 Republicans in the Senate and 45 in the House of Representatives voted for it.

Moreover, Grassley contests Bush's objections to the children's health insurance bill.