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Reed's Crew

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 11:13 — Rottenchester

Elmer sent me a short item from the Leader, which listed Tom Reed's new hires over the last week.

  • Former Congressman Bill Paxon, who used to represent Erie County, is co-chair of his campaign. Paxon's an "advisor" at Akin, Gump, a power DC law firm.
  • Former Commerce Secretary Wayne Berman is his new DC fundraiser. Berman, a Rochester native, is a long-time Republican fundraiser.
  • John Potter, Jr., is Reed's in-district fundraiser. He's an Elmira businessman.

With this crew, Reed is set to raise some serious cash.

Readers Send Stories

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 09:40 — Rottenchester

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader editorial page [pdf]. Here's a gem from the lead editorial:

To repeat: first there was the cancer scare, then an Ethics Committee investigation and finally his railroading by the Democratic leadership because he opposed the health care bill.

If there are more reasons, we’re really not interested, especially if they are of the tickling, wrestling, groping and using dirty language
variety.

Reader Don sends this Hill piece, quoting Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy notes that the Massa story has completely obscured a debate on a resolution to withdraw from Afghanistan. That resolution wasn't going anywhere, but Massa would have supported it.

Morning News

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 07:36 — Rottenchester

As expected, the House Ethics Committee investigation is over.

The Corning Leader reports that the count of committee chairs in Tom Reed's corner is 7 out of 8. Only Monroe is holding out, presumably for Maggie Brook's decision, which will almost certainly be not to run. Reed also says he's raising money hand over fist.

Kuhl's Out

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:52 — Rottenchester

The non-surprise of this surprising week is that Randy Kuhl has issued a press release saying he's out of the race.

Massa Massages

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:41 — Rottenchester

Joshua Green at the Atlantic has on-the-record confirmation from named sources who essentially confirm the charges made by Bob Lonsberry last week. When serving in the Navy, Massa was "notorious" for making unwanted advances toward subordinates, and offering "Massa massages".

One of Green's sources for other Massa-related information is Sanford Dickert, the man Massa fired in 2006 from his campaign. One of the charges that Massa made about Dickert was a hint that Dickert tried to make a pass at Massa's then-teenage son. Green publishes a set of documents from Dickert that detail the whole affair. I read all those documents in 2006 and published this summary.

One interesting sidelight to this is the strange behavior of Dickert. In hindsight, my guess is that he knew Massa's secret and was holding it as leverage over Massa to force a quick settlement to his lawsuit. His strategy didn't work. He did prevail in the legal action, but it was a pyrrhic victory at best -- he probably paid his lawyers more than he made.

Doing the Right Thing, for Better or Worse

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 16:17 — Rottenchester

Philbrick at Mustard Street makes the correct observation that David Paterson's decision to call a special election as soon as possible will probably hurt Democrats.

In a narrow, political sense, I think that's true. The memory of Massa's antics will be fresh in voters' minds when then go to the polls.

Similarly, Steny Hoyer hurt his party, in a narrow sense, when he advised Massa's staff to launch an ethics investigation. This set up a chain reaction that culminated in the mess we have today.

But if Paterson didn't call an election, the 29th seat would be empty for the rest of the year, and members of both parties would resent a Democrat's decision to try to save the eat. And if Hoyer had delayed the investigation, Massa's charges could have blown up immediately before the election, causing a Foley-like scandal which affected other races.

It often seems tactically smart to avoid doing the right thing, but in both of these cases, I think the Democrats making the decision made the right choice, politically, by doing their duty.

Noon Roundup

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 14:30 — Rottenchester

The Reed campaign just announced endorsements from State Senators George Winner and Cathy Young, taking the best Southern Tier candidate (Young) off the list of possible Reed challengers.

Sean Carroll has a good explanation of what's going on in Massa's office post-resignation. Massa's chief of staff, Joe Racalto, will be running the office, but not voting, until the election occurs.

Finally, a correction. I linked to a D&C item that said 5 of 7 county chairs in the 29th support Reed. As an anonymous commenter pointed out, there are 8 counties in the 29th district. So it's 5 of 8, probably.

Massa on Day One in DC

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 08:37 — Rottenchester


by Michael Parks

Morning News

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 07:12 — Rottenchester

Here's Gannett's take on Massa's two appearances yesterday.

I forgot to mention one more new detail from the Beck interview: he had been living in a townhouse in DC with other male staffers, and moved out because his chief of staff told him it "wasn't Congressional".

In other news, Mustard Street has a Reed robo-call trying to set up a telephone town hall meeting. Both Randy Kuhl and Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks have used this technique in the past to communicate with constituents.

Yesterday's D&C reported that Brooks hasn't decided whether to enter the race. Reed still has the support of 5 of the 7 county Republican chairs in the district.

Tickled

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 23:28 — Rottenchester

I watched about half of Massa's Glenn Beck performance. What I saw was a lower-volume version of the Hornell call. Massa made his points in a rational way, but his story just doesn't hold together.

He wants us to believe that he knew nothing about the ethics investigation when he held his hastily-arranged press conference Wednesday afternoon.

He wants us to believe that he worked the phones for four years raising money and is now scandalized that some contributors want a quid pro quo.

And he wants us to believe that his staff members, who presumably want to have a career in politics, turned him in over a tickling contest and an off-color remark at a wedding reception.

None of this makes sense. I understand Beck apologized at the end of the show because the hour was wasted. I think he's right.

And the Leaks Begin

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:54 — Rottenchester

The Washington Post has gotten a leak of the ethics investigation of Eric Massa. According to three sources, Massa engaged in a pattern of physical harassment of male aides (characterized as "groping") going back for at least a year.

Special Election Coming "As Soon As Possible"

Tue, 03/09/2010 - 16:28 — Rottenchester

Jimmy Vielkind of the Albany Times-Union tweets that David Paterson will call a special election in the 29th "as soon as possible". Paterson said that nobody's asked him not to do it.