The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Corning Leader and Star-Gazette have reports on Eric Massa's first town hall meeting, which was three hours long and involved 100 people.

The D&C reports that Massa is still raising money. I'm sure he'll be doing that for the next two years.

The Buffalo News has a good rundown of the pros and cons of a "Buy American" provision in the stimulus bill. Massa supports that provision.

Massa's Homeland Security subcommittee assignments have been announced.

Massa has also started blogging at the Huffington Post. His first post celebrates the signing of S-CHIP legislation.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] about Eric Massa's town meeting. The Massa office also released the text of a Leader editorial. The Leader thinks Massa can get the $300 million of stimulus he wants to claim for the 29th.

Reader Rich pointed out the attachment [excel spreadsheet] to this press release, which details the stimulus targeted at the 29th.

The breath and depth of the money that will be poured into the 29th by the current stimulus bill makes your average list of earmarks look like chump change. Here are a few that caught my eye:

• Half a billion dollars for electronic medical records in New York State.
• $7.1 million for an East Rochester school construction project.
• $30 million for Monroe County water treatment.

The list goes on and on. The national media is treating us to a diffuse and ill-defined discussion of "pork". The list that Massa's office released is nothing but real money for important projects, and after all the fussing and fighting is done, I think it will play well in the 29th district.

Those who aren't reading via a RSS reader have probably noticed the new left sidebar. It has recent Congressional votes, Eric Massa's YouTube feed, and all the press releases that the Massa office emails me.

I'm still not satisfied with the vote feed but I'll leave it for now. Also, I stripped telephone numbers and email addresses from the Massa press releases, since there's no need for Google to splatter cell phone numbers all over the Internet. One of the side effects of this is that the press release about Massa's telephone town meetings is missing the dial-in number. Here are the details:

WHAT: U.S. Rep. Eric Massa will hold “Telephone Town Hall Meeting”
WHEN: Thursday, February 5th, 6:00 - 7:00 pm
DIAL-IN: (877) 229-8493
CODE: 14608

Today's Star-Gazette has an item on the impact of stimulus payments on the district.

Veterans Today has a report on Massa's meeting at the VA Hospital in Canandaigua.

Update: Reader Elmer sends today's front-page story [pdf] (and jump [pdf]), which also details the expected stimulus payments in the district.

Reader Elmer sends Eric Massa's Corning Leader Op-Ed [pdf] about the stimulus package. Part of Massa's defense of the package includes a list of all the money it will bring into the district.

The Messenger-Post and R-News both have stories on Massa's visit to the Canandaigua VA hospital. The visit was timed to coincide with the announcement of Massa's co-sponsorship of three pieces of legislation related to current and former members of the military.

Eric Massa will have a weekly show on Hornell's WPKQ radio.

Massa will also be attending a meeting of the Finger Lakes Veterans Advisory Committee at 11:15 tomorrow at the Canandaigua VA hospital. The meeting is open to the public.

Jimmy Vielkind of the New York Observer calls Massa's set of committee appointments a good haul. I agree. Half of the press releases issued by the Kuhl office announced a Homeland Security grant for some local fire department or ambulance service. Massa's appointment to that committee will allow him to influence legislation that will have a real impact on the district.

The Massa office has announced that Eric Massa has received his third committee assignment, to the Committee on Homeland Security.