The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Hill newspaper has a run-down of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America legislative report card. Randy Kuhl got an "A" from that group. Kuhl out-scored John McCain (who got a "D") and Barack Obama ("B").

The Massa Campaign has announced that it raised $462,200 in the last quarter. Massa's full fundraising report has not hit the FEC website yet, nor has Kuhl's.

The first independent poll for the 2008 cycle shows Massa leading Kuhl by 7 points. The poll was commissioned and published [pdf] by the subscription-only Roll Call magazine.

FiveThirtyEight is a site that does extensive ranking of pollsters. They rate SurveyUSA as the most accurate polling organization in the nation, as explained here.

(via Rochesterturning)

The Hornell Evening Tribune covers Kuhl's bailout vote and Massa's flip-flop charge.

The Messenger-Post says that Kuhl is getting mixed reviews from Veterans.

No more lawn sign news. I'm following that story closely and will issue instant updates the moment I have them. Stay tuned.

The DCCC has released a poll showing Eric Massa leading randy Kuhl by 5 points, with 13% undecided. The poll's margin of error is 4.9%.

This is a poll by an interested party and should be taken with a grain of salt. The last independent poll in the district was taken by the New York State Board of Elections in November, 2006.

The Massa campaign has released a new ad about Kuhl's vote change on the bailout bill. The video is embedded below:

The Democrat and Chronicle reports that the Ontario County Sheriff's office apprehended someone in the act of stealing McCain and Kuhl yard signs along Route 96 in Victor.

The alleged perpetrator also had Cub Scout yard signs in his possession, raising the possibility that the signs themselves, rather than their content, sparked the crime.

Gannett's Larry Wilson has filed a story on the out-of-state donors who give to the candidates in the 29th race. Both Kuhl and Massa have raised significant funds from out-of-state and out-of-district contributors.

One factor that isn't mentioned in the story is Act Blue, a Democratic site that allows donors from across the nation to funnel money to competitive races. Massa has raised over half a million dollars in his two races via Act Blue.

Reader Elmer sends Eric Massa's Corning Leader op-ed where he describes his plan for an FDR-style solution to the credit crunch. The Leader also has a story on Kuhl's vote yesterday.

The Steuben Courier has a column against Kuhl's initial vote.

WENY, Syracuse News 10, and the Democrat and Chronicle all have stories about Kuhl's vote.

Finally, WENY has a story about some questions submitted for next week's debate. They're from a high school class in Horseheads.

Overpaying for $700 billion of possibly bad assets in order to re-capitalize banks is a desperation move. There are other desperation moves that probably make more sense. But, given the choice between a bailout and frozen credit markets, I'll take the bailout, reluctantly.

That said, there are good reasons to be against this bill. It could use better oversight, the final bill was larded with pork, and the equity provisions were pretty vague. So I understand Eric Massa's opposition to the bill, even if I don't agree with him.

What I don't understand is how Randy Kuhl thinks that this bill is "drastic improvement" over Monday's plan. In terms of the bailout provisions themselves, as far as I can tell, they're more-or-less identical to Monday's plan. The FDIC increase and AMT reduction are nice to have, but there's nothing new that prevents taxpayers from "picking up the tab" of $700 billion, as Kuhl claims.

Because this shit sandwich of a bill just had a little pork and taxcut mayo added, Kuhl's explanation doesn't cut it. It looks, instead, like he wanted to have it both ways. His phone lines were jammed with angry constituents last week, so he voted against Monday's bill. By Friday, it was pretty clear that small and mid-size businessmen in the 29th supported the bill, and that the credit markets were actually in crisis. So Kuhl changed his vote, apparently to appease the latter group and to avoid responsibility for a financial meltdown.

Kuhl's vote will probably end up being seen as a necessary evil. He didn't need to insult our intelligence with this "drastic improvement" spin.