The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Randy Kuhl's press secretary Justin Stokes sent the following statement from Randy:

Tonight all of the 29th Congressional District will have Eric Massa and his family in their hearts and prayers. His reoccurrence of cancer is devastating and I wish him a full recovery. I know firsthand that Eric is a fighter and I have full confidence that he will beat cancer once again.

I have received numerous calls and emails today regarding my political future and I truly appreciate all of those who believed in me and supported me during my 28 years of public service. I will address any political decisions in the future but right now it is important for Eric to get the treatment that he needs to recover.

If you can't feel the Kuhlmentum, here's Tom Reed's statement:

I was saddened to hear that Congressman Massa’s health will preclude him from running for re- election. While the Congressman and I disagreed on political issues, I respect his military and public service and wish him the best.

Our campaign continues moving forward with a message of smaller government and resistance to government takeovers of health care and private enterprises. We began this campaign to bring common sense and financial responsibility to Washington and we will continue to November. I have spoken with county Republican chairs and all have pledged continued support for our campaign. We look forward to welcoming a Democratic candidate to the race.

Politico and The Atlantic are reporting that the reason Massa resigned was allegations of sexual harassment from a male aide. Massa denied these allegations in his statement and to a Talking Points Memo reporter.

According to the Star-Gazette, Massa has asked Hornell Mayor Shawn Hogan to run in his place. Hogan is almost the only Democrat in the Southern Tier who has any kind of a profile, so he's the logical choice.

Here is the statement Eric Massa read at his press conference this afternoon:

Statement from Congressman Eric Massa
March 3, 2010

This last December I underwent my third major cancer recurrence scare. I kept this private only to members of my immediate family. I did not tell my staff. It was a very intense and personal experience especially in light of having gone through this before. I am a direct, salty guy who runs at 100 mph and my doctors have now clearly told me that I can no longer do that. It is only fair and right that I announce that I will not run again in time for others to consider a run for this office. I will now enter a final phase of my life at a more controlled pace and remained fully committed to helping the families of the 29th District.

There are blogs that are saying that I am leaving because of charges of harassing my staff. Do I and have I used salty language? Yes, and I have tried to do better. But these blogs are a symptom of the problem in this city and I no longer have the life’s energy to fight every battle. I make this decision based on being a cancer survivor who, following the advice of my doctors in Washington and in New York, cannot and will not prevent others from serving in the Congress that I hold in such great esteem.

Liz Benjamin is reporting that Eric Massa will drop out of the 2010 race at a 3:30 press conference today. I'm hearing this rumor from multiple sources, also.

It's not clear why he's dropping out. Health is one possibility.

I can't make the press call but I'll report what happened as soon as I can.

Reader Stanley sends this Roll Call item about Charlie Rangel's ethics issues and its impact on the New York delegation. Rangel's a major fundraiser, and he's been responsible for about $40K of donations to the Massa campaign. The Star-Gazette also mentioned the Rangel issue yesterday.

Massa hasn't yet issued a statement about whether he'll return the money, but he did vote to refer Rangel's case to the House Ethics Committee.

I've mentioned the Rangel money issue here and here, and I still think that this won't be a major campaign issue, for the reasons given in those posts.

The papers and the telly are full of stories like this, where Eric Massa says that he's glad Paterson is leaving and that he wants Andrew Cuomo to enter the race.

It looks like the statewide major office races will be walks for the Democrats. No big-name Republican has stepped up to run for either Governor or Senator, so Cuomo and Gillibrand will both do well, barring a screw up.

This isn't good news for Massa -- a tight, hard-fought race would keep voters interested and send them to the polls. Tight races would also cause those candidates to put some money behind a statewide get out the vote effort, which would help Massa in the 29th.

Reader Vincent sends this link to the Sunlight Foundation's live blog coverage of today's summit at the Blair House. They're a non-profit good government bunch and can probably cut through a lot of the bullshit that's going to be flooding that meeting.

By the way, in case anybody wonders, no, Eric Massa has not changed his position on the reform bill. I'd be surprised if this meeting changes anybody's mind, including his.

Today's Democrat and Chronicle and Star-Gazette cover Tom Reed's latest position on the regulation of Marcellus Shale drilling. He's against almost all Federal regulation:

Reed said he would vote against giving the Environmental Protection Agency authority to use the Clean Water Act or Safe Drinking Water Act to regulate such drilling. He also would oppose requiring drillers to disclose the chemicals they add to the water injected into the rock.

Reed's position is that the state should do the regulating. However, Federal water laws like Clean Water Act have been around for decades because water doesn't respect state boundaries.

Here's a simple hypothetical. Say St. Bonaventure College, which is about 10 miles from the Pennsylvania border, finds chemical contamination in their drinking water. In Tom Reed's world, they would have the right to find out if a Pennsylvania fracking operation caused that pollution only if Pennsylvania law says they can. In Eric Massa's world, they'd have that right because Federal law requires drillers to disclose what they inject into rock that could contaminate the water supply.

I'll leave it to the reader to imagine which world Saint Bonnies' students (and their parents) want to live in.

A couple of years ago, I posted a long rant about the Monroe County Democratic Party. I thought that the chair, Joe Morelle, should step down, because he had failed to place even a token candidate on the slate for County Executive, the top race on the ticket.

Today, at Mustard Street, writer Philbrick explains why Morelle didn't field a candidate in 2007: he wants the job himself. The evidence that Philbrick gives in his piece is fairly convincing. Morelle has risked the ire of public unions, critical in the inner city but not a power in the suburbs, to support Mayor Robert Duffy's plan to take over the Rochester schools. And Duffy has engaged the services of a major strategy group, which would indicate that he's looking at Federal or statewide office, not County Executive.

If you're not convinced by Philbrick's analysis, here are a couple more points. First, Morelle is sponsoring Katie's law, which is a "tough on crime" measure that would allow cops to take DNA samples from suspects, not those convicted. That's probably unconstitutional, but it would certainly be popular with suburban conservatives. Second, there's the whole 2007 County Executive debacle, mentioned above. If you're county chair and want to run for County Executive, but the time isn't right, you're going to make sure that nobody else runs, no matter what this does to the party.

Monroe County is key to Massa's victory in 2008, and to his re-election in 2010, but the party apparatus here is completely useless. In the last 10 years, Democrats have gone from a 4,000 voter registration advantage to a 40,000 voter advantage over Republicans. Yet Republicans still control the legislature. After the last election, one Democrat even switched parties, which indicates that there's little hope that Democrats will regain control anytime soon.

Since he's now running for County Executive, I'm sure Joe Morelle will be hoarding MCDC assets for his coming race. Eric Massa will once again have to run his own get out the vote operation. The status quo in Monroe County won't change until the leadership changes.

Reader Elmer sends two full-page Chesapeake ads that appeared in the Corning Leader. Wednesday's ad [pdf] tells us that Chesapeake is "ready" to drill in the Marcellus Shale. Yesterday's ad [pdf] is Chesapeake's attempt to explain their Pulteney application, which was covered here yesterday.

In other drilling news, Reuters has a drilling water background story that quotes Chesapeake officials as well as Eric Massa.