The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Corning Leader reports that the Republican party is going to file a lawsuit next week to try to force the Governor to call a special election. The effort comes from party committees --Tom Reed will not be involved.

The Washington Post is reporting that the FBI and Justice Department are probing the payments made by Massa's campaign last month. These include a $40,000 check to chief of staff Joe Racalto, and a $39,000 car lease payment.

The House Ethics committee has launched an official probe into what other House members and staff did about the allegations against Massa. The committee can't investigate Massa directly because he is no longer a member.

Bob Recotta of the Corning Leader has an interview of Angelo Campini. Here's a sample:

Reed is part of the establishment that has created the country’s current situation, Campini said.

“I find his campaign to be a little out of the can,” Campini said. “I don’t believe for a second he didn’t have this planned all along. Running for mayor (of Corning) was no more than a stepping stone. He’s a lawyer, he’s got plenty of connections. He probably felt it was time for him to take the next step and join the big boys. His responses are straight from the Republican Party talking points.”

Angelo Campini tells WHAM that he has filed the Federal paperwork necessary to be a Republican challenger in the Fall Congressional primary. Campini owns BG&G pizza and lives in West Henrietta.

Campini already has a campaign website. According to that site, he was originally trained as an aerospace engineer, is married and has two children. His position statements on that site are mainly devoted to deficit reduction and energy policy.

(via Rochesterturning)

The Corning Leader has a short profile of Matthew Zeller. He's 28, served in the Army and the CIA, and will be formally kicking off his campaign next week.

Rochesterturning picks up this CQ item which speculates that David Nachbar might run for the 29th seat in the Fall, assuming Governor Paterson doesn't call a special election. Nachbar fuels this speculation by telling CQ that he would consider running in the general.

With State Assemblyman Joe Errigo's retirement now official, I continue to agree with Philbrick at Mustard Street that Nachbar will end up running for Errigo's seat, as I predicted earlier this month.

Zeller certainly hasn't hit the ground running, probably because he has no money, so Nachbar may think he can sneak back in. I certainly don't blame him for not wanting an Assembly seat. But I think Joe Morelle has spoken, and he wants Nachbar to take a run at Errigo's seat, which he has a better chance of winning.

Reader Rich sends a couple of Massa stories. First, Massa denies approving a payment to Joe Racalto for $40,000. And, it looks like he prepaid a lease of a campaign vehicle two days before he resigned.

Joe Racalto's attorney announced that he's filed a harassment claim against Eric Massa, stating that "Massa regularly groped, propositioned him and made lewd remarks to him and other staffers".

Matt Zeller's site is live. Nothing much to see yet, but I updated the "Candidate Sites" block on the sidebar for future reference.

If you're the kind of person who stops when you see an auto accident, or follows fire trucks to the fire, don't miss Eric Massa's first quarter fundraising report.

Other than $112K of refunds, it's interesting to note that his chief of staff, Joe Racalto, received $40K the day after Massa resigned. I assume that was because Racalto had signed on to lead Massa's campaign, with a contract that had a termination bonus.