The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

I'm going to slip on my winter Crocs, bust out the kinara, and prepare for a joyous Kwanzaa. Because my Kwanzaa preparation ritual is extremely rigorous, don't expect any blogging until after I've fully celebrated the seven principles.

Of course, if something interesting happens, I'll be back to comment.

This morning's Massa press call started with a detailed explanation of why he still opposes the President's Afghanistan strategy:

Download mp3 (2MB)

Rick Miller asked Massa to respond to Tom Reed's accusation that he is "disarming the troops while in harm's way" by not voting for a supplemental. You might want to turn the volume down a bit when you listen to his answer:

Download mp3 (612KB)

Finally, I asked Massa if he had any thoughts on paying for the war. His answer was inconclusive, as was Reed's earlier this morning, but I didn't bother to follow up further, having learned my lesson that politicians will always dance around the question of taxes:

Download mp3 (424KB)

This morning's press call by Tom Reed dealt with Afghanistan. Reed is pleased with the President's speech, with the exception of the timeline for withdrawal. Here's his opening statement, where he characterizes Massa's position as one of "surrender and retreat".

Download mp3 (1.58MB)

Reed compared our mission in Afghanistan to World War II in response to some questions from Rick Miller of the Olean Times-Herald:

Download mp3 (984KB)

I asked Reed a question about how he wants to pay for the wars. The answer is pretty drawn out and inconclusive:

Download mp3 (2MB)

Eric Massa brought Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson to town. On Sunday, they met with some firefighters in Hornell. Yesterday, they visited Kennedy Valve, a manufacturing company in Elmira.

Reader Elmer sends the text of the letter he received from Eric Massa explaining his healthcare vote. Text of the letter after the break:

The big question for the 29th in 2010 is whether Democrats will turn out. A high-visibility Senate race with a well-funded Democrat makes it more likely that there will be a good Democratic turnout. For that reason, Rudy's announcement that he's going to run for Gillibrand's seat is good news for Massa, since he'll give Democrats another reason to go to the polls.

From a media perspective, Massa and Gillibrand will have the only competitive Federal races in the area. There should be enough TV time to go around, though I'm sure Dan Maffei and Chris Lee will have token opponents who will justify a million bucks worth of "feel good" ads.

The 29th has seen a few close races, but neither Randy Kuhl nor Eric Massa poisoned the well the way Doug Hoffman just did. Citing an ACORN conspiracy, Hoffman revoked his concession, and now he's been fundraising on claims of "tampering" based on ordinary election-night screwups.

This is what happens when a candidate is looking for approval from forces outside the district. It may play well to Glen Beck's America to find ACORN messing with election totals. But the hundreds of election workers in NY-23, as well as their friends and family, probably don't like to be accused of being dishonest, scheming ACORN dupes.

Hoffman either doesn't care about the 2010 election, or he's too stupid to know the right way to ask for a recount. Either way, Bill Owens' chances for re-election keep improving every time he opens his mouth.

Drilling the Marcellus Shale, which may contain the largest supply of natural gas in North America, was the topic of a meeting last night in Corning. Eric Massa's "strongly worded letter" was part of the meeting. The concern is that extracting gas from Marcellus requires huge amounts of water and toxic chemicals.

Tim Kolpien of the Reed campaign was kind enough to send over Tom Reed's financial disclosure report [pdf]. And, courtesy of Open Secrets, here's Eric Massa's [pdf].

Tom Reed opened his press call this morning on the attack. He believes that the charges that Massa has made about the $1.18 million Restore New York grant received by his LLC (covered previously here, here, here and here), are "outright lies". Here's his opening statement about that:

Download mp3 (706KB)

Reed points to a Buffalo News story which uses Massa's financial disclosure form. I asked Reed if he was willing to release his form (since it's not publicly available -- Massa's is). His answer included a defense of how he made his money. Reed says that he's not a "silver spoon lawyer":

Download mp3 (630KB)

I will post both candidates' financial disclosure forms when I get them.

Finally, I asked Reed whether he was going to make any money from the Bath investment. He basically said that the investment is projected to make very little money. Some reporter on the call cracked "What kind of businessman are you?" -- and Reed walked back his comments a bit. It's about as funny as a press call gets, and is worth a listen:

Download mp3 (630KB)

There are some drop-outs in the audio -- sorry about that. I think it's something to do with my recording setup, but this is the first time it's happened.