The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Randy Kuhl supports the Wall Street bailout, according to a WETM story. Massa wonders why execs pocket millions as taxpayers bail them out.

The Buffalo News has a blog post on how Charlie Rangel affects Western New York races. Charlie probably deserves his own blog, but to sum up yesterday's activity: he put his foot in his mouth about Sarah Palin, calling her "disabled", and he paid his back taxes.

Reader Elmer sends a Corning Leader article [pdf] about an Obama campaign commercial that mentions a Corning Glass plant in Pennsylvania as an example of outsourcing. Corning officials don't like it, for some reason.

Finally, the Town of Ulysses Democratic party blog has a recording of Eric Massa's speech at a fundraiser.

WENY has a story on Eric Massa's new farm plan [pdf], which was announced today.

In that story, Randy Kuhl's chief of staff says this:

“[Randy] is sitting on the House Ag Committee, he's not just a wannabe…Kuhl fought for New York farmers and against the Bush Administration's farm bill….Kuhl knows the issues better than anyone in this race, hands down.”

I'll point out the obvious: if Massa is elected and he wants to be on the Ag Committee, he'll be on the Ag Committee. The Democratic majority in the House will be very interested in retaining this seat, and Massa will have his pick of committees.

The Capitol newspaper has a nice 29th race profile story online.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader front page [pdf], which reports that the League of Women Voters' event in Bath has morphed into a candidate appearance by Eric Massa and Paul Tonello (Democratic candidate for SD-53). The Bath Peace and Justice group has taken over the event after Randy Kuhl and George Winner declined their invitations.

I just got robo-called by "Working Families Win." The call tried to tie Randy Kuhl to the current economic crisis. It said he had taken "over $300,000" from Wall Street interests, and that the policies he supported put working families retirement at risk. It also noted that Kuhl will receive "a guaranteed pension at taxpayers expense." The call ended with Kuhl's office number.

The current price tag for the Wall Street bailout is between $500 billion and $1 trillion.

Here are two graphs of wage growth in the 90's and in the Bush years:

Here's a graph of cash flow from home equity lines of credit (HELOC). This is the cash that wasn't used for home renovation:

Those graphs are from a report from the Center for American Progress. The CAP is a progressive think-tank, but both of those graphs are from government data. And most reports I've read agree that the rising housing market allowed homeowners to refinance, take out HELOCs, and spend the cash. That party is over.

Joe Spector of Gannett has has another blog post on Charlie Rangel. This one includes a "advertisement" by the NRCC, and an accounting of New York Congressional candidates who took Rangel money or got money from Rangel fundraisers.

The ad is over one minute long, so it won't air on TV. It's strictly to drive press coverage.

I view money as the necessary evil of politics, so I'm not easily shocked about who Massa or Kuhl solicit for funds. A competitive race requires far more money than is available from donors in the 29th district, so the usual suspects for each party will be throwing money at this race. Some of them have unsavory backgrounds. So it always has been, so it probably ever will be.

Since I have a pretty jaded view of the role of money in politics, I'm probably the wrong person to evaluate the NRCC and Kuhl campaign strategy of flogging the Rangel story. That said, I don't see a win here for Kuhl. Most of what Rangel has done is venial, not cardinal. Kuhl has taken donations from a cast of characters at least as corrupt that Charlie, probably more (e.g., Tom Delay). Unless Charlie has pocketed a significant haul, I don't think this issue will linger until election day.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] (and jump [pdf]) covering yesterday's Massa press conference and Kuhl's response.

Oil is under $100/barrel. Congress did nothing to cause this to happen.

When you have a war and cut taxes, those actions cause a deficit:

(Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities)

Joe Spector has coverage of the latest apology request in the campaign. Randy Kuhl wants Eric Massa to apologize for not noting that the reason Kuhl chose not to attend Monday night's WXXI debate was that Congress is in session starting at 6:30 p.m. next Monday.

Today's Massa press conference was well-attended and lengthy. Julie Sherwood at the Messenger-Post has already filed her take on both Massa's and Kuhl's press conference. My abbreviated report continues below.