The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

I will be on CW-16 tomorrow night starting at 9:30 to discuss the election. Exile from The Albany Project will be there, too.

We will be live-blogging with DragonFlyEye. Check back here around 9:30 tomorrow for the live-blog, and I hope anyone interested will join in.

Update: CW-16 is a Rochester TV station affiliated with 13-WHAM. I believe they will simulcast on the Internet at their website here. Tune in to the live blog tomorrow for more information.

The Massa campaign has released Eric Massa's final day schedule. Massa will vote in Corning around Noon. His party is at the Radisson Hotel in Corning. Full details after the break.

Randy Kuhl will vote in Pulteney tomorrow at 10. He'll end the day in a Hammondsport, with a party at the Pleasant Valley Wine Company. Full details after the break:

Headline of the day: New York's Sleepy 29th Home to Hard-Fought Campaign.

You gotta hand it to WROC for keeping the Smug in Smugtown. They must be saving "Hicks Go to Polls" for tomorrow's story.

This was at Gro-Moore Farms in Henrietta, courtesy of the Kuhl campaign.

Rochesterturning has some more video of Massa's appearance at St John's Meadows.

Evan Dawson at Channel 13 talks about franking. In related news, I received my copy of Randy Kuhl's November newsletter, the Kuhl Khronicle, right on time today. Members of Congress are restricted from sending regular mail before an election, but there's apparently no such restriction on email.

Update: Meghan Tisinger writes to clarify: Kuhl is allowed to send emails to subscribers on a mailing list at any time, but not mass-emailings. Since I signed up for the Khronicle, I got the email. According to the rules, this exception applies only to emails to subscriber lists.

I just mis-stated Massa's position on HR 676 in a previous post. He supports it, and I've corrected the post. Sorry about that.

That said, Massa's opponents point to Section 101 of the bill as justification that illegal immigrants will be supported. Aside from Massa's flat statement that he doesn't support health care for illegal immigrants, I don't read it that way.

Section 101, like a lot of draft legislation, contains a bit of a contraction. On the one hand, it says that "all individuals" are covered. On the other hand, it requires a registration program for a health insurance card. The bill doesn't include much guidance on the whole registration program, but it's common sense that most illegal immigrants aren't going to participate in that kind of program.

More importantly, the reality of the moment is that many illegal immigrants are getting effectively free health care in our emergency rooms as we speak. The issue is the immigrants' presence in the United States. As long as they're here, somebody's going to be paying the bill for their health care, and that somebody is usually us, directly or indirectly.

Reader Phil Palmesano sent along the full press release from Republican/Conservative party chairs, which is embedded after the break. Their basic argument is that universal health care, which Massa supports, is too expensive and that it will cause an increase in middle-class taxes.

The Kuhl ads on health care and this press release all point to one source, Rep. John Conyers' [D-MI-14] cost-justification for a House bill. The bill, HR 676, has not been specifically endorsed by Massa, who also has his own plan.

It's also unlikely that this bill will be the final form of health care reform that is enacted under an Obama administration (assuming he's elected). Obama's health care plan is much more conservative.

That said, the supposedly scary thing about the bill is the 3.3% payroll tax increase that would fund it. That's $1,200/month for a family making $40,000/year.

Assuming that this family is not insured, they're paying more than that in medical expenses. If they are self-insured, then they are paying more in insurance. If they have employer insurance, their employer will save much more than $1,200, and perhaps they'll stay in business a bit longer to provide that $40,000 paycheck.

So, Conyers' plan, which, again, Massa has never said he supports, doesn't look that scary to me.

Finally, the press release, and Kuhl's ads, claim that the Massa supports health care for illegal immigrants. That's a mis-reading of the bill that Massa doesn't support. It also said that Massa supports limiting doctor choice, which is precisely not what Massa's plan says.

I'd suggest that everyone voting tomorrow who cares about this issue take a look at four things:

1. Massa's plan
2. Obama's plan
3. Kuhl's plan
4. John McCain's plan

Update: Thanks to Meghan Tisinger from Kuhl's office for the correction: Massa does support HR 676.

The Star-Gazette has a story on Republican and Conservative party chairs' opposition to single-payer health care, as well as a piece on Massa's campaign day.

The Kuhl campaign sent Randy's morning schedule, which is embedded after the break.

Tomorrow's weather forecast just keeps getting better: partly to mostly sunny with highs in the mid-60s.

No word yet on Randy Kuhl's schedule for today.

Eric Massa's minute-by-minute location is included below. Massa will spend most of the day in the Southern Tier and end up at his Victor office.