The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Joe Dunning's column in the Leader was appropriately tough on Tom Reed's campaign, which has made a number of tactical errors in the past months. But, to his credit, Reed made one strategic decision that trumps most of those errors: he started early. A majority of voters won't be paying close attention to this race until well over a year from now, and by then many of Reed's missteps will be ancient history.

A few dumb comments, or even taking government money as part of his business, won't sink Reed's ship by itself. Far more dangerous is the perception that Reed is taking orders from the DC Republican party. Ultimately, if I had to pick the most important factor in Kuhl's 2008 loss, it was the perception that he was paying more attention to his party bosses than the residents of the 29th district.

It's hard to imagine two individuals more different than Eric Massa and Amo Houghton, but neither of those men took orders from their party bosses. Amo had, and Massa has, a set of votes that differentiate each of the men from the average order-taking backbench party loyalist. Their war votes -- Amo's against the Iraq War, and Massa's against the Afghanistan War -- are just two examples.

Of course, in Amo's case, he was part of a strong tradition of moderate Republicanism that originated in New York and is now gone from the political scene. Unfortunately, Reed can't rely on that tradition to inform his rhetoric. Instead, he, like Randy Kuhl, sounds very like a right-wing radio host.

Perhaps the best example of this kind of rhetoric is the comments that Reed made about the stimulus bill. Here's a mayor -- whose small town is getting millions of dollars in stimulus funding -- calling the stimulus a "slush fund". Here's a resident of a state facing a huge budget shortfall -- one that would have decimated residents of his district -- claiming that the only proper use of stimulus funds is infrastructure projects. And here's a candidate who enlists the loser of the last election to fundraise by dismissing the stimulus as nothing more than "liberal pet projects".

This, not a badly schedule press conference or some intemperate remarks about reading legislation, is what will sink the Reed campaign if it continues.

Reader Richard sends Randy Kuhl's fundraising letter for Tom Reed [pdf]. Here's a sample:

Specifically, Massa is on the record in favor of a single-payer government administered healthcare system that would ration healthcare, and has voted to support the Presidents so-called "stimulus" package that funded liberal pet projects without any boost to our economy.

The whole thing is worth a read.

Joe Dunning's Sunday column in the Corning Leader, headlined Reed and Reality not terribly close, considers the last few months of the Reed campaign. Here's a taste:

But what may have been most surprising was that Reed’s criticism of the stimulus program came while pothole-filled Corning city streets were being paved from its proceeds.
Further, Reed asserted that Corning residents would be better off with a lower federal debt than smoother streets.
How many Corning residents would agree with their mayor on that one?

One of the key points of dispute between Tom Reed and Eric Massa is whether the grant Reed received is "stimulus money". The answer to that question is complicated.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, did some analysis of the impact of the stimulus bill on New York State's budget. This graph shows how the Center believes the stimulus helped cover the shortfall in the 2009/2010 budgets:

Here's the Center's analysis:

New York predicted that without changes to its revenue structure or spending programs, available funds in fiscal year 2010 (the 12-month period beginning April 1, 2009) would fall about $17.9 billion or 26 percent short of what was needed to balance the budget. In addition, New York’s FY2009 budget was projected to be short $2.2 billion due to declining revenues and rising costs.

The federal recovery law is providing New York $6.2 billion in federal funding that it is using to help close its budget gap. This includes $5 billion in additional federal Medicaid funding, $876 million in education-related State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money, and $274 million from the “government services” component of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund.

It's clear that the stimulus had a direct impact on the New York State budget. The question is whether the $150 million grant program that funded Reed's grant would have survived if New York hadn't gotten a massive stimulus payment.

The $1.18 million grant received by Tom Reed's LLC is the result of a process detailed on this Empire State Development web page. The application [pdf] for the grant is 34 pages long and requires environmental and historical preservation review.

The list [pdf] of grants shows that Reed's is one of sixteen given in the Southern Tier. With $15.9 million in total awards for the region, Reed's is slightly bigger than the region's average of just under $1 million. Awards ranged in size from $200K to rehab a building in Norwich to $2.2 million for a neighborhood impact program in Binghamton.

WETM reports that Reed's application was approved by the Bath town board. The video attached to the story also has some footage of the exterior and interior of the building.

Joe Dunning's story on Tom Reed's press conference is online. It contrasts Reed's comments about the stimulus as a "slush fund" with the stimulus funds Corning has received.

Matt Kernan of Shortsville, NY is the first write-in candidate for the 29th seat. Matt's website is http://mwkernanforcongress.com/.

In 2008, Alan Merklinger of Hopewell waged a write-in campaign. Apparently Ontario County is a hotbed of write-in candidacy in the 29th district.

Today's Reed press conference had two topics. First, Larry Sabato has moved the 29th race to a "toss up". Reed believes this move is an indicator of the strength of his campaign.

The second topic, raised by me and followed up by Joe Dunning of the Corning Leader, was Tom Reed's receipt of a $1.18 million grant for renovations of the Bath Masonic Temple.

There's a lot to digest here, and I'm going to try something new and post the audio of the whole back-and-forth at the end of this post. In summary:

• Reed has a business of buying "distressed" properties and rehabbing them. He's done it in Corning, Elmira and Bath, and the Bath project is the only one done with public funds.
• The grant Reed got was via Restore New York, which has been around for 3 years and has distributed money all over the state.
• Reed says that the Restore New York program, which issued the grant, was not stimulus money. I asked him whether the use of stimulus to cover a budget shortfall in New York is relevant, and he said no, because he believes that stimulus money was supposed to be tagged for infrastructure projects.
• Reed says that the stimulus has become a "slush fund", and claimed that Massa has been representing that he can bring home money from that fund.

Here's 20 minutes of press conference for the real political junkies. The other person asking questions is Joe Dunning of the Corning Leader.

Download reed_call_bath_portion.mp3 (3Meg)

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story about Tom Reed's grant [pdf] (and here's the jump[pdf]).

The Leader also covered Massa's no vote on the Wilson matter [pdf].

The Star-Gazette has a back-and-forth on Reed's grant. The S-G also reports that Massa voted against a reprimand of South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson, the "you lie" guy.

WXXI's story on the New York delegation's view of the war in Afghanistan includes some remarks by Massa who wonders what the goal is there.