The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Randy Kuhl is back in the district after participating in spontaneous rebellion.

Farmers are still unhappy about scarce immigrant labor.

Finally, Dr Denny votes for a two-term limit as he dissects the Fix Washington "Gimmick".

This morning's Massa press conference concentrated on Randy
Kuhl's radio ad.

WETM has announced that they'll co-sponsor a debate along with the Corning Leader, on October 21. Eric Massa has confirmed he will attend. Randy Kuhl's schedule for October hasn't been finalized, so he's still a "maybe".

Kuhl is one of 18 Republicans who will receive a fundraising visit from John Boehner.

And WENY has a short piece on yesterday's Republican news conference.

The video [27MB wmv] of this morning's House Republican press conference is now available. Randy Kuhl speaks at about 2:10.

Kuhl says that it is "outrageous that Speaker Pelosi, a multi-millionaire, travels around the country promoting a book when we, Members of Congress, are receiving letters and phone calls daily from people pleading for help." Kuhl read a letter from constituent Elizabeth, from Wayland, NY, who travels 50 miles daily to work in Rochester. Her heating oil budget has tripled, and her electricity budget is up by over half.

Since each of the Members had a couple of minutes, and many of them repeated the same talking points, the press conference gets a little long. But don't miss a reporter's question at 13:50, "None of this legislation will immediately drop the price at the pump, will it?"

John Kline [MN-2], replied, "It remains to be seen. It takes a while for oil to come out of the ground [...] two years, or three years, or five years." He added that it's an "important signal to the market", so "we think it will have an affect on prices."

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] on Massa's request yesterday.

The Leader also publishes their policy on letters to the Editor [pdf] today, in anticipation of a flood of letters by partisans on both sides.

Update: Today's Messenger-Post also covers the energy back-and-forth.

The Kuhl campaign has started a media effort coordinated with Kuhl's appearance at the House protest this week. Kuhl's new radio and TV ads, which the campaign says will air across the 29th district, are embedded after the break.

Kuhl will also appear at a press conference on C-SPAN C-SPAN2 this morning at 11.

Randy Kuhl has returned to Washington to speak on the floor of the House as part of the Republican protest there. WENY has the story, with Kuhl's resolution to stay in DC until the end of the recess. Syracuse News10 has a back-and-forth between Kuhl and Massa on the same issue.

The DCCC has released its response to the Freedom's Watch ads announced earlier this month. The ad is embedded after the break. Freedom's Watch has not released their ads anywhere that I can find them, which is odd. Usually third-party ad campaigns get a lot of buzz from blogs and media outlets, even if the ad buy isn't very large, so those organizations are eager to release their ads.

The most surprising part of today's Massa press call was the presence of a reporter for The Hill newspaper, Aaron Blake. Aaron has filed his story, which includes the Kuhl campaign's rapid response. This kind of national attention was rare in 2006, and I wonder if it's going to continue in 2008.

The Politico also mentions the 29th in a story on DCCC spending. The DCCC will spend 78% of its money on offense this Fall.

In local news, the Hornell Evening Tribune has a story on the two candidates' agreement on a special session. The Tribune also reports that Massa will speak at the Hornell Relay for Life, a cancer fundraiser.

The Massa campaign had a special press call this morning, where Massa called for Randy Kuhl to use his "close personal relationship" with President Bush to call for the President to re-convene Congress.

Massa said that he finds himself "in open disagreement with Speaker Pelosi" about the importance of debating an energy bill now. Massa said, "We need responsible offshore drilling, and we need to solve this problem. Calling the House into session is just a political stunt. If the President calls Congress into session, then we can get something done."

Massa said he realizes that "I'm probably out there on my own" on this one. But "the Constitution is clear: only the President has the power to re-convene Congress".

Sean Carroll's raw video of a Kuhl interview shows some surprising bias. At about 13:35, Carroll lobs this softball:

I also spoke with somebody just the other day who said that "I think Randy's going to win the 29th, because Mr. Massa, his message is tired, he's now been out there three or four years, and people may just be getting annoyed with him." I know that may be an unusual question to pose to you about your opponent. How do you respond to that?

This question did not make the highly edited WHAM report, which carefully balanced Massa's and Kuhl's answers. But it was posted on their site, so it's part of the record, even if few will watch the interview to the end.

Randy Kuhl and Eric Massa are perfectly capable of campaigning on their own. Carroll's job is to put them through the ringer, not to inject partisan opinion into the story.

13WHAM's policy of posting backstory, raw video of interviews, and supporting documents is something every TV station should emulate. The TV news "hole" is mercilessly tiny, and those of us who like to learn more appreciate the extra effort WHAM takes to tell us the rest of the story. It's too bad that it sometimes makes them look pretty bad, but this is one of those times.