The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Ben Smith, one of the founders of Room 8, has an op-ed in today's New York Daily News. The Daily News also has an editorial (2nd item) about the Bronx DA's attempt to intimidate the Room 8 bloggers.

The Kuhl campaign has issued a press release stating that they raised $333K last quarter. His numbers have not hit the FEC website as of this post.

Kuhl's cash on hand at the end of the last quarter was $365K, so Kuhl probably ended the quarter with less cash on hand than Massa.

Update: Kuhl's report has been posted. According to the FEC, Kuhl raised $334K last quarter, spent $81K, and ends the quarter with $619K cash on hand.

The Massa campaign's fundraising report just hit the FEC website. Massa raised $290K last quarter, spent $203K, and has $652K on hand.

Room 8, which covers New York City and surrounding region politics, was recently the target of what sounds like gross prosecutorial misconduct. They were served a criminal subpoena by the Bronx District Attorney, who wanted to know the identity of one of their anonymous bloggers and commenters, "Republican Dissident". The subpoena was accompanied by a gag order, so the facts of the case were hidden from public view until today.

Luckily, Room 8 was able to get free legal counsel from Public Citizen, and, as the New York Times tells it, that solved the problem:

The district attorney eventually withdrew the subpoena and lifted the gag requirement after the bloggers threatened to sue. But the fact that the tactic was used at all raised alarm bells for some free speech advocates.

As blogs grow in influence, we'll probably see more of this type of legal harassment from those who have the resources to launch a suit. It deserves the attention of anyone who thinks that free speech is important.

Reader Elmer sends today's front-page story from the Corning Leader [pdf] (and jump [pdf]). Randy Kuhl is quoted endorsing President Bush's decision to remove limits on offshore drilling. Kuhl wants Congress to remove those limits, too.

In other Kuhl-related news, the protesters who picketed his office last summer had their appeal postponed at the request of the prosecutor.

As news slowly leaks from billionaire Tom Golisano's Responsible New York political committee, it appears likely that David Nachbar will be one of the candidates receiving Golisano's help. Nachbar is challenging Republican incumbent Jim Alesi in State Senate District 55, which overlaps part of the Northern 29th district.

Golisano will probably also endorse other area Democratic challengers, including Rick Dollinger in SD-56.

Well-funded challengers in lower-tier races means more interest. This is probably good for Eric Massa, if you believe the conventional wisdom that more turnout means more Democrats at the polls.

The Messenger-Post has a detailed piece on Randy Kuhl's claim that legislation can lower gas prices to $1.98/gallon. Reporter Julie Sherwood interviews three experts who disagree with Kuhl.

In his Wednesday press conference, Eric Massa mentioned T. Boone Pickens' energy plan. Pickens' plan is very simple: replace natural gas power generation with wind power, and use that natural gas to power vehicles. The goal is to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, using a strategy that can be implemented in 10 years or less.

In the recent past, the Southern Tier's role in the Pickens Plan would have been wind power, even though this area is a relatively poor location for turbines. However, as the Corning Leader recently reported, the Southern Tier sits upon a formation called the Marcellus Shale, a natural formation containing up to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Using recently invented extraction techniques, some geologists believe up to 50 trillion cubic feet could be extracted from the Marcellus Shale, a volume of gas that corresponds to two years of total US production.

Natural gas is an excellent transitional fuel. We have pipelines to distribute it, we know how to make cars burn it, and it burns relatively cleanly. Natural gas is also about half as expensive as fuel oil for winter heating. The Southern Tier might see an economic shot in the arm from natural gas, and it will be interesting to see if it becomes an issue in the campaign.

Liz Benjamin reports that Republicans are trying to tie Charlie Rangel [NY-15] to Eric Massa and other candidates for whom he's raised funds. Rangel has some rent-controlled apartments in New York for which he's paying less than the going market rate. You can read Rangel's defense here. I'm not an expert in rent control, but I thought that the whole point of the law was to allow people to keep renting at below-market rates.

Rochesterturning has a post about Massa's quick response when it appeared that some campaign donations were accidentally channeled to his campaign.

The DCCC has to make tough decisions about where to spend its money. This is well-understood, and if the DCCC doesn't want to spend money in the 29th district, that's their choice. I think they're wrong, but that's nothing new with an organization that has a long record of poor money choices. (I've examined some of those choices here and in more depth here, including an explanation of the FAIL-o-tron reference.)

However, letting their list of targeted ads leak is a simple unforced error. It sends a signal to fundraisers, donors and pundits about the races where they think some extra money will make a difference. Leaking, or letting out, this list in July, which is 2-3 months before the ad buys will occur, damages any Democrat in a tight race who isn't on that list.

The DCCC may have some clever reason for leaking the list (if it wasn't an accident). If they do, I guarantee that it's too clever by half.

Update: Here's the DCCC response:

Our initial media buy is the first act of a many act play. As we have been all cycle, the DCCC is focused, prepared, and organized. Watch what we do over the next four months and our aggressive strategy to expand the playing field and strengthen the Democratic Majority will become clear.