The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has released a new ad, embedded below:

The Hornell Evening Tribune has a debate story.

The Messenger-Post reports that Democratic yard signs are also being stolen in Ontario County.

And Evan Dawson at 13-WHAM has a bunch of posts about polls: Here's one on the Kuhl poll and another, on the same poll, noting that it shows Obama and McCain neck-and-neck. Evan also discusses the recent Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll that showed Massa ahead.

Reader Tom sends today's Corning Leader story [gif] about Randy Kuhl's new poll, which shows Kuhl leading by 10 points. The poll has a small sample size (300 voters), and the Leader story doesn't indicate when the poll was in the field.

Kuhl's poll contradicts last week's findings by two independent pollsters, who found that Kuhl was behind by 6-7 points.

Reader Tom sends a story from R-News about campaign sign theft. I usually make up a sarcastic, hyperbolic title for these kinds of stories, but in this case I'll just use Seth Voorhees' hysterical headline. I hope there's some irony there, but I don't see it in the story.

Stuart Rothenberg has upgraded the 29th race to "Toss-Up/Lean Democratic" from "Toss-Up/Lean Republican". Rothenberg is pretty bullish on the Democrats' prospects for Congressional pick-ups: he predicts a gain of 25-30 seats.

Two other raters, Charlie Cook and Congressional Quarterly both have the race leaning Republican. Neither of them are forecasting as big a Democratic gain as Rothenberg.

WENY and WETM both have debate coverage and video.

The Star-Gazette and the Corning Leader also have stories on the debates.

I was able to watch most of the WENY/Star-Gazette debate. Most of the questions and answers were similar to the 13-WHAM debate, which is understandable. Random observations:

• Near the beginning of the debate, Kuhl thanked WENY for having a "free and open debate" in contrast to what WETM and the Leader were willing to do. I guess Kuhl is at war with one of the most influential, and most conservative, newspapers in the Southern Tier. I don't understand it, but there you have it.
• There were more questions about gas prices than the 13-WHAM debate. I don't know if that indicates more concern about that in the Southern Tier, or it's just moderator choice.
• At the beginning of the debate, Massa told watchers to get a piece of paper and mark an "X" every time Kuhl said Massa would raise taxes. Kuhl said that people ought to mark an "X" every time Massa linked him to President Bush. I think that cut down on both of those little sayings.
• Randy Kuhl doesn't understand, or doesn't want to understand, privatizing social security. He supports partial privatization, but denies that's what it is. Also, any return on investment that's better than what the government gets implies risk. Politicians always gloss over the details when private accounts are mentioned. Either we accept that people can invest their social security money, and possibly lose some of it, or we reimburse those who are bad investors.
• Unlike the 13-WHAM debate, the moderators in this debate were clockwatchers. They cut off a lot of good discussion. The more clockwatching, the lower quality of debate.
• Randy talked about cellulosic ethanol in the limousine with Bush? No, he didn't. Kuhl's conversion to cellulosic ethanol happened this year.
• Kuhl is for term limits. I hadn't heard that before.
• In general, the earmarks conversation really went off the rails. I have no idea why Massa thinks that the bowling alley in Canandaigua is such a powerful example, but I really don't see it. Randy wants to abolish the appropriations committee? It's not the committee that's the problem, its the rules under which it functions.
• Even worse than clock watching is "sprint rounds". "How and when do you withdraw troops from Iraq, in 30 seconds?" That was just awful.

Rochester News 10 has a story on the "negative ads" in the campaign.

Rochesterturning has a short video of Eric Massa commenting on Friday's debate.

Sean Carroll has posted the answers to six user questions he didn't get to ask at Friday's debate on the 13-WHAM blog.

Tonight's Massa/Kuhl debate will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on WENY and the Star-Gazette website.

Reader Elmer sends a Corning Leader story [pdf] about rematches in Congressional districts. Kuhl and Massa are one of many.