The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Reader Elmer sent in a link to a Corning Leader interview with Eric Massa. It's lengthy and wide-ranging.

Massa says that committee assignments are open, and that he'd only consider the Armed Services committee as leverage to get his number one choice, Agriculture. Massa also pledged to hold weekly teleconferences, "real town-hall meetings", host a radio show and discuss his votes in advance.

Randy Kuhl is mentioned in a Congressional Quarterly inside baseball analysis of the Democrats' effort to limit the motion to recommit. The motion to recommit has been used by the minority to kill bills, and Democrats want to make it tougher for that to happen. Randy's efforts to help kill the AmeriCorps volunteer program are mentioned as an example of the use of that motion.

Update: Elmer sent the Leader front page [pdf] to give an idea of the kind of play this interview got. It's huge.

Syracuse News 10 has an interview with Eric Massa. Massa stresses the importance of the stimulus package, and thinks that Obama has done almost everything right so far.

Eric Massa's office has released his final itinerary for his trip to Washington, DC for his swearing-in. Massa will drive to DC in a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle. Some parts of that vehicle were manufactured by a GM facility in Honeoye Falls.

Here's the full itinerary:

Reader Elmer sends today's front-page article [pdf] (and jump [pdf]) looking back at the 29th race.

The article pins Massa's victory on a combination of hard campaigning and Kuhl mis-steps, and it's worth a read.

Today's D&C has a roundup of area politicians talking about next year's projects and legislation.

Eric Massa mentions a few projects he'd like to see, including an east-side water project in Rochester, high-speed rail, more broadband, and a better Irondequoit Bay bridge.

With the incoming Obama administration promising a $650-850 billion infrastructure package, Massa will be in the position of doling out billions of dollars of government money in the next couple of years. Forget about a few million dollars in earmarks -- federal infrastructure spending in the next couple of years is going to dwarf anything seen since the Great Depression.

Election Data Services, a non-partisan consulting firm, has released a new study projecting the loss of a single House seat by New York in 2012. As this analysis shows, last year's EDS report predicted a sure loss of two seats by New York.

The anticipated number of seats lost has a huge impact on the future of the 29th district, and Eric Massa. Since Western New York has lost population while downstate has gained, it's almost certain that redistricting will lead to fewer, and geographically larger, districts in this area. In the 2002 redistricting, three "Republican seats" were created: NY-29, 25 and 26. Today, two of those seats are held by Democrats. With Democrats in charge of the Legislature, it's hard to imagine a plan that leaves any Western New York seats to Republicans.

(via Philip at The Albany Project)

Here's a list of Freshman committee preferences. According to the list, Massa "is interested in the Armed Services Committee, given his experience as a former staffer on the committee. Massa would also like a seat on the Agriculture Committee."

I've seen interest from Massa in the Transportation and Agriculture Committees, but this is the first I've heard about Armed Services, though it makes a lot of sense, given Massa's background. Veterans' Affairs is another possibility.

(Via Rochesterturning)

Eric Massa has an op-ed in today's Star-Gazette.

Massa is quoted in a Corning Leader story about the shortage of large-animal veterinarians. Apparently, nobody wants to go into a job that requires a better GPA and test scores than being a physician, yet barely pays enough to make ends meet.

Eric Massa wants to replace cigarette revenue lost by the Seneca tribe, and also get a road built across their territory, according to Rick Miller's story in the Olean Times-Herald.

Randy Kuhl's DC office was evacuated today because of a steam valve leak. This cries out for some kind of hot air joke, but since it is the season of giving, two days until the festival of lights, and a week until we all light the kinara, I will refrain.