The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Tom Reed's FEC report is out. It shows that Reed raised $136K and has $117K cash on hand. Reed contributed $13K to his own cause.

Reed's financial report is remarkable because it's almost entirely contributions from individuals and political committees in the area. There are no national party contributions, so Reed could still go to that well in the future.

This is a decent first effort by Reed, and it shows that he should be able to finance a credible challenge to Massa in 2010.

Eric Massa's money report is in. He raised $289K this quarter, bringing his cash on hand to a little over $500K. $179K of Massa's total came from individuals, and $110K came from PACs.

Reed's numbers haven't hit the FEC website yet, but his campaign claimed $130K, less than half of what Massa raised this quarter.

The Reed campaign announced that they've raised $130K so far, and have more than $120K on hand.

FEC quarterly reports won't be out for another week, so we'll see about the details then.

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.

Eric Massa's FEC report for the second quarter shows that he raised $282K, which leaves him with $336K cash on hand. About $130K of his total came from individuals, and about $150K came from corporate, union and party PACs.

Reader Stan wrote to say that Eric Massa's Q1 FEC filing is in. Massa raised a respectable $213K this quarter, which puts him on track to have a solid warchest for 2010.

A little over one-third of Massa's funding came from individuals. The rest came from labor and corporate PACs. Notable corporate donations include one from Corning, Inc., as well as some defense contractors. Massa's position on the House Armed Services Committee will no doubt lead to more funding from that source.

Time-Warner donated another $128 to Massa in January - I assume that's the last he's going to see of their money.

Eric Massa's office has posted his earmark requests for the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.

In addition to his statement about Internet monopolies in this morning's press conference, Eric Massa has issued a press release saying that he "will be taking a leadership role in stopping this outrageous, job killing initiative."

One of Massa's first corporate donations was $1,000 from Time-Warner Cable. Apparently, TWC's donation had little impact on Massa's decision to fight their broadband cap, and that's worth noting.

Reader Stanley writes to point out that Eric Massa's October financial statement has a $2550 donation from Allen Stanford, the billionaire bank owner who is accused of running a Ponzi scheme.

Stanford's donation was channeled to the Massa campaign via Charlie Rangel [NY-12], who announced last week that he's donating $10,800 (the amount of Stanford's donations) to charity.

I have a request for comment in to the Massa press operation and will publish it when I get it. Here's the word from Massa's Communications Director, Jared Smith:

Last week, we received a notice from a court appointed authority informing us that the case against Mr. Stanford was developing. In that Rep. Massa did not want to return the contribution to someone that would likely not return it to his investors, and since we do not yet know the legality of giving it to charity or turning the money over to a court receiver, Rep. Massa sent the notification letter to the legal authorities at the Democratic National Committee to see what the legal options are. Because the books are long closed on the FEC's 2008 3rd quarter filing, Rep. Massa has been very careful to ensure that everything is done correctly. Rep. Massa will act upon the recommendation of the DNC authorities. He also mentioned that this is yet another reason why America needs Clean Money/Clean Elections reforms. In our current campaign finance system, this sort of thing can happen to anyone and then the campaign bears the burden of unraveling someone else's mess.

An anonymous commenter who read Eric Massa's most recent FEC filing noted that Massa has started accepting donations from corporate political action committees (PACs).

In the last filing, Massa accepted a total of $7,000 from local companies Genentech, Harris and Time-Warner. Massa's long-standing position in the past two campaigns was that he only accepted money from individuals and Union PACs.

Jared Smith, Communications Director for Massa, confirmed that this is a change in Massa's policy. Smith said that Massa had financed his last two campaigns from individual donations, and that he didn't believe it was fair in this economic climate to expect individuals to donate to his campaign.

Smith also said that Massa continues to support Clean Money/Clean Elections (CMCE), and will co-sponsor CMCE legislation. Massa has also delegated the decision of whether to accept or reject corporate donations to a kitchen cabinet of supporters who will vet each donor.