The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] about Amo Houghton endorsing Tom Reed.

This is expected and unsurprising, though perhaps a little early. I wonder if there's an insurgent candidate in the wings who might be emboldened by the example of Doug Hoffman in NY-23.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader stories [pdf] about the race in NY-23. Dede Scozzafava's drop-out and some GOTV by Vermont Democrats are detailed.

In other NY-23 news, the Watertown Daily Times' endorsement of Bill Owens says that Dede Scozzafava has "quietly and thoughtfully" been encouraging supporters to vote for Owens. [via Talking Points Memo] When the mess in NY-23 is over, I'll have more to say about how that race might impact the 29th.

Elmer also sent some photos from today's Corning Leader [pdf] from the Hammondsport Seaplane Homecoming. One photo includes Massa and some naval officers.

The Messenger-Post has a story about the cost and politics of war and the need for emergency aid for dairy farmers.

The war story includes interviews with FLCC students, and has pictures of a family who recently lost a son and brother in Iraq.

Tom Reed sent the Deputy Mayor to an event and The Corning Leader didn't like it.

The Messenger-Post reports that Eric Massa wants to extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

WETM reports that Massa expects a healthcare reform bill vote by Thanksgiving, and that he's still not happy with the current bill's lack of a robust public option. He'd still vote "no" on the current plan.

The New York Times has a Northeast Congressional race review that spends a couple of paragraphs on the great efforts made by the NRCC in the 29th:

The early Republican effort in the Southern Tier, which encompasses more than a dozen counties along New York’s border with Pennsylvania, offers a preview of what party leaders say is likely to occur next fall. For months, Republican Party operatives have kept a close eye on Mr. Massa, the district’s freshman congressman, as he attempts to balance the conservative leanings of his district with the demands of his party’s liberal base.

In August, while attending a liberal bloggers’ convention, Mr. Massa was caught on tape saying, in regard to his support of a government-run insurance plan, “I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to help.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee immediately created a video called “Democrats Think You’re Stupid” highlighting the comments, and distributed it to news organizations. Party operatives say it will almost certainly be fodder for campaign commercials next year

Mr. Massa, whose office has dismissed the attacks as partisan games, is leaving nothing to chance, aware that House members are most at risk of defeat when seeking their second term. In addition to raising more than $800,000 in the past year, he has maintained a furious pace of public appearances in the district, holding 64 town-hall-style meetings since the beginning of 2008.

[emphasis mine]

The 29th portion of the story was obviously dictated by the NRCC and dutifully transcribed by the Times. There's not a single word in the story about Tom Reed, which says a lot about the NRCC's attitude towards the 29th.

It looks like the NRCC is trying to distance themselves from Reed, since a number of other challengers were mentioned in the story. Even the weak and disorganized GOP leadership knows that quality, well-financed challengers win races, not silly "gotcha" press releases. If the NRCC thought Reed was worth bragging about, they would have played him up. Instead, they talked about an two-month-old, long-forgotten YouTube video.

I think the Reed campaign should be a little concerned, because the NRCC just sent them a message, carried by a gray lady.

Here are a couple of interesting items I missed this week:

• The Messenger-Post has video and a story about a pro-health care rally in Canandaigua. There are some nice Halloween costumes in the mix.
• As usual, Philip at Stop the Cap had a good piece on the Wall Street Journal story mentioned in the previous post. Phil was quoted in that story, and he found three other errors in the piece, in addition to the misnaming of Eric Massa.

Keep reading -- who knows what I'll miss next week!

Reader David sends this item from the Wall Street Journal. The topic is tiered Internet plans, and it includes this quote:

When Time Warner announced last March it would expand its metered-pricing approach to other cities, including Austin and Rochester, protests erupted. Rep. Joe Messa of Rochester introduced a bill in Congress banning tiered Internet pricing plans, arguing the plan would put his city at a disadvantage for corporate investment.

Of course, "Joe Messa" is "Eric Massa".

Aside from that howler, the rest of the report is a big wet sloppy kiss to Internet service providers. It says that the FCC's enforcement of net neutrality will push the ISPs to institute tiered pricing (i.e., usage caps and overage charges). It fails to mention that by far the most profitable service Time-Warner provides is Internet service, that ISPs have little competition and engage in monopolistic price fixing, and that the costs of equipment and bandwidth have been falling every year.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] (and jump [pdf]) detailing the two candidate's position on the $250 bonus for seniors. Both are for it, they just don't agree on how to fund it.

The Star-Gazette compares Massa and Reed's positions on the stimulus.

If you're interested in more information about Massa's position on wind power, the top of the Cohocton Wind Watch has an embedded video and a link to Massa's letter to President Obama on the topic. In a nutshell, Massa's beef is that a foreign company got $77 million of stimulus money to build windmills in the area, where there's not enough wind at the right time to make those windmills effective.

There was some kind of train wreck at a Cohocton town board meeting, where Eric Massa's letter in opposition to wind development in the area hit the fan.

In other energy news, Massa is going to anchor "Hydrogen Power Hour" tonight at 9 on C-SPAN.

Rochesterturning has link to Massa's appearance on the Bill Press radio show. The podcast is currently on Press's front page.