The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Star-Gazette columnist Jeff Aaron writes today about Republican governors like Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford who want to return some of their states' stimulus appropriations. Aaron says that New York's delegation should make sure that we get some of the funds those states turn back. Eric Massa and his staff are quoted a fair amount in the piece.

Evan Dawson at 13-WHAM quotes Eric Massa in a story about Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's change of position on release of weapons trace information. Unlike Gillibrand, Massa's position hasn't changed.

Gillibrand has been labeled a "flip flopper" for her choice to vote against the Tiahrt Amendment in the Senate, even though she recently co-sponsored a bill in the House to make it permanent. That amendment tightly limits the release of data from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) firearms database.

This is a classic urban/rural issue. A coalition of urban mayors, which includes the mayors of New York City, Rochester, Albany, Buffalo and Syracuse, want that amendment repealed. Michael Bloomberg, for example, believes that the law "obstructs" law-enforcement. The NRA view is that even the current restrictions lead to "too many disclosures of sensitive information."

When Gillibrand represented NY-20, her support of this amendment was consistent with the desires of her rural/suburban constituency (as is Massa's). Now that she represents the whole state, a majority of her constituents probably want the amendment repealed.

This seems fairly basic and undramatic to me, and if guns weren't such a hot-button issue, Gillibrand's decision would have escaped notice.

The D&C reports that plans for high-speed rail between Buffalo and Albany are moving forward. Eric Massa is one member of the upstate delegation who will meet with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday to ask for a slice of the $8 billion of stimulus targeted at rail development.

If that $8 billion number sounds familiar, that's because it's a widely-used talking point. In Governor Jindal's appearance Tuesday night, he called out one possible use of funds, a maglev train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, as a train from "Las Vegas to Disneyland".

I'm trying to think of some clever way to refer to our new train. Unfortunately, having one big casino nearby doesn't make Buffalo our version of Vegas, and even though there's plenty of Mickey Mouse in Albany, it's no Disneyland.

The Corning Leader reports that an earmark obtained by Randy Kuhl has expired and will have to be re-appropriated.

The Star-Gazette has a few more details about Massa's in-district recovery czar. I agree with Dragonflyeye that keeping a database of what's spent would be a good job for Mr. Heenan.

Stu Rothenberg at the Rothenberg Political Report has a couple of posts for those of us who can't wait for the next election. First, he's got the 29th ranked as "Democrat Favored", the safest rating for a competitive race. However, he says that Massa could be vulnerable if Republicans come up with a "strong challenger".

I received this mailer [pdf] in yesterday's mail. It was created by a consortium of unions and drug companies, and it congratulates Eric Massa for voting for S-CHIP expansion.

The Hill points out that the Chamber of Commerce is congratulating Massa for his vote on the stimulus package.

Seeing the Chamber of Commerce and drug companies spending money to congratulate Massa has me waiting for frogs to fall out of the sky, peering at the horizon in search of horsemen.

The Corning Leader covers Massa's Tuesday press conference, which included a discussion of an earmark for the Corning transportation center.

The Star-Gazette has Massa's reaction to last night's speech. Spoiler alert: he liked it.

The Hornell Evening Tribune has an update on wind power in the Cohocton area, along with some commentary from Eric Massa. Massa's also mentioned in a Messenger-Post editorial about struggling dairy farmers.

The Democrat and Chronicle and Star-Gazette have a Gannett News Service story about local Representatives' expectations for President Obama's speech tonight. According to the D&C headline, they want optimism and truth. Reading today's financial headlines, those seem mutually exclusive.

The Corning Leader reports on some more New York State Senate member items that have been taken away. This is related to an earlier post about the loss of those items in Penn Yan.