The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Rochesterturning has video of Eric Massa's address to supporters at a reception last night in Washington, DC.

According to CongressDaily (subscription required), Eric Massa has been assigned to the Armed Services committee. Other assignments are still up in the air.

Reader Elmer sends today's Corning Leader story [pdf] on Massa's trip to DC, which includes a picture of Massa with the GM fuel cell vehicle.

Eric Massa will be sworn in today at noon on the floor of the House. Seating is limited for that ceremony, and only his wife and parents will attend in person. A live feed will be available in Massa's House office (1208 in the Longworth building), and it will be broadcast live on C-SPAN.

Michael Parks sends this photo of Eric Massa and Monica Murphy from GM filling up the fuel cell vehicle he drove to DC. According to this WETM story, the fuel cell portion of the car is about the size of a microwave oven. WXXI has an 15 minute interview with Massa, and their story reports that the prototype is worth $1.3 million. Massa is just paying mileage. Syracuse News 10 has some video of Massa's departure from Corning.

The Star-Gazette has a story about and picture of the fuel-cell car Eric Massa drove to DC today.

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)