The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

This morning's Leader story said that there will be 4 in-studio debates, and two question-and-answer sessions. According to Meghan Tisinger in Kuhl's office, this is the current list of events:

1. Friday, October 3
   Penfield Business Association
   Meet the Candidates Event
   Penfield
2. Friday, October 10
   WHAM Debate
   Sean Carroll, Moderator
   Rochester
3. Monday, October 13
   WENY - Star-Gazette Debate
   Scott Cook, Moderator
   Horseheads
4. Sunday, October 26
   Chemung County Council of Women
   Ladies' Tea
   Elmira
5. Tuesday, October 28
   R News Debate
   Rochester
6. Bill Nojay - WYSL
   Two possible dates - October 16 (taped in the AM)
   or October 17 (taped in AM or live at 3 PM)

Today's Corning Leader editorial [pdf], courtesy of reader Elmer, expresses the Leader's dissatisfaction with Kuhl's rejection of the WETM/Leader debate invitation.

Citing the 2006 debate where Kuhl's response on Katrina received some laughs from the audience, the Leader notes:

The question that has to be asked is, if Kuhl is shaken by a few laughing audience members, how would he react in a true crisis?

It also appears as if Kuhl is afraid to face questions he hasn't prepared for ahead of time.

Today's Corning Leader announces the cancellation of the WETM/Leader debate under the headline "No public debates on Kuhl’s schedule: Nixes Leader event, cites ticket issues".

By the Leader's count, there will be four in-studio TV debates, and two question-and-answer sessions. That's an update from the last data point of two in-studio debates (WHAM and RNews) and one Q&A (Chemung County League of Women Voters).

WENY quotes Kuhl saying "Congress needs to act fast" on the Wall Street bailout.

Randy Kuhl has written a letter to Eric Massa asking him to join in condemning damage to Kuhl's signs.

Update: Massa's response is after the break.

Eric Massa had a well-attended and lengthy press conference this morning. Highlights below:

Rocblogger at Rochesterturning made an interesting find at the Town of Henrietta website. Randy Kuhl met with Henrietta Town Supervisor Michael Yudelson sometime recently. The town had an item on their website, which is now gone, but I was able to resurrect it from Google's cache:

Congressman Kuhl Visits With Supervisor Yudelson

Congressman Randy Kuhl met with Supervisor Michael Yudelson last week to discuss issues that affect residents of Congressman Kuhl's district, which includes Henrietta.

Kuhl has gone from town meetings open to all, to by-appointment meetings, to meeting with town officials.

Time's Jay Newton-Small has been studying the Pension Protection Act of 2006. That bill made automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans the default for employers. Randy Kuhl's role in the bill isn't the stuff of political dreams. He wanted to allow risky hedge fund investments in pension funds:

But that bill opened up pension funds to huge new risks. The legislation relaxed regulations to make it easier for hedge funds and financial institutions to hold large stakes in the pension funds without the fiduciary duties that usually come with investing in people’s retirement. This was a controversial provision that even the White House and Senate Republicans were leery of – Dems mostly opposed it – but House Republicans were adamant in seeing it included in the bill. In fact the original language of these provisions – introduced as an amendment in committee by Republican Representatives John “Randy” Kuhl of New York and Rob Andrews of New Jersey – called for even greater changes to the system: allowing hedge funds and financial institutions to hold up to 50% stakes in pensions funds.

Sean Carroll at 13-WHAM has announced that WHAM will be taping a debate between Randy Kuhl and Eric Massa on October 10. The debate may be streamed live over the Internet, excerpts of the debate will appear on newscasts, and it will be available for viewing in its entirety on the 13-WHAM website.

October 10 was the date for the now-canceled WETM/Leader debate.

Carroll believes that this is the only "confirmed" debate between the two candidates. As of last week, the candidates were to appear at a forum in Chemung County on October 26, and at an in-studio debate at R-News on October 28. We'll see if those dates hold.

As far as I know, today's only Kuhl statement on the bailout was made to WENY:

“We've got to be protective of the taxpayer. It will not get my support if it's just a bailout,” said Republican congressman Randy Kuhl.

WETM is reporting that the Kuhl campaign has declined its invitation to debate Eric Massa next month. Negotiations broke down because the Kuhl campaign wanted the debate to take place with no audience, or a limited audience.