The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Reader Elmer sends today's front-page story from the Corning Leader [pdf] (and jump [pdf]). Randy Kuhl is quoted endorsing President Bush's decision to remove limits on offshore drilling. Kuhl wants Congress to remove those limits, too.

In other Kuhl-related news, the protesters who picketed his office last summer had their appeal postponed at the request of the prosecutor.

As news slowly leaks from billionaire Tom Golisano's Responsible New York political committee, it appears likely that David Nachbar will be one of the candidates receiving Golisano's help. Nachbar is challenging Republican incumbent Jim Alesi in State Senate District 55, which overlaps part of the Northern 29th district.

Golisano will probably also endorse other area Democratic challengers, including Rick Dollinger in SD-56.

Well-funded challengers in lower-tier races means more interest. This is probably good for Eric Massa, if you believe the conventional wisdom that more turnout means more Democrats at the polls.

The Messenger-Post has a detailed piece on Randy Kuhl's claim that legislation can lower gas prices to $1.98/gallon. Reporter Julie Sherwood interviews three experts who disagree with Kuhl.

Liz Benjamin reports that Republicans are trying to tie Charlie Rangel [NY-15] to Eric Massa and other candidates for whom he's raised funds. Rangel has some rent-controlled apartments in New York for which he's paying less than the going market rate. You can read Rangel's defense here. I'm not an expert in rent control, but I thought that the whole point of the law was to allow people to keep renting at below-market rates.

Rochesterturning has a post about Massa's quick response when it appeared that some campaign donations were accidentally channeled to his campaign.

The DCCC will spend nothing on television advertising in Western New York, according to a document obtained by Talking Points Memo. The DCCC is planning a $34 million ad buy, but the only New York race which will see a DCCC expenditure is NY-13, currently held by retiring Vito Fossella.

Today's Democrat and Chronicle has a analysis piece about Randy Kuhl's energy bill. It contrasts the Republicans' plan to blame Congress for high energy costs with some polling data. Polls show that Americans blame oil companies, President Bush, foreign oil producing nations and Congress, in that order.

The Kuhl Campaign announced that their petition filing includes over 11,000 signatures, which shows the strength of Republican organization, especially in the Southern Tier (that's an assumption). This is roughly 3,000 more than the Massa campaign reported Wednesday.

WETM has a story on petition filing in the Elmira area. Along with mentioning Massa and Kuhl's petitions, WETM reports that only Republican State Senator George Winner will have a challenger. Republican Assemblymen Bacalles and O'Meara will run unopposed this year.

After the break, I've embedded Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig's take on the popularity of Congress, which, as was discussed earlier, is in single digits. For Lessig, it's all about the money.

The Buffalo News reports that Senator Chuck Schumer is the last-chance Texaco for full funding of the West Valley Demonstration Project cleanup. West Valley is an abandoned, contaminated nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in Cattaraugus County. The House Appropriations Committee has allocated $23 million less than the amount requested by Randy Kuhl.

The Massa campaign says that they've filed petitions containing 7,209 signatures, up over 1,000 from 2006. As reported here earlier, Yates County contributed over 1,000 of those signatures. A little over 3,000 people voted for Massa in Yates County in 2006, so it's fair to say the Yates County Democrats are energized.

Today's Massa press conference covered veterans' issues and, of course, energy.

The Progressive Democrats of Genesee Valley have a new blog with a post about Randy Kuhl's Veterans' Mental Health Caucus. They note that Kuhl has the worst rating (D) of the New York delegation, according to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans' Association.

Randy Kuhl's Veterans' Mental Health Caucus rates a skeptical editorial from the Messenger-Post, hometown paper for the Canandaigua VA center specializing in psychiatric care. Nut graphs:

An honest discussion of troops’ mental health begins with the decision to engage in two long-term occupations halfway around the globe with an all-volunteer military and continues with the wait and red tape to get services once they return. We hope this is not a broader task than the members of Kuhl’s House caucus had bargained for.

Awareness is fine, but conviction and action would be more appropriate here.

Reader Elmer sends a link to a Rasmussen poll showing that the approval rating of Congress is now in single digits.

Any Republican reading that poll should be worried, because Democrats have not been in control for very long. Though Republicans are definitely spinning each and every problem as the fault of the newly-elected Democrats, most of what we're reaping today was sown before Democrats took over last year. That said, any Democratic challenger reading the poll should conclude that running against the system, which includes opposing some current Democratic positions in Congress, is a smart move.

Update: I missed this earlier, but despite the 9% overall Congressional approval rating, Democrats still have a 12% lead in Rasmussen's generic Congressional ballot question.