The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

Late last night, the House passed another war funding measure with strings attached.  The current set of strings is a withdrawal by next Christmas, and no torture.   The vote was almost identical to the last round of war funding bills.  Two more Republicans voted for funding.  Randy Kuhl, almost all the Republicans, and a small group of liberal and conservative Democrats voted against.   The measure will be vetoed, apparently after a filibuster in the Senate.

Exile at Rochesterturning also found an item in Politico that details the Democrats new strategy on S-CHIP.  The latest threat is to extend the current program until a month before the 2008 elections, and then force a showdown vote. 

The Democrats are clearly betting that the general public will view the Republicans as obstructionists who block legislation that everyone wants.   That strategy may work, but I also think the Democrats run the risk of appearing as obstinate and stubborn as Bush, with the added bonus of the reek of impotence.   The current leadership doesn't seem to be searching very hard for fault lines in the Republican minority, especially on S-CHIP.   And the notion that they are failing to do so because they are standing on principle isn't supported by facts.  When you rush a vote to  confirm an Attorney General who can't say that waterboarding is torture, and when you're on the verge of giving telecoms immunity from illegal, widespread wiretapping, then your grasp of principle is a little weak.

Today's Massa press conference started with the vets, worked its way through tax cuts, and ended with transparency. More after the break.

Massa began with a discussion of vets and their access to health care. Noting that Randy Kuhl had recently discussed veterans' benefits (and been quoted in the news), he said:

Every veteran I've spoken to is angered and frustrated by professional politicians [...] five years after starting this war, veterans are not getting the benefits promised to them. As a veteran, this is no surprise. Nothing is good enough for our veterans, and that's exactly what Randy Kuhl and George Bush are giving us. They brag about the increase in benefits, but it took a new party and new leadership to make it happen this year.

Massa used the example of a recent amendment to HR 3687, the Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, which he said would have hurt the ability of vets to start a new business. Massa noted that Kuhl had voted for the amendment, which was opposed by the American Legion. (Here are the relevant congressional record pages and vote.)

"The VFW and DAV gave Randy Kuhl a rating of somewhere in the vicinity of 7%," he said, and added that Kuhl just "hopes no one is watching"

Massa moved on to the alternative minimum tax, Massa noted that the recently-passed reduction to the AMT will affect 50,000 people in the 29th district, and it would have "closed a lot of the millionaire loopholes."

I asked Massa if he thought that Kuhl's charge that the bill would damage entrepreneurs was correct. He said that, for the 29th district, the 50,000 family members whose taxes would have been reduced would have seen significant increases in net family income.

The problem is multinational corporations, which donate millions to campaigns of people like Randy Kuhl, that didn't want the loopholes closed. We saw it with S-CHIP, where Randy Kuhl said he wouldn't support a [tax on tobacco]. 75% of his money came from corporate PACS last quarter.

Massa added, "How could anyone not want to give tax relief on AMT? It's a no-brainer, but they bring up these scarecrows."

I then asked Massa his take on Governor Spitzer's reversal on his drivers' license plan: "It's a shame that governors all over the country have to do the job that the Commander-in-Chief was hired to do."

It's a shame that George Bush has failed to secure our borders. It illustrates a fundamental reality that Washington is broken. They don't care about illegal immigration. People like Randy Kuhl want immigrants in the country [...] to work for sub-minimum wages. It has been five years since 9/11. This administration and its rubberstamps in Congress have failed to secure our borders.

I also asked Massa if he would follow the lead of Kirsten Gillibrand and publish his schedule on his website, and establish a grants central if he was elected.

I have great admiration for Kirsten Gillibrand. I especially like her idea that once a month her entire DC staff comes to the district and sets up tents, [calling it] "Washington on the Corner". [...] I would like to see Randy Kuhl publish his schedule. [...] When I'm in Congress, I'm going to see how open my schedule can be.

Massa said that he likes the idea of posting grants, and he wants to reach out to "find critical sources of funding that do not add to the deficit and increase quality of life in the district." However, he noted that pork-barrel spending must be brought under control, saying that Randy Kuhl is "more than happy to charge millions of dollars to our children, yet he won't raise the price of tobacco 25 cents and change."

I was the only person who asked questions on the call, but there were others on the call who did not identify themselves.

Governor Spitzer will be meeting with the New York Congressional Delegation today.  According to the Star-Gazette and every other paper and blog around, he will also announce that he's dropping the plan to license illegal immigrants.

The Elmira Star-Gazette has a new list of Randy Kuhl's town meetings.  Kuhl will hold meetings next Monday and Tuesday.  His official site also has the list by county.

The New York Times has a story about the House's efforts to condemn or stop Governor Spitzer's drivers license changes.  Kuhl is co-sponsoring the legislation with Tom Latham (R-IA-4) to condemn the practice of issuing licenses to illegal immigrants.  Peter King, a Republican from Long Island, is submitting a bill to outlaw the practice.

Kuhl's vote to override the water bill veto made the Elmira Star-Gazette.  And his St Bonaventure earmarks are appreciated by St Bonaventure.

Exile at Rochesterturning, who endures the D&C blogs, found a nugget there:  Randy Kuhl has written a letter to his colleagues urging them to condemn states that issue drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants.  His colleague, Tom Latham (R-IA-4), plans to introduce a bill to that effect next week.

Rep. Kuhl's Elmira College earmark in the House Labor and HHS bill got more play in the Elmira-Star Gazette today. That earmark, which the S-G says was $200K, but an independent watchdog says was $100K, was part of a bill that passed in July without Randy Kuhl's vote.  The conference report of the same bill, which is 853 pages of unsearchable text, passed yesterday with Kuhl's vote.  Since Eric Massa has been making much of Kuhl's habit of voting against bills that contain his earmarks, Kuhl can now claim that he did actually vote for the bill in its final form.

Today's Massa Press Conference focused on elections, torture, impeachment and some bill or other about children's health care. Read on for more details.

The call kicked off with my question on his overall take on yesterday's elections. Massa was discouraged by the election process:

Negativism and money continue to be the deciding factors in elections at the local, county, state and national level. [...] Witness the mailers that went out with a picture of terrorists on a drivers' license. The only way to fight this is with honesty and integrity. It has reinforced my resolve.

Though he didn't like the process, he said he thought the Democratic party "lost no ground" in the district. He also said that "these elections got people organized, involved and excited in a way that no other midterm has done."

Turning from the recent elections, I asked him about some national issues. First, I wondered if he agreed with Sen. Chuck Schumer's vote yesterday on the Mukasey nomination.

I do not agree with that vote, and if I had been asked in any capacity to vote I would not have voted for Mukasey as Attorney General. If you are a nominee for Attorney General, and you cannot answer a question about waterboarding, then you are either being dishonest or you are not qualified.

I also asked Massa how he would have voted on the Articles of Impeachment against Vice-President Cheney. Noting that the debate would have consumed several days of floor time, he said:

I would not have supported it. We have an awful lot of people's business to get done. I want to vote on getting the children's halth insurance program passed. [...] We need to pick our issues, and that is at the top of the list, right up there with ending the war in Iraq and creating jobs in the US. There are four free trade bills coming up. Randy Kuhl is going to vote yes on every one of them. He's going to send more jobs overseas at the same time that people who don't have jobs are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.

Massa also said he was concerned about some other recent House votes:

Yesterday, Randy Kuhl voted to override a veto on the water projects bill, which cost $7 billion. He has no problem voting for pork embedded in a water projects bill, but he would never stand up to vote for children with the same federal money. That water bill is being funded by deficit spending [financed by] the Chinese government. The S-CHIP bill does not add to the deficit.

Massa also noted that the Defense Authorization bill spends $459 billion in one year, not including funding for the Iraq war. S-CHIP is less than about $40 billion for its entire projected life. "Yet, Randy Kuhl refuses to vote for it, and instead throws up smoke screens about why not."

I asked Massa whether he thought that a compromise on S-CHIP would occur, as Kuhl has indicated in recent media reports.

The compromise [he] wants is no taxes on cigarettes. [...] Why? Because he's taken tens of thousands of dollars from the tobacco industry. He wants to irresponsibly take money from China to finance the deficit, but will not responsibly pay for S-CHIP.

Massa noted that the "smokescreens about adults, the earned income cap" and immigration are all false. For immigration specifically, he says that the bill clearly spells out the verifications that need to be met.

I asked Massa if he would co-sponsor the bill to move the regulation of cigarettes to the Food and Drug Administration. He would, because "cigarettes are a form of ingestion of nicotine, which is a narcotic, and should be controlled." He noted that, as a cancer survivor, he felt pretty strongly about regulating cigarettes.

Massa concluded by pointing out that there are 363 days until the next election. "It's going to be an exciting year with a great deal of momentum. The team on the ground is chomping at the bit."

I was the only person on the call, other than Massa.

This morning's coverage indicates that there were modest Democratic gains in the Northern 29th.   Democrats picked up two Monroe County Legislature seats, but Republicans still control the Legislature.   According to the Democrat and Chronicle, voter turnout was the lowest since 1964.  I assume much of the reason for low turnout was lack of a race at the head of the ticket.  "Woulda, coulda, shoulda" is a meaningless game, but here are two facts:  the self-described "placeholder" Working Families Party candidate polled 25% of the vote, and 25,000 people chose not to vote at all for County Executive.  If the Democrats had fielded a candidate, it would have been a real contest.

In the South, reader Watching in Woodhull notes that Democrat Frank Coccho lost his bid for re-election as Mayor of Corning.

Update:  Reader Elmer sends the front page [pdf] of today's Corning Leader, which carries Coccho's loss as well as the news that his loss shifts control of the Corning city council to the Republicans.

Today is election day, and I would be remiss if I didn't invite all registered voters to head to the polls and pull the lever.  As you pull that lever, remember to send a silent prayer to whatever deity you worship, thanking him/her/them for letting you vote using 50-year-old reliable analog technology.

In other news, I did receive a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) call last night.  Judging from the caller-id, it was part of a Democracy for America (DFA) effort, not the Monroe County Democrats.  As I posted earlier, I also received two pieces of campaign literature from Democrats in my town, and I've also observed a fair number of yard signs as well as human sign wavers at busy intersections.  That's a decent GOTV effort for an off-year election.

Today's Buffalo News has two editorial items that are directly or peripherally related to S-CHIP.  The first is an editorial column about the President's decision to veto the bill.

The second item is an op-ed by an American Lung Association official, and though it's not specifically about S-CHIP, it's interesting in light of the charge that Kuhl opposes S-CHIP because of donations from the tobacco lobby.  The op-ed challenges Kuhl to support HR 1108, which would put the Food and Drug Administration in charge of regulating the sale of cigarettes.  The bill is co-sponsored by 204 House members, including 24 from New York.

The Democrat and Chronicle Political Blog posted yet another Americans United anti-Kuhl S-CHIP ad.  The theme of the ad is "What if it was your child, Congressman Kuhl?" Video after the break: