The people of the 29th Congressional District are without a representative, thanks to Eric Massa. Massa's resignation leaves the district without a vote, and while this happens on occasion in the House of Representatives, it's not an ideal situation.
In response, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made it known today that her office will be on hand to assist with any issues citizens of the 29th might be having.
From a press release:
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today assured families and businesses in New York's 29th District that while they wait for new representation in the House of Representatives, she will make it a top priority to make sure local communities in the district are getting their fair share of federal dollars, that all casework is being handled efficiently and effectively, and constituents receive all the help they need navigating federal bureaucracies.
"As I told Corning residents last week at Spencer's Restaurant, I will continue to fight tooth and nail to ensure the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes region receives its fair share from the federal resources and constituents get all the help they need," said Senator Gillibrand, who spent time meeting with local leaders, businesses and families in Corning, New York last week. "My number one priority is creating jobs and getting our economy back on track - that means securing the critical federal dollars for infrastructure, research, and job training programs. I will continue to work with local leaders and organizations throughout the 29th district to secure federal funding through grants, appropriations and the recovery act."
Voters in the 29th Congressional District will be able to select a new Representative if the Governor decides to call a special election in the next 45 days.
Senator Gillibrand's local staff is available to take questions and concerns from constituents in the area, and help them with issues they may be having with the federal government.
For those in the 29th, you can contact Gillibrand's Rochester office by calling (585) 263-6250 or at the following address:
Kenneth B. Keating Federal Office Building
100 State Street
Room 4195
Rochester, NY
Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) will resign Monday at 5pm, a source close to the embattled incumbent tells Hotline OnCall.
Massa has been pressured by House Dems to step aside amid an ethics controversy that caused him to announce earlier this week he would not run for a second term.
Earlier this week, the House ethics committee confirmed it was looking in to allegations against Massa. Those allegations reportedly include sexual harrassment of a member of the Congressman's staff.
Oy.
UPDATE: Massa just posted this statement to his House site:
Two days ago as I sat reading my new annual CAT scan, having been told that the anomalies in the films may or may not be scar tissue, I decided to finally take the advice that my doctors have repeatedly given me, and that is to take care of my family and myself before my profession. After I decided not to run again I was told, for the first time, that a member of my staff believed I had made statements that made him feel "uncomfortable." I was told that a report had been filed with the Congressional Ethics Committee. At no point prior to this had any member of the Ethics Committee communicated with me directly - if fact I first read it on the internet.
I own this reality. There is no doubt in my mind that I did in fact, use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that, after 24 years in the Navy, might make a Chief Petty Officer feel uncomfortable. In fact, there is no doubt that this Ethics issue is my fault and mine alone. But in the incredibly toxic atmosphere that is Washington D.C., with the destruction of our elected leaders having become a blood sport, especially in talk radio and on the internet, there is also no doubt that an Ethics investigation would tear my family and my staff apart. Some would say that this is what happens when you stand apart from political parties, which I have done. Others will say that this is what happens to a non politician when they go to Washington DC. I want to make something perfectly clear. My difficulties are of my own making. Period. I am also aware that blogs and radio will have a field day with this in today's destructive and unforgiving political environment. In that investigators would be free to ask anything about me going back to my birth, I simply cannot rise to that level of perfection. God knows that I am a deeply flawed and imperfect person.
During long car rides, in the early hours of the evening, late at night and always in private, I know that my own language failed to meet the standards that I set for all around me and myself. I fell short and I believe now, as I have always believed, that it is not enough to simply talk the talk, but rather I must take action to hold myself accountable.
Therefore, effective at 5 PM on Monday the 8th of March I will resign my position as the Federal Representative of New York's 29th Congressional District in the 111th Congress. I do so with a profound sense of failure and a deep apology to all those whom, for the past year, I tried to represent as our Nation struggles with problems far greater than anyone can possibly imagine. I hope that my family, constituents, and fellow Members of Congress can accept this apology as being both genuine and heartfelt and I wish for them and all Americans only the best. I will take all actions possible to ensure that my personal health is secured in that I know that mine is a far more fragile lifeline than most. For the millions of fellow cancer survivors with whom I share this experience, they, more than anyone else, will understand the honesty and openness in this statement.
I ask that members of the press respect the privacy of my family, my staff, and me at this time.
First I got an email about a "very important press call" this afternoon, and now this (via Liz)
Rep. Eric Massa is poised to announce this afternoon that he will not seek re-election in the 29th Congressional District this fall as planned, a Democratic source confirms.
The freshman congressman is going to make his announcement at 3 p.m., according to the source. It's unclear if that event is taking place in the district or in Wahsington, D.C. A call to Massa's spokesman has so far not been returned.
...
Massa is calling around the district to inform party leaders and supporters of his decision.
The source said he assumed that Massa's move is "health related," but said the congressman also gave him a rather nebulous warning that he would be "hearing things that aren't true."
Sources close to the congressman say there has been talk of an ethics investigation, but a staffer in Massa's district office contacted yesterday insisted he had no knowledge of that.
Wow. Hope he's OK.
UPDATE: Here's a statement from Congressman Massa himself:
This last December I underwent my third major cancer recurrence scare. I kept this private only to members of my immediate family. I did not tell my staff. It was a very intense and personal experience especially in light of having gone through this before. I am a direct, salty guy who runs at 100 mph and my doctors have now clearly told me that I can no longer do that. It is only fair and right that I announce that I will not run again in time for others to consider a run for this office. I will now enter a final phase of my life at a more controlled pace and remained fully committed to helping the families of the 29th District.
There are blogs that are saying that I am leaving because of charges of harassing my staff. Do I and have I used salty language? Yes, and I have tried to do better. But these blogs are a symptom of the problem in this city and I no longer have the life's energy to fight every battle. I make this decision based on being a cancer survivor who, following the advice of my doctors in Washington and in New York, cannot and will not prevent others from serving in the Congress that I hold in such great esteem.
FireDogLake is having a vote to determine which of their nominated representatives should get a spot on the FDL fundraising page to the tune of $10,000. One of those nominees is our own Eric Massa--the sole Democrat from a Republican district who pledged to only support a healthcare reform bill with a public option.
In support of one of our hardest fighting upstate Dems, I'm asking you to help me stuff the ballot box. Simply fill out the form, select "Massa, Eric (NY-29)" in each of the drop down boxes, and hit submit. Then you're done--and hopefully so is Massa's Republican challenger.
Silver is predicting that the Republicans chances of taking back the House next years are 50/50. Unfortunately, the winds are a-blowing in this country, and the pendulum is a-swingin. Republicans are gonna come out in droves this fall, and Democrats seem to have lost their motivation. We may not get as long on the top as the Republicans did and we need to hunker down now and play defense to keep our seats - and keep the State Senate.
I know we were hoping that the most important seats this year were 3 and 26. But they're not. We could run Jesus Christ himself and he'd probably lose them both. We have at least 7 seats at risk this year:
13: McCain 51-Obama 49 Bush 55-Kerry 45
19: Obama 51-McCain 48 Bush 54-Kerry 45
20: Obama 51-McCain 48 Bush 54-Kerry 46
23: Obama 52-McCain 47 Bush 51-Kerry 47
24: Obama 50-McCain 48 Bush 53-Kerry-47
25: Obama 56-McCain 43 Kerry 50-Bush 48
29: McCain 50-Obama 48 Bush 56-Kerry 42
Now normally, this early in the year, I'd think that the Democrats have a chance to adjust some public priorities, reset the agenda, and change the underlying dynamics of the year. However, our uninspiring Governor, inept Senate Majority Leader (he's gonna lose his own seat), and wildly unpopular Speaker of the House don't seem to be willing to try, so its up to us and our candidates.
If I were Weiner, McCarthy, Bishop, or Higgins, I'd be shoring up as much cash as possible. But the 7 I listed above need to be doing more than that: cash is king, but Get-Out-The-Vote will be what determines whether we finish the year with a 25 seat majority or a 11 seat majority.
I'm worried that no one is thinking about this, and terrified that no one is taking this seriously. If we bury our heads in the sand and try not to think about this, we're no better than that woman in Massachusetts. Two years ago this site was buzzing daily with how to pickup five seats, we won four. Today, we need to hunker down and set our sights on saving these seven seats, and hope we can save at least six. Unless you want to see the Republicans start to have their way again.
Career Naval Officer and member of the House Armed Services Committee Eric Massa on the President's plan to send 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. It's defintely worth your time.
Today is D-Day for health care reform and we've still got some waverers here in NY. We already know that Eric Massa is "no" no matter what. (And I'll have more on that later. Short version: Massa is full of sh*t and trying to have it both ways.)
But we need to smoke out the rest of them. The ad on the left side of this page makes calling these Reps easy. Just click it, fill in the info and click the "click to call" button and you'll be automatically connected to the Rep's office.
This is it, folks. It's now or never. Too many of these guys got their seats with netroots support. (Rep Massa, I'm looking at you.) It's time for them to put up or shut up.
The 23rd wasn't include for obvious reasons. That race can serve as its own post, since three candidates are vying for it and there is no incumbent.
One of the things that stuck out to me was the great quarter Eric Massa had. His district - NY-29 - is a rural district that isn't really a wealthy district. So when he can bring in over $289,000 in a quarter where most upstate representatives only brought in half of that amount, it shows that he is a strong incumbent. The Republicans are gunning for him, but he's tough.
Dan Maffei had a very strong quarter - the best of any upstate representative and fourth-best of any member of Congress in the state.
If there is one thing you can say about Rangel, he is a great fundraiser. He was second to Steve Israel in this quarter, but not by much. His expenditures were high, but he still has a lot of money in the bank (not that he needs to worry about that).
For the most part, these are solid and typical numbers. As a resident of NY-26, it is interesting to see Lee's numbers. I wouldn't read too much into his mediocre quarter, but the list of donors who have contributed to his campaign makes for a "Best of Wall Street"-type list.
Well, rest assured: apparently all the concern was unfounded. Massa announced this morning that he IS running for reelection.
For that, I and I'm sure plenty of other people are profoundly grateful. Massa is the closest thing I and the rest of rural western New York have to majority representation in Congress, and it would be nothing short of a tragedy to lose him.
We have seen bad journalism, which seems to be common from the Politico these days. But reporters like Bob Clark from the Hornell Evening Tribune give us hope that journalism isn't something that is, well, dead.
Clark authored an excellent piece on a day in the life of Congressman Eric Massa. It is a must-read and you get a real idea of what life as a congressman is like. It's not all about trips to the golf course, rubbing elbows with elitists and other common misconceptions of what members of Congress do.
In fact, members of Congress actually do work. And in Massa's case, there is a lot of work to be done.
It's usually around 5 a.m. when Eric Massa sits down at his desk.
Occasionally, that's after he rolls out of bed at a small, two-story rowhouse on Washington's E Street - a townhouse shared with five of his staff members.
"I won't pay anyone more than the median salary of a college graduate in the district," Massa said, which allows him to fund 22 staff members, compared with some congressional staffs of seven or eight at much higher pay rates.
The downside, Massa said, is that the deal forces concessions in living arrangements, namely sharing the rowhouse with five staffers.
From there it's a brisk walk a few blocks away to Longworth Office Building, the center of the three huge office buildings on the south side of Capitol Hill.
Some days, Massa said, he doesn't make it back to the apartment. After a late night of meetings or signing paperwork, Massa often just dozes on a well-appointed leather couch in his office until it's time to start the next day.
"'At 4:30 a.m., I'll head down to the gym, work out and shower, throw on a clean shirt and go again," Massa said as he walked at a brisk pace past security officers who obviously know him well.
That's right, folks. Your congressman in the 29th congressional district sleeps on a couch (sometimes). Talk about never leaving your job.
Here's more from the article:
Massa skips out of the hearing at around 11 a.m. to head back to the office, getting ready for a press conference call and to get some constituent services work done.
On his desk sit more than 300 letters to be signed by the end of the day, many involving the health care debate raging nationally.
"It was more at the height of the health care debate," Massa said, but added many letters to his office are on other topics. "It's predictable based on what's been talked about in the news cycle."
Staffers come and go constantly as Massa tries to sign papers and hold telephone conversations.
There are a lot of details in the article, which is a great account of what Massa's average day looks like. You will notice at the end of the piece that his particular day when this piece was written ended at 11 p.m. and that was early for him. I suspect that is early for most representatives.
Massa is a Navy man and I have a future brother-in-law in the Navy. They seem to be of the same make when you are in the Navy or used to be in the Navy. You work your tail off and not only do you work to get the job done, but you work to get a start on the next day's work.
Great profile of Massa. This is great work from what amounts to a smaller newspaper. If only some of these reporters could move up to, say, Politico.
I didn't think we would have to worry about Congressman Eric Massa running in 2010. But an e-mail blast he sent out today, which could be nothing more than the announcement of his re-election bid, raises some questions.
Here is the e-mail:
Friends,
As the leaves begin to turn all across Western New York and the conclusion of my first year in Congress draws near, I have never been more proud to serve as your Representative. Every day of my incumbency has brought about new challenges and new reasons to move forward, and I truly feel blessed to have the honor of fighting for you in the United States House of Representatives. This privilege has allowed me to hold 60 townhall meetings all over the 29th Congressional District and fight for the values that we care the most about.
The Founding Fathers designed the House of Representative as the People's House, and as such the citizens of this great Nation have the duty to elect their member of Congress every two years. While people sometimes get sick of campaigns, this cycle of frequent elections gives the people the best and most immediate tool possible to hold their member of Congress accountable and make their voices heard.
Accountability is a value that I hold near and dear, and it is with this spirit of service that I write you today.
On Saturday, 10/10 at 10:00 am, I will be making a formal announcement about the 2010 election. I would like to invite all of you, friends of old and new, to join me at Centerway Square in Corning NY on this morning. Below are the details of this event:
Rep. Eric Massa will make an announcement about the 2010 election
Saturday, October 10th
10:00 am
Centerway Square
Corning, NY 14830
It has been my honor and privilege to serve the families of this region and I hope to see you on Saturday in my hometown of Corning.
Also, don't forget to forward this email to your friends and family!
Thank you,
Eric Massa
To add to the speculation, Massa's office is being very coy. When I asked directly if Massa would run or not, I got a "we'll see."
At first, the e-mail itself didn't worry me. A few other friends were a little more worried than I, mainly because such "important political announcements" usually indicate that a candidate isn't running.
But then Massa's office left the door open and we have a lot of speculation.
This could amount to nothing more than Massa building up hype for 2010. I sense it could be that, but I'm not sure.
I am going to make something clear: I, along with many other Americans, are sick of these "concerned citizens" who stand up and ask questions that are meant to pose as legitimate questions but really are questions fed to them by Republicans, conservatives and the tea party organizers to shift the debate to their side instead of taking a serious look at health care reform.
So, here's the deal: You stand up and ask a question, I look into you. Period.
"On page 30 of that bill, you call it a committee, you call it a commission, you call it a death panel. Somebody is making a decision for my health, and I don't want that."
So who is Ms. Tillinghast?
She is a former Kodak executive who would not be impacted by the health care bill. After all, if she has private health insurance, she can keep that insurance. The goal isn't to target people like Ms. Tillinghast. The goal is to target people who don't have health insurance coverage.
Ms. Tillinghast also is a Republican donor, having given $1,450 to Republican candidates and committees in 2004 and 2006. She gave $200 to the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 2004, $250 to the RNC in 2006 and made two $500 contributions to the NRCC in 2006. Locally, she hasn't given much. She did make a $100 contribution to Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, a Republican.
It is one thing to be a real, concerned citizen who has serious questions about the bill. Those people do exist. It's another thing when your question is derived from a desire to derail reform for political gain.
There are a lot of myths about health care reform. Part of the problem is that Republicans have made it their goal to oppose President Barack Obama at all costs. They do not care about reform. And to be blunt, they do not care about bettering America.
Unless, of course, they are the ones in power to "better America."
It's the only explanation I can think of for how he manages to maintain such a ridiculous schedule of town hall meetings. He has another tonight, dedicated specifically to health care reform:
HEALTH CARE TOWN HALL LOCATION CHANGE: Wed., 8/26/09 Health Care Town Hall has been moved to the rain backup location due to weather forecast. New location for W: 8/26 is Victor High School Auditorium, 953 High St., Victor, NY 5:30-7:30PM. www.massa.house.gov
Then he's got a regular town hall scheduled tomorrow night in a place called Erin, NY, which as it turns out according to Wikipedia is a town of 2,000 people located something like 150 miles from Victor.
Speaking as somebody who got to see Massa talking about healthcare reform firsthand at Netroots Nation (which you'll find out more about later tonight) it's definitely worth seeing. I'd go to tonight's myself, except that it's a 90 minute drive and I have other responsibilities. Still, I figure that given this man's schedule, if I wait long enough he's going to end up doing a town hall in my living room.
One of the bad things about having a 26-3 delegation is that odd things like this come up:
We had as many Democrats from NY vote against the American Clean Energy bill today as Republicans.
Thanks go out to John McHugh for his intelligent vote against his party, one of only 8 Republican congressmen with the balls to do so.
Jeers to Eric Massa and Mike Arcuri. I want to hear why they voted no on the future of Earth. The bill was so good that it was not only backed by The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Society, etc., but also Dupont, GE, Ford, Shell, and Dow Chemical.
If the bill is good enough to be loved by hippies and big oil and chemical companies alike, why isn't it good enough for Arcuri and Massa? The final vote was only a 7 vote win - it should never have been that close
Call Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand. Lets make sure that this isn't close in the Senate.
I'd like to preface this with an anecdote. Earlier this year, I and a couple friends were on our way to Saratoga Springs to attend the New York State Democratic Rural Conference. It's a roughly five hour drive from Wyoming County to Saratoga Springs, so one of the ways we amused ourselves was keeping eyes open for other vehicles sporting Democratic stickers on the way. It was just after we'd passed Rochester that we noticed another vehicle in traffic near us, a little American-made sedan bearing a bumpersticker supporting now-Congressman Eric Massa. A short while later we happened to run across the same car at one of the Thruway's rest stops. As we went in to get coffee we ran into the car's occupant, who happened to be Congressman Eric Massa.
I say this mostly to give you the up close and personal view of how hard Eric Massa works, whether that's hauling across the state in his no-frills ride, holding town hall meetings every weekend all across his district, or his roughly three year personal campaign to win the district in the first place. He's helped lead the fight for single-payer healthcare and better support for veterans. The residents of the New York 29th are lucky to have him.
As some people reading this may be aware, Massa won last year by a razor-thin margin--just 2%, or 5,330 votes, against a Republican who was best known for having threatened to kill his wife with a shotgun during a dinner party.
No, that's not a joke.
Now, because of the narrow margin last year Massa is one of the Republicans' top targets for 2010. That's why the Congressman is looking to the same core group of rural Democrats and netroots activists that helped him to victory before. If Congressman Massa can put in a good fundraising quarter, it will help back down the Republicans who want to target him next year, and secure this seat for strong Democrat who's not afraid to call out the party of Bush and Limbaugh. Can you help him keep doing his work with a contribution of $10 or $20?
On Saturday, May 30th, Representatives John Conyers and Eric Massa will appear in Rochester with a panel of healthcare reform advocates to discuss HR 676, the much talked about "Medicare for all" bill currently sitting in the House. The event, which is scheduled from 6 PM to 8 PM at the Rochester Museum and Science Center's Eisenhart Auditorium, will be free to attend.
Time Warner Cable has recently expanded its program of capping broadband internet usage, something it has been testing in Texas for some time now. The recent expansion includes some upstate markets like Rochester.
Web users, the meter is running. In a strategy that's likely to rankle consumers but be copied by competitors, Time Warner Cable is pressing ahead with a plan to charge Internet customers based on how much Web data they consume. Starting next month, the company will introduce tiered pricing in several markets.
In April, Time Warner Cable will begin collecting information on its customers' Internet use in the Texas cities of Austin and San Antonio and in Rochester, N.Y. Consumption billing will begin in those cities later this summer. In Greensboro, N.C., the billing changes will begin sooner. Spun off from Time Warner this month, Time Warner Cable had been testing a plan to meter Internet usage in Beaumont, Tex., since last year.
By charging a premium to the heaviest broadband users, much the same way cell-phone providers collect fees from subscribers who exceed their allotted minutes, Time Warner would upend a longstanding pricing strategy among Internet service providers. Typically, phone and cable companies charge flat fees for unlimited access to the Web. "We need a viable model to be able to support the infrastructure of the broadband business," Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt says in an interview. "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Time Warner Cable has 8.4 million broadband customers.
Congressman Eric Massa is having none of this and makes an interesting and I think effective argument against the practice. From an emailed press release:
Today Congressman Eric Massa announced his opposition to Time Warner's monopolistic plan to charge customers for broadband internet based on the amount of information they download. Time Warner's decision to make this move is part of an ill-conceived test marketing plan which will charge customers for internet usage much like cell phones. The problem is that by doing so, broadband internet users' usage will obviously take a steep decline or else middle income families will see outrageous internet bills.
"Just at a time when access to information is driving our economic recovery, Time Warner is moving to stagnate the 21st Century technology needed to rebuild America," said Congressman Eric Massa.
Additionally, now that the internet has become an essential communications tool used by most Americans, there are broad and sweeping First Amendment issues at stake as well.
"Internet access is as essential to our economy as water is to our survival," said Congressman Eric Massa. "With limited choices in broadband providers, and virtual monopolies in many market areas, I view this as nothing more than a large corporation making a move to force customers into paying more money. I firmly oppose capping internet usage and I will be taking a leadership role in stopping this outrageous, job killing initiative."
Killing such a plan legislatively will be a real tough undertaking, but it's one worth pursuing. Massa is correct that this is a bad plan and one that is especially unhelpful in the middle of a recession that is further depressing the upstate economy.
I wish Massa luck with this. He's going to need it.
Chris Bowers is running out of Democrats to hate. In his latest post, hilariously titled "Eric Massa Votes Against Housing Bill Because He Doesn't Like People Outside His District" he takes Massa, one his progressive heroes during the campaign, out to task for doing what he believed was right for his district...and he didn't do it nicely;
On Thursday, freshman Eric Massa, for whom we helped raise money in 2006, 2007 and 2008, was one of the twenty-four Democrats to vote against the Help Families Stay in Their Homes Act. His reasoning for this vote is self-contradictory, spiteful, hateful, and, dare I say it, borderline unpatriotic.
This is hilarious, if not completely pathetic. It seems that the NRCC, because they have nothing better to do and things are going so swimmingly for them, has decided to attack 18 freshman Dems, including Dan Maffei and Eric Massa, for, uh, not being Blue Dogs. No, really.
The National Republican Campaign Committee on Thursday went on the attack against 18 freshman Democrats who it said weren't fiscally conservative enough to earn stripes as "Blue Dog" Democrats.
The only problem was the Blue Dogs said those 18 didn't ask to be a part of the group, which is the most fiscally conservative coalition within the Democratic caucus.
That didn't stop the NRCC, which blasted press releases to the hometowns of 18 vulnerable freshman, targeting their votes in favor of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill and the $410 billion omnibus spending measure as running counter to their campaign claims to help restore fiscal responsibility to Washington.
...
"The new membership list of the Blue Dog Coalition for the 111th Congress was released, but self-proclaimed "fiscal conservative" Rep. Harry Teague's name was noticeably absent," a version of the release read. "Despite Teague's rhetoric that he would be a good steward of the taxpayers' dollars in Congress, did the Blue Dog Coalition see Teague's claims as nothing more than empty rhetoric?"
Democrats charged Republicans with trying to score a cheap political point.
"This is yet another fabricated press release sent out by the Republicans who are looking to attack fiscally responsible, commonsense Democrats in the House," said Blue Dog spokeswoman Kristen Hawn. "It is shameless political ploy that has no basis in truth."
