I would like to congratulate my opponent on his victory. A few moments ago, I called Eric Massa to congratulate him on being elected to the 111th Congress.
[....]
This race was a close and tough battle to the end, and today I urge all of my supporters to give Congressman-elect Eric Massa the support and encouragement that he will need to carry out the great tasks that he will face in the 111th Congress. This country is facing an uphill battle. Our economy faces historic and unprecedented challenges, and we must unite to find the solutions that our country needs.
The FEC audited Randy Kuhl's 2004 campaign and found a few irregularities. The report was just released today. I'll more information about the details when I have a chance to read more carefully, but the report finds that Kuhl should pay the US Treasury 118K as a result of these irregularities.
Update: The irregularities center around campaign donations towards his State Senate campaign that ended up getting used towards his Congressional race.
Note the Kuhl lawn sign in the right-hand corner. I don't know what part of the district this comes from. Wonkette (where I found the picture) merely describes it as "Western New York".
Responsible New York, founded by Tom Golisano to renew and reform New York, announced Friday a Congressional endorsement of Eric Massa in New York's 29th District.
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"Eric Massa is exactly the kind of leader we need in Washington," Responsible New York Co-Chair Laureen Oliver said. "Massa has the experience to truly reform Washington and a job plan that will help working men and women here in New York.
WGRZ Buffalo reports that Randy Kuhl spent more on franking privileges (taxpayer-funded mailers from Congressman) than any other member of Congress:
According to the National Taxpayers Union, last year, Southern Tier congressman Randy Kuhl spent the most on these mailings of any member in the house: $84,000. We wanted to interview Kuhl, but his spokeswoman said he was not available.
Contrast Kuhl's spending on mailings with that of Brian Higgins, he spent just $5,000 last year.
I'm working on putting together a complete list of all of them. Here's what I have so far. (By the way, ImageShack sucks. Don't use it for hosting images if you can help it.)
Good news. CQ Politics has upgraded the Massa/ Kuhl race from"'No clear favorite"' to "Leans Democratic".
New York's 29th District (New Rating: Leans Democratic. Previous Rating: No Clear Favorite)
Massa, a Navy veteran and former Pentagon aide, is in a rematch challenge after making a striking debut as a candidate in the 2006 race, holding Kuhl to 51 percent and a 3 percentage-point margin - in what arguably is New York's strongest Republican district, in the state's Southern Tier, where Bush won 56 percent in 2004. And two separate polls in early October showed Massa, who essentially never stopped running, with a 7 percentage-point lead in the race.
Massa had topped Kuhl in total fundraising receipts - $1.8 million and $1.3 million - through Oct. 15, and had a slight lead in cash-on-hand through the same date ($234,000 to $209,000). Kuhl probably didn't help himself by making national news with comments suggesting that the Democrats want the American people to hurt economically so they can make gains at the polls.
Still, Republican strategists sees the race as salvageable, as evidenced by the NRCC's sizable independent expenditures in the district over the past month, including more than $200,000 for ads over the past week.
I'd like to use the fashionable expression for premature celebration "he's already measuring the drapes" but since he's in office now, that wouldn't make sense. Let's say he's already re-measuring the drapes:
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY
Contact: *************
Media Advisory - Randy Kuhl's Election Night Details
Bath, NY - U.S. Representative John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr.'s campaign
today announced that Kuhl will hold his election night victory party
at Pleasant Valley Wine Company Visitors Center in Hammondsport, New
York.
Election Day - Tuesday, November 4th:
What: Randy Kuhl's Victory Party
Where: Pleasant Valley Wine Company Visitors Center
Eric Massa picked up the only newspaper endorsement that really matters in NY-29, that of the Corning Leader (via F29th). Unlike the local Gannett papers, the Leader editors take a lot of care with their editorials; I say this not because I agree with them politically (to the contrary, they are the most conservative editorial page in the region), but because nearly everything that's appeared on their page about the race in NY-29 has been thoughtful and well-reasoned.
It's worth noting that their endorsement of Massa is about four times as long as the D&C's endorsement of Kuhl. Rather than relying on empty shorthand about "local focus", it actually discusses the differences between the candidates in depth.
The Leader takes its editorials seriously. For that reason, I think many readers take their editorials seriously as well.
I've been waiting for this one since I heard Kuhl mention that he planned to balance the federal budget by cutting Medicare during the second Massa-Kuhl debate:
NY 29: Eric Massa's loss in 2006 did not hinder his spirits. If one had looked at Rep. Randy Kuhl's fundraising ability six months ago, one would have predicted a very different outcome. But now an internal GOP document is writing Kuhl off. Couple that with a misstep by Kuhl saying that he believes "the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt," and most analysts believe Kuhl is toast in 2008.
Republican-held House seats being at risk, and 11 already considered as good as gone. As many as 34 GOP-held seats are in serious jeopardy of swinging to Democrats, the assessment shows.
The state-of-the-race update, first reported on by U.S. News' Paul Bedard, shows the GOP already writing off the seats of Reps. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), John R. Kuhl (R-N.Y.), Don Young (R-Alaska) and Tim Walberg (R-Mich.). It also expects losses in the seats of retiring GOP Reps. Rick Renzi of Arizona, Jerry Weller of Illinois, Jim Saxton of New Jersey, Mike Ferguson of New Jersey, Vito Fossella of New York, James Walsh of New York and Tom Davis of Virginia.
If I were Randy I'd be pissed. He voted for their freaking bail-out bill and now they're leaving him by the side of the road. Classy.
The suffergate scandal that rocked Republican Randy Kuhl's Congressional campaign continues to reverberate throughout the media, both nationally and locally. A UPI article mentions that Rahm Emmanuel now includes Randy in his rogues gallery of hateful Republicans. Channel 13 reporter Sean Carroll has a Q&A explaining how this all happened and the context in which Kuhl's comments were made. And the Rochester City paper takes it all perhaps a bit too far, calling Kuhl one of the "new McCarthyists".
This isn't going away. I still say that, barring the release of a new Fifty Cent album, there's at least a 50-50 chance the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle will eventually write about this.
The Channel 13 Rochester blog has two posts (here and here) about it and will play the comments on the newscast tonight. So far, Kuhl's media team is showing its usual poor judgment and refusing to take the comments back.
Expect the story to spread. Channel 13 news is the cutting edge of Rochester news, so if they're writing about it now, the other news stations likely will in a few days, and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle may even get to it before election day unless a new gangsta rap album is released between now and then.
F29th has some smart analysis: Randy made the comment while pimping his absurd claims about drilling (suffer, baby, suffer):
With the current climate of overheated charges mainly coming from Republicans, Kuhl's rhetoric sounds like another example of the divisive distraction that is so damaging to our politics. Because we're in the midst of a serious financial crisis, media is finally looking hard at politicians who spout haterade instead of solutions, and Kuhl deserves his share of scrutiny.
But let's not forget the reason Kuhl deployed his overheated rhetoric, which was his eager desire to push his leadership's drilling agenda. That agenda was an example of what really hurts our politics: the search for simple-minded, slogan-ready solutions to complex problems. That search is aided and abetted by the stupidity of media types who imply that being "encyclopedic on the issues" is a strike against a candidate.
Rahm Emanuel weighs in on Kuhl's disgusting statement that he "firmly believes" that Democrats want Americans to "suffer and to hurt."
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel issued the following statement after Rep. Randy Kuhl said "I firmly believe the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt so that they can make some political gains at election time, and I think that's wrong." Kuhl's comment comes after Rep. Michele Bachmann said Senator Barack Obama held "anti-American" views and Rep. Robin Hayes said "liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God." Emanuel's statement is below:
"I serve in the House with decent, patriotic Republicans, and as a congressman I have the honor of representing thousands of Republicans. They love their country and respect their neighbors. And yet these recent comments by three of my Republican colleagues must be challenged. Partisan passions always rise two weeks before an election, but calling the other party 'anti-American,' saying members of one party 'hate real Americans' and 'want the American public to suffer' crosses the line.
"No wonder Colin Powell is so concerned about the direction of the Republican Party. It is at risk of being taken over by the voices of fear and division. A party so intent on dividing America is unfit to lead all of America. And so I call on my Republican colleagues to disavow these statements. These statements are not worthy of a great nation and a great institution like the United States Congress."
Bachman's tirade on Hardball filled her opponent's coffers with $1 million bucks. Kuhl needs to be made to pay for this as well.
"I firmly believe the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt so that they can make some political gains at election time, and I think that's wrong," Kuhl says.
We're suffering through the worst recession since WWII. Mission accomplished, Randy.
Update:
I see Phil and RT beat me to it. Damn you, slow google alerts!
