Another area congressman who narrowly won reelection in 2006 is Randy Kuhl, a Republican from Hammondsport, Steuben County. He represents the 29th district, which covers Monroe County’s southeastern suburbs.
A Kuhl spokeswoman said today he had not decided whether he would run for reelection.
On balance, I’d say this would likely be a slightly net negative for Democratic challenger Eric Massa. Kuhl sucks, and a stronger local Republican might have a better shot at retaining this R+5.2 district.
(From the diaries – promoted by James L.)
The next addition to the Blue Majority page is a candidate returning from 2006: Eric Massa, who is running against Shotgun Randy Kuhl in the NY-29.. Please, give to Eric Massa today.
Eric is a true netroots favorite, evidenced by the tags NY-29 and Eric Massa being the most common tags for a congressional race and congressional candidate respectively, on MyDD. Eric is extremely energetic and hard working, as I have seen upclose in my visits to the district on several occasions. His energy rubs off on his grassroots supporters, who were able to close off a corporate Democratic primary challenger this past summer through relentless blog pressure, securing the support of virtually every local precinct captain in the district (including two family members of mine who joined the silent revolution in Update New York), and lots of small-donor, in-district fundraising. Now, he is set to take on Randy Kuhl who, separate occasions, has threatened both his ex-wife and his constituents with firearms, even though he claims he was just joking about the later. But he seriously doesn’t like his constituents:
That is, he doesn’t like his constituents unless they are Republican donors trying to build new bowling alleys in the district.
This is the “reddest” district in New York, which Bush won with about 56% of the vote in 2004. However, is it turning blue, like the rest of New York state. But Eric Massa is not your typical red-district Democrat who will let you down. As a progressive, he will fight for you, pledging to oppose FISA and watered-down withdrawal from Iraq, something few Democrats from a district this “red” have done. After losing by only 4% in 2006 despite no help from national committees, Massa is well poised to take the seat in 2008.
Support Eric Massa for Congress on Blue Majority. He is another example of more and better Democrats.
According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, David Nachbar, one of the contenders for the Democratic nomination to take on “Shotgun” Randy Kuhl next year, has withdrawn his candidacy this week. Nachbar cites workplace demands as the reason for folding his bid, but perhaps he also found that he underestimated the depth and breadth of support for rematch candidate Eric Massa within the 29th district. For instance, it seems like not a day goes by where Massa's campaign doesn't put out another press release announcing the endorsement of a county or township Democratic committee (see the latest one here).
While Massa got off to a solid start, outraising Kuhl significantly in the second quarter ($158K to $68K) and reporting a higher cash-on-hand total, Nachbar had some deep pockets of his own that he was willing to tap into. Coupled with New York's September primary, a contested nomination would have been a serious resource drain for the eventual nominee. New York's 29th will not be one of the easier targets for Democrats in 2008, but Nachbar's termination could help ensure that Massa will make a decent second shot at it.
(H/T: DailyKos diarist ipsos)
Who: Congressional Candidates Linda Stender (NJ-07), Dan Maffei (NY-25), and Eric Massa (NY-29) – and featured guest Jim Dean (chair of Democracy for America)What: “Expanding our Majority: On to 2008!” – a fundraiser for DFA
When: Wednesday, 4/25 – 6pm to 8pm
Where: Manhattan (Upper East Side)
For more info & to RSVP, click here. You can also contact Rachel Moss at (802) 651-3200, ext. 134 or rmoss@democracyforamerica.com. A wide range of contribution levels are available for anyone who would like to attend, including a special student rate of just $35.
So if you’re in town, this is a great chance to meet some of our strongest rematch contenders for 2008, plus Jim Dean, brother of Howard and a supremely good guy. Let’s go Team Blue!
Hot on the heels of their hard-hitting ads against Republican Senators McConnell (KY), Collins (ME) and Sununu (NH), Americans United For Change is setting its sights on four Republican House incumbents: Heather Wilson (NM-01), Jim Walsh (NY-25), Dean Heller (NV-02), and Tim Johnson (IL-15):
AUFC picked an interesting mix of incumbents here. While Walsh and Wilson will be two huge Democratic targets next year, Johnson and Heller are completely out of left field. Raise your hands if you even knew that the Republicans had their own Tim Johnson. Yeah, I thought so.
As far as an “expanding the playing field” type of move, I remain skeptical that Heller’s district will come into play next year. At a PVI of R+8.2, the only reason this district was competitive last year was due to its open seat status, a feisty Republican primary, and Democrat Jill Derby’s strengths. I’m not anticipating that any of these factors will re-emerge in 2008, and I doubt that a top-shelf challenger will emerge. If I were in charge of these ad buys, I would have gone after Republican Jon Porter in nearby NV-03, whose D+1.0 district and out-of-the-mainstream views on Iraq make his district ripe for another aggressive challenge.
As for Johnson, his Illinois district went to Bush by 11 and 18 point margins in 2000 and 2004, respectively. I would be surprised if anything happened here, but at least Mr. Johnson will have to feel some deserved heat on Iraq. Hopefully his ass will get redistricted into oblivion in a few years.
UPDATE: AUFC is also going after Randy Kuhl (NY-29) and Mary Bono (CA-45).
The fine folks over at The Albany Project have some good news for Democrats in New York’s 29th Congressional District: Eric Massa is in for a rematch against “Shotgun” Randy Kuhl. According to the Star-Gazette:
Democrat Eric Massa, who nearly unseated incumbent Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, last November, will seek the 29th District Congressional seat again next year.Massa announced today that he is officially opening an exploratory committee to prepare for the contest.
“I was going to be very happy to stay in retirement,” Massa said. “But the issues of today underline the need for an honest debate of the issues.”
Massa, a retired Naval officer who lives in Corning, said he is starting from “ground zero” to build a campaign staff, raise money and establish a headquarters.
Massa, a former Naval officer and aide to General Wesley Clark, was an incredible candidate in 2006. In particular, he was one of the most proactive candidates in terms of his enthusiastic use of the netroots to generate interest and support for his run. One only needs to look at how quickly his highly-readible diaries are catapulted to the recommended list over at DailyKos to see the mark that his run has left on the blogosphere. He also raised over $400,000 on Actblue.com (including nearly $60k from the Dailykos/MyDD/SSP Netroots Candidates page), using the power of the internet to outraise his opponent–not an easy feat against an incumbent.
Massa had a couple of bad breaks towards the end of his campaign–he caught some unfortunate press coverage due to some unprofessional antics of his short-lived original campaign manager, and for reasons which I’ll never quite understand, the DCCC chose not to answer the NRCC’s $600,000 hit job against Massa in the final weeks of the campaign. Since Massa ultimately lost by a mere 3 points, one has to wonder if history would have been different had the DCCC been more aggressive.
But 2006 may not go down as Eric’s last best chance. According to the Fighting 29th, the district’s conservative base has been sniping at Kuhl–and giving him the ultimatum of lurching even further to the right, or facing a possible primary challenge (and some speculate that maybe even a general election challenge on the Conservative line could be in the works). With the local GOP infighting and Iraq spiraling out of control, Eric could make another race of this.
Race Tracker: NY-29