I've met him a few times. He's a great, passionate guy. He is a former Republican who told me one night, at a function for Charlie Rangel, that Democrats are a lot more fun to hang out with than Republicans. He truly seems to love being a Democrat and you kind of get the feeling that he wonders himself what took him so long to come around to the Dem side.
He's picked up a number of Democratic Committee and labor endorsements.
His website is here:
www.massaforcongress.com
Endorsement info is here:
http://www.massaforcongress.com/endorsements.aspAccording to a recent article on the Star-Gazette:
"So far - back to racing - one Democrat has sprinted from the gate early to challenge Kuhl - should he run. Eric Massa of Corning, a former Republican and U.S. Naval Academy grad, has aggressively rounded up endorsements from local Democratic committees throughout the district. He paid two visits to the Star-Gazette in the past month, and as a retired Navy officer, he certainly won't be shy about getting in Kuhl's face.
He showed up at one of Kuhl's town meetings in the district and challenged the congressman on his vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which Massa opposes.
If it comes down to a Kuhl-Massa race this fall, 29th District voters will have an interesting choice between the widely known Kuhl, defending his first-term record, and
Massa, who combines the issues knowledge of Democrat Samara Barend - who lost to Kuhl in 2004 - with the feistiness of Jeremy Alderson - who lost the Democratic primary to Barend(snip)
So even though Nov. 7 - Election Day - feels like a long way off, voters had better start scouring Kuhl's and Massa's performance charts now.
The 29th could be looking at a contentious and close race."
http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060129/COLUMNIST11/601290303&SearchID=73235063324613He blogs regularly on kos, TPM and the Clark blog (CCN) and he responds to responses to his posts....so you can get a chance to dialogue with him if you wish.
His CCN blog is here:
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/blog/1027He will be on Fox News tonight sometime between 6 and 6:30PM.
The thing he needs most is $$$$$$$$. He's not got a personal fortune and he's new to politics. He needs to show the powers that be that he can bring in the funds before they'll really back him, it seems.
One thing's for sure, if he goes down, it won't be for lack of trying....The 29th could certainly do a lot worse....