Liveblog with Eric Massa NY29

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Liveblog with Eric Massa - Yearly Kos and a Pistol Packing Congressman


Friends,

It has been an absolute whirlwind week for our campaign over the last 10 days and there are a number of things I'd like to touch on today. In the last 10 days, our momentum has grown exponentially. Today, I'd like to take the time to review four major developments in our race.

YearlyKos

First - I want to thank all of you for another wonderful experience at the Yearly Kos convention last week in Chicago. I apologize for not posting last Sunday as I usually do, however, I was on an airplane flying back to Western NY at the time. During the convention I was scheduled to speak at the Future Leaders panel with a number of netroots candidates. However on Saturday morning at 7 am I received an urgent call from one of my staffers. Apparently Arianna Huffington had just broken her ankle and as such was unable to make it to the "Left behind by the Right" panel (If you're reading this, I hope you're feeling better Arianna). As such, I was asked to step in since I too am a former Republican.


Although Arianna's presence was greatly missed, I had a wonderful time speaking with media guru David Brock, "Young Turks" host Cenk Uygur, former Nixon aide and current author John Dean, and Huffington Post Editor Roy Sekoff. It was a fun, pointed and occasionally hilarious conversation which clearly registered as one of the highlights of my YearlyKos experience. We have the full video of the speech and will be posting it very soon, however in the meantime, The Albany Project put part of my speech on the web already. This is one of my favorite anecdotes from the 2006 race:

After that speech, I had to run down four flights of stairs (well ride the escalator down four flights of stairs) to get to the Future Leaders panel hosted by our own Brian Keeler/NYBri. The Panel featured Charlie Brown, Darcy Burner, Larry Grant, Scott Kleeb, Gary Trauner, and Dan Seals. This was a great opportunity to meet with these fine Congressional Candidates as they too face tough races against Republican Rubberstamps.



YearlyKos was fantastic and I'd like to thank Gina Cooper and Kos for again putting on a great convention. I very much look forward to next year's Netroots Nation Convention.

A race without a Primary

When I was in the airport waiting to fly to Chicago, I received a phone call informing me that my Primary opponent, David Nachbar, had decided to retire from the race. Mr. Nachbar is a Human Resources Executive at Bausch & Lomb in Rochester, and much like me, he was disgusted by the direction our nation was heading in, and so he decided to throw his hat in the ring. It is too bad that we can't both run against Randy Kuhl, but I'm sure that David will have a bright future in the Political Arena. David remains a friend and I have invited him to be our Honorary Campaign Chair in Monroe County (which represents the northern part of the District where he lives).

And so the plot thickens

Last year, the activists of the 29th Congressional District knew that this was going to be a close race. However, many in Washington didn't give us the time of day because they believed I would lose by 18 points, but we proved them wrong by coming within 1% of defeating one of the worst George Bush Rubberstamps in Congress. During the last cycle, the DCCC didn't offer much help until the very end when it appeared that we might win. I don't hold this against them, because in the overall picture, they wanted to focus their attention where they thought they could win, and in the grand scheme of things they did win by bringing in a Democratic Majority in Congress.

My race in the 2008 cycle looks very different to them this year however. Now they know that victory is quite achievable in New York's 29th District, and so they are getting involved early in this top tier race. As a matter of fact, Chairman of the DCCC Chris Van Hollen is making a special trip to Rochester NY to hold a press conference and fundraiser to support my candidacy. With a year and a half until the election, Chairman Van Hollen knows that we need to work together if we are to defeat my opponent, Randy Kuhl.

I very much look forward to this opportunity and know that this is now a national race. As such we need to work with the local grassroots, the netroots, and the Democratic Party if we are to emerge victorious. I know this can be done and I am honored to have received so much support from all of you.

The Talk of the Town

The day after I returned from YearlyKos, a group of local activists continued their protests against my opponent for his Rubberstamping of George Bush's failed Iraq strategy. They conducted a series of sit-in strikes at two of Randy Kuhl's district offices where they read the list of our fallen soldiers and presented the signatures of 3,000 of his constituents demanding a change of course in Iraq. Congressman Kuhl's staff told them that the Congressman (though he's on summer recess) was not available to discuss his voting record or his positions. As such, they stayed in his office all day until closing. When five protesters in the Bath office refused to leave, they were arrested and taken away.

I'm a little disappointed that Congressman Kuhl couldn't take a few minutes out of his vacation schedule to do a quick conference call and at least express his views to the protesters. This buffer between constituent and Congressman is disturbing to say the least.

What was even more disturbing was Congressman Kuhl's comments during a visit to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle's Editorial Board the day after the Bath 5 were arrested. The first article regarding his meeting can be found here... and here's an interesting paragraph from it.

3. Protesters

Kuhl said that he wasn't at his offices when the protesters in Bath and Fairport were there. When I asked him if he had ever protested, he said "Yes, when I walked off the floor in Congress recently." I asked if that means he thinks the protesters have a right to do so and he again said "yes, just not over the line." He said that the types of protests have caused him to rethink security at his offices and that means securing doors. He said they are "more protective now" and that he "thought about packing."

After reading the comments, it became clear that he wasn't talking about packing up and leaving, rather he was dipping into gangsta rap terminology to describe concealing a weapon. As often happens on the blogosphere, this story erupted from our local blogs, to the Huffington Post, to the Washington Post. It's been claimed by Kuhl's Spokeswoman that this was a joke, but she then explained that it was not related to protesters, but rather to the anniversary of 9/11. Good try, but when the first mention of "packing" comes under the category of "Protesters," I don't think anyone is going to buy that he was talking about 9/11.

Moving Forward

Our Grassroots campaign is still in its early stages, but it never ceases to amaze me just how far we've come. In the last 3 months, we've held over 60 house parties, and we're aiming to hold 500 between now and November of 2008. As I chose to do during the last election, I continue to refuse Corporate PAC contributions so that my vote will can never be bought or sold. I believe that we need Clean Money/Clean Elections reform in our nation, however this will never happen so long as Bush's Rubberstamps remain in office. With that, I must ask you to help to fund our grassroots campaign. Your contributions of $20, $50, and $100 go a long way in telling the nation that this seat isn't for sale.

With that, I thank all of you for a wonderful time in Chicago and am standing by to take your questions over the next few hours.

Best,
-Eric Massa
Commander US Navy (ret.)
Congressional Candidate, NY-29