Last week I opened my email to find a communication from my friend John Hall, a Congressman from New York who is representing a portion of the state just down the road from where I live.  I respect, admire and intend to emulate Congressman's Hall's openness and communication as he explains what he did and why.  Below is the note that he sent to his email list:

Cross posted at Calitics

So as we've established by now, Darrell Issa thinks very little of 9/11 rescue workers and would prefer that the federal government not concern itself with their welfare.  Cause according to him, 9/11 is not and presumably was not a national issue.  We've also established that he has no qualms about throwing federal money around on local pork as long as it benefits him directly.  So the next logical question for me is "oh hey, are there any familiar names that don't mind taking Darrell Issa's money?"  As you may or may not know, Darrell Issa is filthy rich.  So he's spread a lot of money around on Republicans and conservative causes.  So as it turns out, there are quite a lot of Republicans currently running around the Capitol funded in part by Darrell Issa (partial list):

There's all kinds of terrific horserace news coming in, and our chances of substantially increasing our House majority are looking better every day. A quick roundup:

--First the biggest news, in FL-15: Florida Republican Dave Weldon will not be seeking reelection. On top of that, we have a strong candidate poised to enter the race in former Brevard County Commissioner Nancy Higgs, who steered the commission during the 2004 hurricane.

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) announced Friday that he will retire from Congress at the end of this session, citing a desire to return to his medical practice.

"I want to thank my wife Nancy and my kids for all the support over these many years, as well as my staff and the people who supported my re-election efforts. It is a very big undertaking to run and successfully serve, and I would never have been able to do it were it not for the generous help of so many fine people," Weldon said in a statement.

Weldon, 54, is a seven-term lawmaker who sits on the House Appropriations Committee.

Weldon is the 22nd GOP incumbent to announce that they will not seek reelection in 2008.

Six-term incumbent Weldon won with just 56% of the vote against an underfunded challenger in 2006, so the prospect of an open-seat race here is very exciting. The district is relatively Republican with a PVI of R+4.1, but it is an open seat, and we expect this to be a Democratic year. Bush won with 54% and 57% here in 2000 and 2004.

Rumored Republican candidates include State Senators Bill Posey and Mike Haridopolos.

--In addition to FL-15, we can now put two additional Florida seats (these ones based in the Miami area) on the map for 2008: the 18th District and the 25th District. Following hot on the heels of the recent entry of Raul Martinez into the race in Florida's 21st district to face Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart, we have two more serious candidates jumping in to take on Miami-area Republicans.

In the 18th District, businesswoman Annette Taddeo, founder of a language services company, will take on incumbent Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; and in the 25th District, Miami-Dade County party chairman Joe Garcia, also director of NDN's Hispanic Strategy Center and formerly Chairman of the Florida Public Services Commission, will run against Lincoln Diaz-Balart's brother Mario.

Garcia's potential entry has been rumored for months, and it's exciting to see him finally getting in the race. With his service as Miami-Dade party chair, he's a high-profile name with a good deal of influence in the district, and he has a national profile from working with NDN. The 25th District is more favorable territory for Democrats than the 21st is: it has a PVI of 4.4, Bush drew 56% in 2004 and 55% in 2000. Diaz-Balart drew the district for himself, in fact, when he served in the Florida House.

--Up in New York's 25th, following the retirement of Republican incumbent Jim Walsh, Democratic standard-bearer and Blue Majority candidate Dan Maffei has been added to the DCCC's Red To Blue program. This is most excellent news, as the DCCC's backing of Maffei should preclude any stuffy old Albany pols from jumping into the race, and will spare us the pain of an ugly primary. Also, it tells potential GOP candidates to think twice about running in this Democratic district, as we'll have a single strong candidate with establishment support. And finally, it's wonderful that the DCCC sees the same things in Dan Maffei that we see.

--Finally, up in New York's 29th District, Republican Randy Kuhl, who barely hung on to defeat Eric Massa last year and faces him again, has apparently not decided whether to run for reelection. I guess his highly deceptive flyers haven't been doing the trick.

Race tracker wiki: NY-25 NY-29 FL-15 FL-18 FL-25

Friends,

We just held the largest press conference of this cycle to demand that my rubber stamp opponent vote to override George Bush's veto of children's health care tomorrow. I apologize for being brief, but I'm off to visit with more supporters in the district and I wanted to share this with all of you.

Thanks again for your support,

-Eric Massa

Second-term Republican Congressman  "Shotgun" Randy Kuhl, who squeaked by Democratic challenger Eric Massa in 2006 and now faces a rematch, apparently has to resort to outrageous distortion of his own voting record in a desperate attempt to find reasons to convince the good people of New York's 29th to give him a third term.

Kuhl has sent out a mailer to his constituents (funded, of course, by taxpayers like you and me, through Kuhl's congressional franking privilege), extolling the virtues of children's health insurance and the SCHIP program.

The kicker? Kuhl, a recipient of over $17,000 from the tobacco industry, voted against SCHIP expansion, voted against it three times in fact, including voting against an override of Bush's veto.

Now he's recasting himself as a champion for children's health care. I suppose he thought no one would notice if he tried to take credit for SCHIP after the fact...damn the facts, after all, this is an election!

Unfortunately for him, Eric Massa has indeed noticed:

Kuhl, who has repeatedly defended the Tobacco Industry instead of protecting children, is now attempting to take credit for supporting SCHIP, despite the fact that he's voted against it three times in the last year. In his most recent effort to mislead the public, Randy Kuhl sent out a taxpayer funded mailer boldly proclaiming that "No child in New York should ever have to live without health coverage"--an ironic observation indeed, considering the fact that he actively fought to prevent over 50,000 children in the 29th District from receiving access to private health care.

"I can't help but wonder how many children could have received health care for the cost of Randy Kuhl's disingenuous tax payer funded mailer" said former cancer outreach advocate Eric Massa. "It appears that Mr. Kuhl has no problem spending tens of thousands of our tax dollars on a publication designed to distort his voting record, but he does have a problem standing up to lobbyists and George Bush. Randy Kuhl's record is clear - he has chosen to obstruct change by standing with roadblock Washington insiders and against the working families of Western New York. He simply no longer has the interests of our district in mind".

No, I can't imagine that he does. Nor, frankly, that he ever did.

Massa has already made it clear that he intends to use Kuhl's SCHIP votes as a central issue in the 2008 campaign. This recent mailer is a particularly cynical attempt on the part of Kuhl to try and neutralize what should be a tremendous asset for Massa in 2008. Kuhl knows he is vulnerable on this issue, so apparently he has figured that the best way to take this out of Massa's hands is by retroactively pretending to be a champion on behalf of sick kids.

Kuhl clearly thinks his district is foolish enough to believe what he tells them about his own record on children's health, regardless of what is actually, you know, true.

But I suspect he'll have a tougher time masking his votes against SCHIP expansion as time goes on.

Race tracker wiki: NY-29

Are you mad as hell at the Bush Republicans?

You'd think that Republicans would've gotten the clue. President Bush is at record low approval ratings. Yet the Bush Republicans still prevent our troops from coming home from Iraq. They still uphold the President's veto of S-CHIP and it's expansion of health coverage to 10 million kids. They're still trying to protect big business cronies by granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies who participated in the President's illegal, warantless wiretapping program.  

It's clear that Republicans like Randy Kuhl and Dave Reichert will support President Bush at every turn... again and again and again.

We’ve got a message for Randy and Dave: we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!

Today, DFA members are proud to endorse progressive Democrats Eric Massa and Darcy Burner. We are raising thousands of dollars to support their campaigns, join us with a contribution of $20.08 right now.

www.DemocracyforAmerica.com/MadAsHell

More after the jump:

that is, this time the Democratic party in Washington is supporting him.   In 2006 David Nachbar was going to run against him, but withdrew because his papes were filed improperly, and Massa was gaining the endorsements of local party organizations.  In the general election, Massa lost narrowly, by less than 6,000 out of almost 200,000 votes.  

The district clearly leans Republican.  The State Board of elections shows as of last month a registration of 177,704 Republicans to 120,710 Democrats out of a total registration of 407,684.    Kuhl ran as an incumbent, and Massa did not have that much support from the national Democratic party.  Meanwhile when it looked like Massa might win the national Republican party put in a lot of late money to enable Kuhl to squeak out a win.

But this cycle will be different. Come below the fold to see what I mean.

This weekend, in small towns and in our largest cities, in rural and in urban areas, Americans will be asked to step back and offer public recognition to the Veterans of America’s Armed Services. It is fitting and just that we do so for without them there would be no America.

For better or for worse, over the last two years I have gained a public political persona during my bid to represent the 29th Congressional District in Washington.  I want to take just a moment to discuss why I believe so many Veterans, especially those like myself who had never have been involved in politics before, are stepping forward to become involved in public policy at all levels of government. It’s simple really, the Congress has fewer veterans now than at almost any other time in the history of the country. Veterans are under represented by a huge percentage. As a direct result, the benefits which all Veterans earned and deserve are being denied, compelling them to get involved. What’s more, those in power who have never worn a uniform delight in standing in for photos with Veterans -- all the while attacking the service records of those who did and who disagree with them.

(cross posted under my revdbh screen name at EcuProphets)

SCHIP II didn't get enough votes to override a Bush veto, and once again Reps. Tom Reynolds and Randy Kuhl were the lone New York NAY votes.

It's instructive to visit the mind of Randy Kuhl. The most recent entries in his own blog show that he didn’t like the idea that some of his California colleagues were in California due to the wildfires and that he didn’t feel he had enough time to study the modified bill. Principles. This was a principled vote, as when the Repubs had the majority and gave the Dems all the time they needed to study legislation and come to the floor. So to hell with kids.

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently paid a visit to Elmira to publicly call upon my opponent Randy Kuhl to change his vote on SCHIP.  By the Governor’s estimation, 10,000 children in NY-29 need SCHIP.  Great blog coverage of these events is.  But instead of changing his vote, Randy Kuhl has tried to change the subject to talk about the recent MoveOn ad about General Petraeus.  Here is the actual quote, where he questions my character:

I received the following robocall earlier today:

Hello, this is Catherine.  I'm calling from the US Chamber Of Commerce because we need your help.

Some in Congress are trying to dramatically change the SCHIP health care program.  Instead of focusing on health care coverage for America's poorest children, they want to expand coverage to families making over $80,000/year, a massive government expansion.

Under this law, more than a million people will move from private insurance to government-run health care.  

Just a moment of your time can help stop this.  Please contact Congressman Randy Kuhl at 607-776-9142.  Urge him to continue his fight to keep SCHIP funding for our poorest children.  If you don't speak to a live person,  please leave a message.

This message brought to you by the US Chamber Of Commerce.

Our next candidate on the Blue Majority page is someone many of you will recognize from last cycle, one of our near-misses who are back to close the deal this cycle. Bowers gives us the scoop:

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.

One thing I'd like to note, since I keep forgetting to do it, this cycle, we actually have a litmus test to be on this list beyond "are you a Democrat?" We ask all potential candidates two questions: 1) Would you have voted for the spring Iraq supplemental bill? and 2) Would you have voted for the FISA bill.

We want more Democrats, absolutely. But we also want "better Democrats" as well, and these questions will hopefully weed out anyone who isn't committed to getting our troops out of Iraq and defending our Constitution.

So let's help make it happen.

Race tracker wiki: NY-29

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.

If one listened to the most interesting portion of the recent Fox News Republican debate, the part where they were debating whether the escalation, aka the "surge," in Iraq is achieving progress or not, there were two sides, both of which essentially failed to realistically present the options available to us.  On one side was Ron Paul, who basically said we need to get out of Iraq for our own best interest and not worry much about what we leave behind.  The other side was most forcefully represented by Mike Huckabee, who said that since we broke it, it is a matter of honor that we fix Iraq before we leave. Republican spinmeister Frank Luntz declared that Huckabee’s comment won in the focus groups.  (link)

Although one has to give Huckabee credit for some creative spin, in a real debate someone should have challenged him on the underlying assumption that maintaining the current escalation is the best way to go about fixing Iraq.  Unfortunately, the profound silence on this point during the Republican debate mirrors that of most of the traditional media in the larger public debate about the escalation.  

Greetings from beautiful Western New York. Today the sun is shinning, the trees are just about to turn for fall, and I grow another year older. That's right, today is my 49th Birthday, and as I look back, I am proud of all that I have accomplished thus far in my life, but I know that it is not enough. I tell every audience that I speak with, that if I am elected and I can cast the deciding vote to end the war and to institute single payer healthcare, then I will have accomplished more in my life in those two actions than everything else combined, other than raising my three children. Today, I want to take the opportunity to remember the past, assess where we at are today and look to the future.

I want to begin by again thanking all of you, both locally and nationally, for all of your support. As many of you know, this past week the Chairman of the DCCC, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, joined me for a press conference and fundraiser in Rochester N.Y. The event was a huge success and we are very excited by Chairman Van Hollen's statement that our campaign is now being considered one of the top tier challenger races in the nation. We are working around the clock to bring change to not just the constituents of New York's 29th District, but to the entire nation. I know we will win this seat in 2008, and your continued support will help us sustain the effort to bring real leadership from Upstate and Western New York to Washington D.C.

My local Representative, John "Randy" Kuhl, recently had a run in with democracy when a merciless band of antagonists stormed his office and needed to be arrested before they would leave, or at least thats what he and the local paper would have you believe. The reality from people who were there, I was not, is that a group of peace protesters walked into his office, many being senior citizens others with their children, and refused to leave until they were able to talk to Kuhl, as expected turned into a sit-in and after a few hours it was the end of the work day and so they called the police who arrested those who planned on being arrested. Its civil disobedience, its a sign of a healthy democracy.

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 Friday 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.