The Fighting 29th

Tom Reed's Toast Lands Butter Side Up Again

2011-02-09T16:50:18-05:00

Chris Lee, the Republican in NY-26 who was probably going to duke it out with Tom Reed after redistricting, just got caught with his shirt off. I assume Lee, who is married, will be damaged by this scandal, leaving Reed to inherit a safe Republican district in Western New York.

I wonder if there's even been a politician who has benefited more from the peccadilloes of others.

Update: Rachel Barnhart is reporting that Chris Lee has resigned.

Frankly, I'm surprised and disgusted. I understand that he had no political future once this story broke, but couldn't he at least have served out his term instead of leaving his constituents without representation for months? Unlike Massa, there are no allegations that he harassed his staff.

Update

2010-12-30T15:31:28-05:00

It's been a slow couple of months in the 29th. The big news is that the 29th will be no more after the next redistricting - New York is losing two seats in the House.

In other news, Sean Carroll tells me that he'll have an extensive interview with Tom Reed and his wife, about Reed's health, on tonight's 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts on Rochester's 13-WHAM.

Happy New Year to all of you.

A Good Day for Reed

2010-11-18T06:22:10-05:00

The Corning Leader reports that Tom Reed will be discharged from the hospital and sworn in today.

Reed Hospitalized

2010-11-15T12:14:54-05:00

Congressman-elect Tom Reed was hospitalized last night for blood clotting in his lungs. He's expected to be released in a couple of days.

Update: Sean Carroll confirms that it's a Pulmonary Embolism (PE) probably caused by a clot thrown from his leg. This is a common malady for people who have been sitting on planes or in cars for long periods of time. It does strike young people. For example, David Bloom, a NBC News reporter, died of a PE at age 39 earlier this decade.

Why Reed Lost Corning

2010-11-08T06:55:31-05:00

I don't think it's a big mystery why Reed lost his hometown of Corning. Before Massa melted down, Reed made a simple calculation that the only way to win the election was to be pretty far to the right of Massa, especially since the possibility of a Tea Party spoiler was a real one (as Janice Volk showed). One of the tenets of the Tea Party is that stimulus money is bad and should be refused by politicians. So, even though Reed had supported Corning's request for $210K in stimulus money to buy some new buses, he switched positions and opposed those buses as soon as he declared his candidacy for Congress.

Being for something one day and then changing one's position when it's politically convenient is bad enough, but doing it in a way that harms the people you represent is even worse, and Reed committed that political sin in order to advance his career. The fact that Reed took what could pretty fairly be considered "stimulus money" to remodel the Bath Masonic Temple made it even worse.

A Respectable Showing

2010-11-03T06:41:49-04:00

Tom Reed's 56-44 win in the general election is a pretty decent showing by Matt Zeller, who only had a few months to fundraise and campaign. It's interesting that there was around a 10,000 vote undervote in the special versus the general, indicating some confusion on the part of voters.

Obligatory Anecdotes

2010-11-02T18:55:52-04:00

I got a call from the Zeller campaign around noon today asking me if I was going to vote. I've gotten a few calls from Democrats this year, so the Democratic GOTV operation is working.

I voted around 6:30 in Pittsford and the poll workers said that they'd been pretty busy all day. They estimated that turnout was already 50%. That's good news for Zeller - he needs to obliterate Reed in Monroe County to have a chance to win this race.

Vote!

2010-11-01T20:33:41-04:00

If tomorrow is the first time you've voted since the last election, you'll be voting for the first time on paper ballots. Here's a video about the new voting system. I used it in the primary and it's easy - you simply fill in a bubble next to the candidate's name with a marker.

Here's a gadget from Google that helps you find your polling place:

Election Columns

2010-11-01T20:24:07-04:00

Chris Rackl from the Zeller campaign sends a correction to the previous post about voting twice. Apparently, the Leader story wasn't quite right about the columns on which the 29th contest will occur. Here's the scoop:

In Chemung, Monroe and Schuyler Counties, the contests will be in Columns 9 & 10
In Ontario, Steuben, and Yates Counties, the contests will be in Columns 10 & 11
In Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties, the contests will be in Columns 14 & 15

Reed Campaign Denies Robo Calling

2010-11-01T09:40:59-04:00

Here's the response to the robo-call story from Tim Kolpien of the Reed campaign:

This allegation is ridiculous - We are not even doing any robo calls – not a single one. Not even for Tom. Certainly not for Matt.

Vote Twice

2010-11-01T07:32:51-04:00

The one thing that everyone has to remember is that you need to vote twice in tomorrow's election.

One vote is for the special election to serve out the rest of Eric Massa's term. The other is for the general election to serve the next two years in Congress.

Update: Reader Elmer sends this morning's Corning Leader front page [pdf], which makes this really, really clear.

Zeller Endorsement

2010-11-01T07:30:16-04:00

The Zeller campaign sent over a supporter's scan [pdf] of the Finger Lakes Times endorsement of Zeller.

Leader Stories: Endorsement and Issues

2010-10-31T20:03:28-04:00

The Corning Leader endorsed Tom Reed today [pdf]. Here's the Leader's Zeller [pdf] and Reed [pdf] one-page candidate issue summaries. Thanks to Elmer for the documents.

Reed Robo Calls?

2010-10-31T18:21:51-04:00

The Zeller campaign has put out a press release accusing the Reed campaign of making back-to-back "Vote Zeller" robocalls to annoy Zeller supporters.

I don't know whether this is true, but if it is, I'd be surprised. I'm also surprised that Reed is running any negative ads. (The ads aren't negative against Zeller, but they do attack Democrats.)

As the prohibitive favorite, Reed should be completely positive.

The Zeller press release is included after the break.

Tom Reed's Dirty Halloween Trick

Victor, NY- Despite numerous pledges from Tom Reed to run a positive campaign; perhaps as a sign of things to come, he's already breaking his promises. The Reed campaign has paid for thousands of automated calls, called "robo dials" to contact voters in the waning days of the election.

Yesterday, voters both Republican and Democrat received calls purporting to be from the Zeller campaign asking them to vote for Matt Zeller. The only problem? Voters had to contend with four calls, back-to-back-back in hopes of annoying voters into supporting Reed or staying home on Tuesday.

"When they know they can't win on the issues, politicians will resort to almost anything to try and win. He may say he's not a career politician, but he certainly is acting like one," said Chris Rackl, campaign manager for Zeller for Congress.

Said Zeller, "Personally, I'm disappointed. Amidst all the negativity voters are subjected to when trying to make an informed decision, I was heartened that both Tom and I were able to run positive issue based campaigns. We definitely disagree on a number of issues, but we both stayed positive and played by the rules. I expected more from him."

Added Rackl, "Reed's dirty trick is backfiring. We've received number calls from Republicans complaining about all of the robo dials, and as soon as the voters have heard they weren't from us, they're immediately angry Tom Reed would stoop so low."

The Zeller Campaign also noted the only calls they've commissioned feature Matt Zeller reminding voters to remember to vote twice.

Profiles and an Endorsement

2010-10-24T16:50:27-04:00

The Corning Leader has profiles of Zeller and Reed in today's online edition. Reader Elmer was good enough to send the printed version (here, here and here [pdf]) which have more art and shows the kind of play the 29th race gets in the Corning paper.

And the Democrat and Chronicle predictably endorsed Reed. While they generally endorse Democrats, the D&C hasn't been able to endorse a Republican in the 29th District, and I don't think the reason has anything to do with editorial integrity or a careful evaluation of the candidates. The D&C is simply looking for editorial cover, and the 29th serves as the token district where they can say they endorsed a Republican in a competitive race whenever they're accused of being a "Democratic" paper.