Thank you Netroots! NY-29 Shifting in our favor

Cross posted from Kos


Thank you Netroots! NY-29 Shifting in our favor. Keep Hammering on Iraq.

by Eric Massa

Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 04:40:50 AM PDT

I will not be able to liveblog this morning but I wanted to share some news with you. Good news seems to be coming from every direction for Team Massa. The best news is that yesterday Majority Watch (link:www.majority watch.com|here]) released a new poll that has me beating Randy Kuhl 52-40. According to the poll, my opponent is winning the rural southern tier of NY-29 by a single point and we are winning the northern part of the district by 26 points!!
Even if one takes the poll with a grain of salt this still represents a positive change from our recent poll in September which had us in a statistical tie with Kuhl. I will just quickly note that this reflects a nationwide trend that bodes well for Democrats. The midterm elections have become nationalized and are, to a large degree, a referendum on the Iraq War.

That brings up a second piece of good news. Today at 4 pm eastern, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson will join me for a press conference and a reception in Rochester. Hammering the Bush administration and the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress on Iraq should be a top priority for us until election day. That is the main issue that voters are concerned about. Ambassador Wilson and I will discuss the lies that got us into Iraq, the National Security disaster that Iraq has become for the United States, and expose how the Bush administration, and its blind supporters like Randy Kuhl, have shamelessly placed political gain above National Security.

And that's just the start of the good news. We also got a great endorsement from the Messenger Post, an influential local newspaper. (link) In addition, General Wesley Clark included me in a recent anti-Swiftboating drive. (link) Another piece of good news is that fundraising has really picked up for us over the last quarter (link) and we expect to pass the million dollar mark, an important milestone, sometime today.

NY-29 is turning into a top tier race. This turn of events would not have been possible without the tremendous support we have received from the Netroots. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Having said that, we are still 19 days away from election day and we need help to close the deal. We can't stop until we get our voters to the polls. Here online volunteer center. Here is a link to our latest fundraiser.

Massa!

and the polls show it. On our radios of course one hears the incessant Davis ads as well attacking Reynolds. In this case there is a dual effect.

One odd note. A local network(host of the liberal station AM 950) took up the issue of things going too far on the internet. I researched what in blazes they were talking about and sure enough there is only one ad(YouTube, otherwise hard to find) by a group trashing several GOP candidates in a game show format. The story in the news seems to blow it out of proportion, get a few things wrong and go on to sententiously ponder that something may need to be regulated on Internet depictions.

Where this all seems to be coming from is the Kuhl camp, smarting from the most watched debate snippets where Kuhl, all by himself, commits incredible gaffes. I would have suspected that the more satirical video might be coming from the Kuhl camp to elicit the favorable nostalgia of Kuhl the martyr that worked so well to spin the divorce paper mess against his opponent in 2004.

Instead I think that only the second part is true. Kuhl is very much desirous of playing the martyr, "he done him wrong" but is spinning largely in circles entirely of his own making, diverted by MoveOn.org in their brilliantly truthful ads into making a horrible and untruthful defense further increasing their effect. Having his campaign run by his 24 yr. old son is the kind of mediocre hubris that has changed the easy cheap win of last time into disaster on every level- well in keeping with the fatal detachment of his Congressional record from the district. In fact every single thing that can cause an incumbent to lose handily has happened. A strong challenger. Arrogance and distance and disaffection. Loss of appeal(that he never had). Terrible debates, terrible speeches and media ads defeats, and a campaign effort lacking the numbers and enthusiasm of the Dems. In effect, this resembles the victory march of Louise Slaughter over her lackluster arrogant opponent in the neighboring district.

Not taking away from Jack Davis who has a highly visible opponent committing actual political suicide, but our district is shaping up to be a very solid win that will set back the Conservative designs on Amo Houghton's seat perhaps forever- and the current GOP Party is against supporting any more mavericks with conscience.

Now, will those who kept dismissing Democratic chances in our district because of the statistics please take note? Dean is right. The right man with the right campaign against a terrible opponent can win anywhere unless the people are completely hopeless. Merely challenging the domination of an arrogant RW regime changes things.

Time on the phone banks keeps increasing the impression that this will be a solid win.

The most important stage will finsih the campaign. GOTV- and that must be as efficient and confident as all the other successful elements.

New York goes deep indigo.