Eric Massa announced his candidacy last night at a taping of "Coleman and Company", a political talk show aired by WETM-2, the Time/Warner Cable channel of WETM. That show will be aired on Sunday.
It must have been a slow news day at Randy Kuhl's Thursday press conference, because the only news that I've seen reported from there was the non-announcement of Kuhl's candidacy. Kuhl said it was too early for him to announce, but he's "doing everything I need to do" in order to run again.
Text of Massa's announcement email after the break:
Last night at the studios of WETM TV in Elmira New York I told the audience of Coleman and Company, a local 30 minute TV talk show that I intend to run against John Kuhl of Hammondsport for the honor of representing the 29th Congressional district before the United States House of Representatives in Washington DC.
I take this decision, one of the most difficult I, or my family, has ever faced - because of several reasons. But none is so clear as the continuing assault on the security of our Nation, the ongoing war on the Middle Class that built it, and the Veterans who defended it at home and overseas.
The war in Iraq is making us less secure. It is consuming our most valuable resources, the men and women of the Armed forces, their equipment and their ability to defend us around the world. It has cost us over a trillion dollars and continues to cost us more than $27,000 every minute of every day that we occupy Baghdad. Instead of new strategy to shorten our involvement in a never ending Civil War, we have been given more of the same with rubber stamp votes of approval by some in Congress. That must change.
Here at home, Corning New York, a family is facing the deployment of both parents leaving a two-month-old child behind in the care of grandparents. John Kuhl recently wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense to review deployment policies when both parents are available for deployment. The truth is that no letter will relieve the tremendous strain on our military and for politicians to rubber stamp George Bush's surge and then try to cover the results of their votes with letters to the Secretary of Defense they only expose themselves for what they really are. That must change.
The assault on the Middle Class continues with the President proposing a new tax on health care benefits as a way of further forcing working Americans to seek ever lower standards of medical coverage. The Free Traders of Congress and the White House continue to force living wage jobs overseas and there has been a fundamental breech in the contract between the people of the Government and the Government of the People. We are Americans first and the professional politicians in Washington DC have forgotten that to the destruction of tens of millions of working American families. That must change.
We have now seen the tip of the iceberg with the growing scandal that is outpatient health care at Walter Reed Medical hospital, the crown jewel of military medicine. Here, in our own backyard, a decision knowingly made and agreed to by the Washington politicians in 2004, is now final and the key in-patient mental health care hospital at the Canandaigua VA center has closed it's doors - with no real alternative for care for those left out in the cold. With an ever dwindling representation of Veterans in Congress those men and women who represented us on the battlefield are not be in represented in Washington. That must change.
We face real and pressing National emergencies that can only be addressed in a clear "say-what-you-mean-and-mean-what-you-say" voice. I intend to be that voice and with your help we will build on the tremendous success that we saw in 2006 and bring a higher standard of leadership to Washington DC. Please join us at www.dailykos.com for an in depth discussion of this race and the issues that face our District and our Nation at 3PM New York time for live blogging, some good humor and some serious discussion about where we need to take this Congress and this Nation.