Via TPM, the Cook Political Report has upgraded its ranking of ten House ratings in favor of Democrats. Among them are CT-04 (Chris Shays) from Lean Republican to Toss-up, and NY-29 (Kuhl), also from Lean Republican to Toss-up.

NY-29 now joins NY-13, NY-25 and NY-26 in the toss-up category; of the three seats we took in 2006, NY-19 and NY-24, represented by Hall and Arcuri respectively, are ranked by Cook as Likely Democratic, and the weakest, NY-20's Kirsten Gillibrand, is considered Lean Democratic at this point. The full report (.pdf) paints a staggering picture of republican weakness.

In the money race, most Democrats are eminently competitive, with one glaring exception: the contenders in the Thirteenth. The FEC database reveals more.

NY-13: no data on either Harrison or McMahon. Anecdotally, Harrison has raised about $140,000, with about $40,000 coming in in the last quarter, McMahon supposedly has less than that.
NY-19: Hall, CoH $1,141,961, raised $1,608,537
NY-20: Gillibrand, CoH $2,474,445, raised $3,165,043
NY-24: Arcuri, CoH $590,541, raised $897,684
NY-25: Maffei, CoH $675,661, raised $853,982
NY-26: Powers, CoH $402,137, raised $598,327
NY-26: Kryszan, CoH $206,747, raised $287,508, debt $97,000
NY-29: Massa, CoH $565,320, raised $898,780, debt $75,820

So there's your New York Congressional battlefield; four pickup opportunities - or three and a half, until NY-13 finally gets some real money raised by the contenders, and some tactical defense in the three districts we took in the last cycle. At this rate, we can probably look at sending some ground troops to take out the faltering republicans in Connecticut and New Jersey, where NJ-03 and NJ-07, both open seats, and CT-04 are ripe for the taking.

Daily Kos has been highlighting a new coalition of Democratic challengers with the stated goal of ending the Iraq war in 2009:

What interests us locally in New York State is that two members of this coalition are from New York: Steve Harrison (NY-13) and Eric Massa (NY-29). Here's the press release from the Harrison campaign:

Steve Harrison joins other top-tier Democratic challengers to issue “Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq”
Harrison (NY-13 Staten Island/Southwest Brooklyn), Darcy Burner (WA-8), Donna Edwards (MD4), Eric Massa (NY-29) and 6 other candidates will unveil detailed strategy to end the war

Broken systems produce endless amounts of controversy, and healthcare is entirely typical of the phenomenon.

In Albany, Andrew Cuomo issued subpoenas to several large health insurance companies; the attorney general alleges that various insurers had used a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth, Ingenix, to set reimbursements rates for consumers that were artificially low, leading to hundreds of millions in additional costs for consumers and, of course, correspondingly fatter profits for the insurers themselves.

“Ingenix is a wholly owned subsidiary of the industry, and the company is determining the rates that the insurance companies use to reimburse consumers”, Mr. Cuomo said.

Perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, the companies in question had no statement on the subject. As the saying goes, there ought to be a law - preferably an Elizabethan one that involves locking insurance executives in the stocks and encourages passers-by to throw offal at them.

In NY-29, meanwhile, Democratic challenger Eric Massa traces the feudal abuses of the healthcare system to its roots: crappy bought-and-paid-for legislators, specifically, his republican opponent, Congressman Randy Kuhl.

Per Politico, S-CHIP is set to make a return to the floor of Congress today. The original bill was vetoed by George Bush, forcing a return to the House, where the veto override failed by thirteen votes. Two of those thirteen votes came from New York republicans, Randy Kuhl, NY-29, and Tom Reynolds, NY-26. Apparently, children in those districts get along quite well without health insurance of the sort available to both Members as a part of their Congressional compensation package.

Challenger (and netroots candidate) Eric Massa, NY-29, confined himself to the following statement, directed at Kuhl.

"No more dancing around the issue. For heaven's sake Randy, do the right thing for New York's children."

On the web:
Eric Massa for Congress
Jon Powers for Congress

Via a press release from the Massa campaign comes the news that DCCC Chair Chris van Hollen (D-MD) will be campaigning with Eric Massa at noon on Monday, August 27th, at the Monroe County Democratic Committee in Rochester.

Considering both the frosty relationship between the DCCC and Eric Massa last time around, and Massa's narrow loss - 48% to 52% - early involvement by the nationals spells good news for an additional Democratic seat in Congress.

Meanwhile, incumbent Randy Kuhl is being targeted by an activist group, headed by known grassroots guy Ari Fleischer, for whom he's just not enough of a wingnut.

Some people, I guess, are just never happy.

On the web: Eric Massa for Congress

What is it with republicans and actual veterans? They cut their healthcare, let things like Walter Reed happen, start illegal wars, and when push comes to shove, point to yellow-ribbon bumper stickers to cover up their systematic abuse of America's military and the men and women in uniform.

From the 29th District comes another such tale of woe. It starts, predictably enough, with potshots taken by draft-dodger, Certified Wingnutâ„¢ and incumbent republican Congressman Randy Kuhl against Democratic challenger Eric Massa, a retired Navy Vet. In this specific case, Kuhl broke ground with an interesting description of military retirees.

To Kuhl, these aren't retired military personnel - they just don't have a job. This from a professional politician who has served in elected office for almost three decades.

Now, you'd think that even a Randy Kuhl would realize that this kind of slur is somewhat inappropriate. You'd think so, but you'd be wrong.

We here in the City may occasionally forget this, having little reason to remember it, but there are still some members of the republican party in New York State who hold elected office. Now, clearly, this is a profoundly unnatural state of affairs, and one that must be addressed and remedied.

Arguably the worst republican left standing in New York after the tidal wave of last November is Randy Kuhl, who represents, somewhat, the 29th District in Congress. Last November, Democrat Eric Massa came within a hair's breadth of ousting the man.

Now Massa is shooting for a successful result in 2008, not however, this time, unopposed; there's a Democratic primary in the 29th District this time around. This primary pits one David Nachbar against Massa; the former has the advantage of being able to self-fund, as well as the support of Louise Slaughter; but also comes burdened with the way that he made his money, which was by advising American businesses on outsourcing their domestic jobs to foreign, low-wage jurisdictions. This kind of activity is, in fairness, not too popular with Democrats.

How can people rationalize keeping in office a wife-beater and tool of the evangelical dominionist movement? What is wrong with the Democratic party in New York that finds it acceptable to live the lie of a blue state when in fact, suburban and exurban New York is one of the most conservative voting blocks in the eastern seaboard?

Massa concedes, calls to congratulate Kuhl
Star-Gazette
November 15, 2006

Corning — Democratic congressional candidate Eric Massa called U.S. Rep. John R. Kuhl Jr. today to congratulate the congressman on his election victory, finally conceding more than a week after Election Day.

Massa had previously refused to concede, but “now that the vast majority of the votes have been re-canvassed and the counting of the absentee ballots is well under way,” he said in a statement on his Web site, “the voters have spoken and their voices have been heard.”

News 10 Rochester reports:

It was down to the wire between Congressional candidate Republican Randy Kuhl and Democrat Eric Massa.
Kuhl is up for a second time in Congress, and has 51% of the votes.

Massa has 49%.

Tuesday night, Kuhl declared victory, but Massa says not so fast.

Kuhl thanked more than 100 supporters at the Pleasant Valley Ewine Company in Hammondsport, NY.

Fighting 29th says it's OK to fight, but he's calling it a loss.

I would have so loved to see wife-beater and dominionist Rhandi Kuhl out of office. I honestly don't get New Yorkers.

Yet, I have to to concede that Massa did not run a tight campaign. There is much I would like to say about that. I just want to see the final result before I say it

This maybe the most anticipated congressional race and, as if on cue, it is also too close to call.

The Star-Gazette reports:

Democrat challenger Eric Massa is leading incumbent Republican John R. Kuhl Jr., R-Hammondsport, in the race for the 29th Congressional District.

Shortly after 10:30 p.m., with boards of elections in eight counties reporting partial results, unofficial results show Massa leads Kuhl 60,718 to 57,165

The 63-year-old Kuhl, a state legislator for more than two decades before his election to Congress in November 2004, piled up his largest margins in Allegany and Steuben counties.

With 60 districts out of 85 in in Steuben County, Kuhl leads Massa 13,004 votes to 7,697 votes.

In Chemung County, with all precincts counted, Kuhl has 12,715 votes to Massa's 11,511.

Massa won in Monroe county with 39,315 votes to Kuhl's 30,004.

Yates County had yet to report results.

“It looks like it will be really, really close,” said Clark Pettig, Massa campaign spokesman.

This one is going to be a dragged out fight.