Rep.-Elect Eric Massa

Party: Democrat
State: New York - 29th District
Race results:Building on his grassroots network from 2006, Massa came back in 2008 and outed the Republican incumbent in a tight race.

During his 24 years in the U.S. Navy, Eric Massa served in the Middle East and as a top aide to Gen. Wesley Clark during the peacekeeping operation in the former Yugoslavia. Massa resigned in 2001, and worked briefly as an executive at Corning Glass in upstate New York.

Massa then went to Washington, DC to work on the House Armed Services Committee. As a committee staffer, Massa opposed the invasion of Iraq, writing several dissenting papers against the plan to attack. When the invasion was authorized, Massa resigned in protest, and joined the presidential campaign of his mentor, Gen. Wesley Clark.

Energized by his first foray into politics, he rejoined his family in New York and launched a campaign against Republican Rep. Randy Kuhl in the 29th Congressional District. On the campaign trail, Massa criticized Kuhl for his lock-step support of President Bush's Iraq policies:

"The White House and Congress failed to comprehend the realities on the ground, ignored the advice of senior military advisors, and rushed to war without securing a broad international coalition. Now, we are mired in a brutal religious conflict, with insufficient resources and no plan for victory."

Based on his experience in helping to rebuild the war-ravaged Yugoslavia, Massa advocates a strategy of partitioning the fighting parties while withdrawing U.S. troops over a two-year period.

Massa ran a vigorous campaign, but was unable to overcome Kuhl's greater name recognition. However, Massa was able to come within two points of victory, the best any Democrat has done in the district in recent memory. Undeterred, Massa is running again in 2008 with a better chance of victory because of the rise of Democratic fortunes everywhere.

This same dynamic has impelled Kuhl to claim that he has become more independent of the Bush administration, but his voting record indicates otherwise. In 2007, Kuhl received a 0% in Council for a Livable World's Iraq Voting Scorecard. His candidacy was further weakened when he voted against expanding children's healthcare four times, in spite of his claim that he supported the popular program in mailings to his constituents.

Building on his grassroots network from the last election, Massa begins his campaign in a much stronger position than in 2006, when he was less known to the district's voters. However, he will need serious financial resources to compete in the sprawling 29th Congressional District. You can help him defeat Kuhl by making a contribution.

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