Eric Massa

Eric Massa was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 29th district of the State of New York from 2009 to 2011.

Agriculture
Massa supports increasing funding for specialty crop research and development, farmland protection programs, additional Agricultural Protection Zoning, Cluster Zoning, focusing much more of the federal budget into future technologies and allocating resources for farming and agricultural technologies. He has pledged to fully support funding for capital projects and agricultural research, helping young farmers by supporting and expanding the land grant university system, passing legislation to place country of origin labeling on food at the grocery store. Massa also supports enhanced efforts by the USDA and FDA to assure food safety, legislation and regulations that will ensure that agricultural imports are subject to equivalent inspection, sanitary requirements, pesticide use restrictions, and quality standards as domestic produce. He supports repealing the Self-Employment tax.

Climate Change
Massa has proposed doing the following to help curb the effects of climate change: raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for vehicle emissions to 50 miles per gallon by 2020, ending government subsidies for oil and gas companies, investing more in clean energy resources, instate a renewable portfolio standard.

Education
On his campaign website, Massa supports fully funding and fixing "No Child Left Behind" to reduce excessive testing and encourage 'real' teaching and not 'teaching the test'. He does not support taxpayer money to private schools via voucher programs. He supports raising the Pell Grant to at least $5,100 and put taxpayer money into proven programs.

Energy
Massa supports immediately passing the Consumer Energy Supply Act of 2008 and releasing 10 percent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, requiring oil corporations to start drilling on the sites they've already leased, using responsible royalties from the oil profits derived from public lands to fund an alternative energy strategy. He supports providing tax rebates for people who purchase American hybrid vehicles, and investing in the necessary infrastructure to deliver renewable sources of energy to consumers.

Environment
Massa supports identifying and developing alternative sources of energy and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. He is opposed to drilling in ANWR.

Guns
Massa says he will enforce current laws, and hold those who handle guns in an irresponsible manner accountable under the law without exception.

Bio
Massa was born September 16, 1959, in Charleston, S.C. The son of a career Navy pilot and a graduate of the Naval Academy, Massa spent 24 years as an active duty naval officer. Massa served as aide to former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark and, after retiring from the military, he worked in the private sector and then as a staffer to the House Armed Services Committee. During the 2004 election cycle he resigned from that position to work for Gen. Wesley Clark's presidential campaign. He and his wife Beverly have two children.

2006 elections
Massa, a lifelong Republican, left the Party in protest over the invasion of Iraq. Massa strongly opposes the war and advocates "extraction" for the troops in Iraq. Also on the top of his priorities is health care. Massa, who has had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, states, "I learned about healthcare at the sharp end of a chemotherapy needle. To deny access to healthcare to Americans is…unAmerican."

Massa also made trade and jobs an issue. He has called Wal-Mart "unAmerican" for forcing workers to go on Medicaid and sending jobs overseas to China. Massa has been endorsed by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and New York State United Teachers, both of which endorsed his opponent, Randy Kuhl, in 2004.

2008 elections
Massa decided to challenge Kuhl again in the 2008 congressional elections. He won the Democratic nomination, and went on to defeat Kuhl in the November 2008 general election.

Money in politics
cid=N00027550&cycle=2008

Campaign contact information
Email: info@massaforcongress.com Phone: (607) 428-0390 Fax: (607) 428-0393 Mail: 60 East Market Street Suite 244 Corning NY, 14830

External resources

 * Eric Massa for Congress, official campaign site.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Simply Left Behind
 * Zinnian Democracy and other Mapcap Ideas
 * The Fighting 29th

External articles

 * Howie Klein, "Blue America Update: Eric Massa and Joe Sestak," firedoglake, July 26, 2006.
 * Howie Klein, "Blue America&mdash;Eric Massa NY-29," firedoglake, July 29, 2006.
 * James L., "NY-29: AFL-CIO Defects to Massa," Swing State Project, August 15, 2006.
 * "Notes from the Campaign Trail: Eric Massa's Weekly Diary," TPM Cafe Blog, August 20, 2006.
 * DavidNYC, "Netroots Filing Deadline Roundup," Swing State Project, August 23, 2006.
 * Rick Miller, "Former U.S. senator to stump for Massa," The Times Herald (Oleans, NY), August 28, 2006.
 * Devlin Barrett, "Democratic Candidate Blasts Rumsfeld," Associated Press (Washington Post), August 30, 2006.
 * Lawrence Hovish, "Why Eric is running: Massa pushes health care, jobs and a balanced budget," The Evening Tribune (Hornell, NY), August 30, 2006.
 * Ryan D'Agostino, "'My name is Eric Massa and I need your support'," CNNMoney, October 25, 2006.