Who will fill Massa's seat in Congress?

Now that Congressman Eric Massa has announced his intention to resign, what's next for the 29th district?

Governor David Paterson will issue a proclamation sometime after Massa's resignation.

A special election would have to happen 30 to 45 days after that proclamation and candidates would be chosen by the heads of the political parties in these counties.

Assembly minority leader Brian Kolb of Canandaigua has been asked to run for Massa's seat. While he says it's not on his radar right now, Kolb says local leaders have to start thinking of filling the seat-- soon.

"I think Governor Paterson has to call a special election as soon as possible," he said, "get the election over, so whoever the next congress person is...gets right to work."

Kolb says the Republican nominee could be Tom Reed, who already has a lot of support from county Republican committees.

"It makes us stronger now that we know that the field's been cleared," Reed said of Massa's resignation. "We're going strong and we're going to win this thing."

Reed, the former mayor of Corning, announced last summer that he would be running for Massa's seat.

"I think Congressman Massa...I'll let him deal with his own situation and let him be the judge of himself," Reed said. "All I can tell the people of the 29th is that I won't let them down. There's no surprise. I'm a simple and open book."

Also, Assemblyman David Koon of Perinton told The Corning Leader newspaper, "I want to run.... I've told them, if you want me to run, I'm your man."

Friday night, Koon told News 10 NBC, "Whether it's a Democrat or a Republican, the district, I think, will require that person to continue to do the good work that Eric was doing.

Former Congressman Randy Kuhl, whom Massa defeated in 2008, said Friday he is "still deciding on his political future" but says the 29th district needs "a proven, experienced leader."

News 10 NBC has been told Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks was due back from Washington Friday night and that she'll do some serious thinking in the next couple days about running for this seat.

Governor David Paterson will issue a proclamation sometime after Massa's resignation. A special election would have to happen 30 to 45 days after that proclamation...

The special election isn't going to matter as regards the health care vote. It will come too late. A recent thread explains Pelosi's strategy - don't worry about YES votes, just change the number required to have a "majority"!.

With Massa gone, the House will have 431 members, meaning a majority is just 216 not the 218 usually required. Because Massa opposed the House-passed healthcare reform bill and hadn't given any hints that he would change his vote when the final version comes up in the next few weeks, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) just caught a break. Not only does Massa's impending resignation take one more vote out of the "no" column -- he was one of the 39 House Democrats voted against the bill in November -- it also changes the denominator. For two days this week, the goal had gone down to 216 because Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), who is running for governor, said he was resigning. But Deal quickly reversed his decision, citing his desire to help kill the healthcare bill and raising the threshold back to 217. Massa, who is leaving Congress amid an ethics investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, changed it back.

She has 30 to 45 days to bring it to a vote and now needs less votes to pass it. Talk about Chicago thuggery! What's next? Dead horses on beds!

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