Massa’s Character
People who, like me, spend WAY too much time reading about politics, will have heard of netroots candidate Darcy Burner (WA-08), who had a house fire last week. Her family is ok, but her house is toast.
It looked like she would have to take time off from her very competetive campaign to get her life back together, which from a fundraising perspective, is bad news, given the amount of money congressional candidates have to raise every day.
The progressive website DailyKos put together a fundraiser for her campaign, to give her a little breathing room while she picks up the pieces. They did it through ActBlue, the progressive fundraising website that allows people to divide up their contributions amongst a set of candidates, including Eric Massa.
Here’s another nice story. We can “tag” links to the ActBlue page, so we can track the success of various campaigns. This campaign is tagged “refcode=burnerfire”.
Well, when we first started the campaign, I opened up my email and had two seemingly panicked emails from Orange to Blue candidate Eric Massa. I’m talking emails with ALL-CAPS in the subject line, urging me to call him ASAP. A bit worried (I don’t generally get these kinds of emails), I rang up Massa and asked him what was up.
“I think something is wrong with ActBlue,” he explained, worried. “I think donations that were supposed to go to Darcy Burner are ending up in my account.”
What Massa’s finance person had seen was that “refcode=burnerfire” tag show up on a couple of contributions to his boss, not realizing that people had given to Burner first, and then added a few bucks to a few more candidates. Massa could’ve kept his mouth shut. Like all candidates, he desperately needs the cash. But thinking something was wrong, his first instinct was to call me and try to fix the “problem” of him getting money.
Let’s set aside for a moment the humorous suggestion that Eric Massa can’t keep his mouth shut about anything. He’s not exactly known for his shy, retiring nature. 
This kind of thing speaks louder to me than any press release about Massa’s character, and desire to do the right thing.
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My heart goes out to Darcy and her family, but I am surprised Eric didn’t say this about her:
“This is what happens to candidates in close races”
found here:
http://www.the-leader.com/archive/x390611473/Was-van-vandalism-politically-driven
Gee, Elmer - there is a nonquality statement. I understand the “attempt” at perceived humor / snark but it’s in very bad form. Why would he say that? Did someone deliberately burn down the house?
Point being, that statement you mention, said by Massa, when his van was vandalized detracts from the post and the recognition that Massa was erroneously receiving money and he immediately did something about it.
Massa should get credit for what he did about the donations, but he said what he said about something bad happening to him and implying that it may have been a Kuhl backer who threw the rock.
Elmer, I have to agree with Stlo here. bad form. There are times when we all have to pull together as human beings and praise people for their character as evidenced by their actions.
This action, by Eric, was very telling of who he is as a person. Referencing back to another comment, that you feel was unjustified, detracts from the message in a very nasty way and is totally off subject..
Yes he did say that and it was addressed in the commetns of that particular post at the time but how does that relate to the here and now? I’m assuming the House fire was an accident. How does a reaction to a deliberate act (vandalism) relate to an accidental house fire.
The issue and what should be addressed is the action to correct erroneous funding credits.
My apologies - as I said earlier my heart goes out to the young lady and her family - perhaps I was a bit overboard
Thanks Elmer - From my perspective - your comment -this specific comment simply didn’t fit here so I reacted strongly. I was simply trying to point out the comment didn’t fit here in this post..
We’re good -
Yep, Elmer-we’re good
Eric is good man. I had the honor of serving under him in the Navy more than a decade ago. I personally owe him a lot. He will make an outstanding and honorable member of Congress. I urge others to support his campaign. No contribution is too small.
Every dollar counts.
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/mighty967
Eric is good man. I had the honor of serving under him in the Navy more than a decade ago. I personally owe him a lot. He will make an outstanding and honorable member of Congress. I urge others to support his campaign. No contribution is too small. Every dollar counts.