NY-22 2014 Tag

New York Congressional District 22 is in the heart of central upstate New York, a mostly rural or semi-rural district that runs from Utica in the north to Johnson City-Endicott and Binghamton in the south. If New York had its own flyover country, NY-22 would be it.  The district is so safe Republican, that Democrats are not even running a candidate in this year's election. Republican incumbent Richard Hanna either is a liberal or "moderate" Republican, depending who you ask.  Few people call him a conservative, and he's rated as one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress. Hanna was challenged by Claudia Tenney, a conservative, Tea Party Republican state assemblywoman. The race was far tighter than the mainstream media expected.  At the end of the evening, Hanna won by about 1600 votes, 52.8% to 47.2%.  To barely win, Hanna and his supportive SuperPACs spent $2 million to Tenney's $150,000. Contrary to how many in the media are portraying the race, Hanna did not win because he was liberal or moderate.  To the contrary, Hanna's campaign and SuperPACs supporting him ran away from his "moderate" label and fully towards portraying Hanna as the more conservative candidate.

Update:

Story of #NY22 is that liberal Hanna wins by SuperPACs portraying him as more conserv than real conserv opponent http://t.co/ExcSqfjugV

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) June 25, 2014

For ppl reporting on #NY22 1st time tonite -- Hanna SuperPACs attacked Tenney as not conserv - false but effective http://t.co/COmfEbSSU7

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) June 25, 2014

Tenney says she's proud of results so far, comparing her grassroots, $150K campaign to the $2m in super PACs from Hanna. #NY22

— Nick Will (@DispatchNick) June 25, 2014

Legal Insurrection was able to bring national attention to the Tenney/Hanna primary last week, with a story involving "false flag" Super PACs spending upwards of $1 million to distort Tenney's campaign.  Since then, the Tea Party Marine mother has been garnering support from conservatives, receiving endorsements from Rick Santorum, Sean Hannity, Erick Erickson, and other political pundits. Aside from the false flag Super PACs, Hanna has also taken to Twitter to seemingly make up things concerning Tenney's career in the Assembly.  Yesterday, his campaign tweeted that Tenney had "let (the) SAFE Act" (the onerous anti-gun legislation) pass in New York, despite the fact she was a 'No' vote on the legislation.  The blatant distortion of reality led Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin to respond by calling Hanna a "liar" and a "coward." One thing has been clear over the last several weeks in the 22nd Congressional District - Richard Hanna and the GOP establishment are concerned with this race.  The proof lies in Hanna's supporter's actions...

• The unceasing, dishonest Super PAC ads. It bears repeating - A million dollar campaign to distort Tenney's record by groups with decidedly non-conservative missions.
• Deceptive tweets such as the 'she allowed the SAFE Act to pass' message.
• Hanna's unwillingness to actually engage in a legitimate debate, where his repeated fabrications of Tenney's history in the Assembly could be readily challenged.
• And now we can add this - last-minute attempts to keep Tenney's campaign message off the airwaves.

One year ago, in explaining a vote for legislation regarding internet governance, Richard Hanna released a statement which read in part that he "believe(s) that the freedom of speech is a fundamental right that should be protected both online and within our daily lives without unwarranted government censure." That belief doesn't seem to extend to the television airwaves however, as the Hanna campaign has, in a last ditch effort to preserve his Congressional career, issued a cease and desist order to multiple television stations running Tenney campaign ads, one day prior to their primary in New York's 22nd Congressional District.  The order was designed to force television stations including WKTV, WBNG, WUTR, to pull the ads, called "To Tell the Truth."

Last Sunday night we called attention to the flood of PAC advertising on behalf of incumbent Republican Richard Hanna in the safe-Republican NY-22 district. The Republican primary is June 24. There is no Democratic candidate, because the district was considered so safe Republican. The PAC ads are "false flags" because they present Hanna as the most conservative candidate, when in fact challenger Claudia Tenney is the most conservative. WBNG 12 reports:

Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney held a press conference to call out Hanna, who she said is partnering with liberal companies in Washington and is sending out false information to voters. She said Hanna is putting out flyers that are simply not true. "He's putting out flyer after flyer describing himself as 'Your Conservative Voice, Your Conservative Choice.' There's a reason he keeps using the word conservative because that's who votes in Republican primaries," Tenney said. Tenney is the top-rated conservative in the state legislature and Hanna is the third most liberal of the Republican caucus.

Pro-Hannal liberal PACs have spent several hundred thousand dollars or more on these ads in a relatively small market where the advertising rates must be much lower than in large markets. I would not be surprised if $700,000 of ads in NY-22 is the equivalent of millions in big city markets. The ads are non-stop. This evening the ads were on TV during Special Report with Bret Baier: