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Tom Reed (NY-23) Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 16, 2014 13 Comments
Recent fundraising filings show that Democrat challenger Martha Robertson has raised a fair amount of money in her challenge to incumbent Tom Reed in my home district NY-23. Robertson is a DCCC "red to blue" designee, so it's not surprising that money is flowing to her. But Robertson is not spending much -- which is consistent with what I've noticed, that she's all but non-existent in the media and the campaign trail. And she's still ducking the media, as noted by the host in the local radio interview I did the other day:
"We cannot get Martha Robertson to come on any, I want to underline that, any of our programs or to react to any charges made against her."
http://youtu.be/klXHl7MmndI?t=18m34s This is consistent with a pattern we have seen before, Martha Robertson’s hiding act becomes campaign issue in #NY23. When I tried to ask her questions at a public forum at Cornell, she was evasive and her handlers tried to shut me down. Laying low may not be helping Robertson. The Buffalo News reports that Robertson's campaign fundraising strength may not reflect actual competitiveness:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 02, 2014 6 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Emily's List-backed, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) "Red to Blue" Democratic challenger in NY-23, my home district. The "red-to-blue" designation means she's considered at the top tier of Democratic candidates who might flip a current Republican seat. So she will be showered with national money. We have been following the race closely, and have exposed a number of issues that have helped frame the narrative of the race, including Robertson's false fundraising claim that GOP operatives hacked her website during a critical fundraising period, her support for Obamacare as a pathway to single payer, and her misunderstanding of the Veteran's administrative crisis. In an attempt to gain some momentum, Robertson held a press conference today to announce her challenge to Reed on several issues revolving around congressional perks. This was her statement at the press conference, as reported by the Elmira Star-Gazette:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 01, 2014 4 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Emily's List-backed, DCCC "Red to Blue" Democratic challenger in NY-23, my home district. We have been following the race closely, and have exposed a number of issues that have helped frame the narrative of the race, including Robertson's false fundraising claim that GOP operatives hacked her website during a critical fundraising period, her support for Obamacare as a pathway to single payer, and her misunderstanding of the Veteran's administrative crisis. Last night I saw an ad run by Congressman Tom Reed attacking Robertson as "out of this world" -- focusing on her being an Ithaca liberal, with the subtext that she's out of touch with the Republican-leaning, mostly rural district. I have not been able to get the video of the ad itself (if I do I'll post it), but a local television fact check contains excerpts. (Update - here is the ad - Featured Image updated) The fact check terms the ad overall to be "mostly true." I agree with that, except that I believe some of the individual items that are rated "half-true" should have received a higher rating. Here's the fact check video:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 04, 2014 4 Comments
I've covered many campaigns over the past several years here at Legal Insurrection. The campaign of Martha Robertson, challenging incumbent Republican Tom Reed, is one of the most bizarre so far. They are completely non-responsive. Even when I write to them or call seeking a statement so I can present their side of a story, there's silence. Even before I exposed problems with the campaign's communications and positions, they were non-responsive. It's just plain weird. Robertson also is hard to find on the campaign trail. If not for her stop at Cornell, I don't think I ever would have been able to get any response from her or her campaign on the issue of the campaign's false claim that GOP operatives hacked her website during a key fundraising period. Even then, her response was non-responsive. Maybe it's me? Maybe I've offended them by asking questions and trying to find out the campaign's position on important issues, like her support for Obamacare as a stepping stone to single payer and her complete misunderstanding of the Veterans Administration scandal. No, it's not just me, as this campaign ad just released by Congressman Tom Reed demonstrates: Reed's campaign issued the following statement, via Communications Director Kathering Pudwill:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 03, 2014 8 Comments
Martha Robertson, the Emily's List-backed, DCCC "red to blue" challenger to Republican Tom Reed in NY-23, is a big supporter of single payer healthcare, although she's dodged the issue during her campaign. Robertson has stated openly prior to running that she see's Obamacare as a stepping stone to single payer:
"We'll get to single payer soon, but in the meantime, [Obamacare] is what we need to do."
The Veterans Administration scandal poses a problem for Robertson, as it raises fears of what healthcare will be like if the government gains total control. Robertson appeared recently with Nancy Pelosi, and was interviewed on local television. Robertson blamed the VA scandal on what she called decades of underfunding (emphasis added):
“And we see it’s not a matter of the care that they get once they get access to the care,” said Robertson. “There’s no question that they’re getting quality care and responsive care once they’re in the system. This is a problem of decades of underfunding the system altogether.”
Robertson could not be more wrong. The VA's problems are systemic, inherent to government bureaucracy running healthcare, not funding. According to a recent budget submission for fiscal year 2015, VA funding has increased dramatically year-over-year:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 14, 2014 4 Comments
Democrat Martha Robertson, the Emily's List-backed, "Red to Blue" challenger in NY-23 just can't seem to escape local news coverage of her apparently false fundraising claim that GOP operatives were "caught" trying to take down her website during a critical fundraising period.

Martha Robertson fundraising email partial

Legal Insurrection broke the story in early October 2013, and we have followed the details since then: The latest bad publicity for Robertson regards her response to a complaint filed with the NY State Board of Elections, as reported by WETM:
The controversy over an e-mail sent by Martha Roberton’s campaign to supporters last September continues. Now, the National Republican Congressional Committee is getting involved. The NRCC is asking the Martha Robertson campaign to release all correspondence related to the e-mail her campaign sent to supporters on September 30th, 2013. The NRCC is looking for correspondence that is not protected by attorney-client privilege. In that September e-mail, the Robertson campaign claimed that “GOP ops” had hacked their website right before the end of the third quarter fundraising deadline. The Robertson campaign provided proof of their hacking claims in October of 2013, but decided not to hire an outside firm to investigate, despite previously saying they would.
In a letter sent by the Robertson campaign to the NY State Board of Elections, Robertson repeats her claim that there were attacks on the website but no longer claims that it has any proof whatsoever that the GOP was involved, much less that GOP operatives were "caught" (emphasis added):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 13, 2014 22 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Emily's List-backed, "Red to Blue" designated challenger to Republican Tom Reed in my home NY-23 District. She is a Democratic star candidate, and money is pouring into the somewhat competitive District at a furious pace. But is Robertson just another Alex Sink? Someone destined to break Democrats' hearts because, in Robertson's case, she is just too left-wing for the centrist, Republican-leaning district? We have covered the race extensively, including Robertson's misleading (if not outright false) fundraising claim that GOP operatives tried to take down her website, her strong support for Obamacare as a stepping stone to single payer, and questionable history with regard to rejecting the unpopular NY SAFE Act. In a region starving for jobs and losing our young people, Robertson has staked her candidacy on preventing the fracking job boom which has added over a quarter million jobs in Pennsylvania, which borders the NY-23 District. Heaven forbid the struggling Southern Tier of NY State should get to participate in that. The Reed campaign recently posted a video that sums up the Robertson agenda:
"In my heart of hearts, the very most important issue is climate change."
) If so, Robertson is almost alone in that sentiment. This Pew Research chart lists the priorities of the electorate as of late January 2014 -- be sure to scroll really, really far down so you can find "Dealing with Global Warming":
"The American public routinely ranks dealing with global warming low on its list of priorities for the president and Congress. This year, it ranked second to last among 20 issues tested."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2014 12 Comments
Martha Robertson's fundraising cloud just won't go away in her challenge to Republican Tom Reed in NY-23. Robertson raised funds based on the claim that GOP operatives were caught trying to take down her website during a critical fundraising period. She never has come forward with any proof, and broke her promise to hire a forensic computing investigator to find the evidence. The local media is becoming increasingly frustrated with Robertson's dodging the issue, as we mentioned yesterday. Today Robertson was named to the prestigious "Red to Blue" list by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as reported in the Buffalo News:
Martha Robertson, the Democrat who's challenging Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, this fall, got a big boost Monday when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named her to its "Red to Blue" program -- signaling that she's one of the top Democratic House challengers in the country. The Democratic campaign committee selects challengers for the Red to Blue program when they've shown strong ability to raise funds, build a campaign and present a credible alternative to voters.
Martha Robertson Red To Blue Tweet 3-3-2014

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2014 5 Comments
In early October, 2013, Legal Insurrection broke the story of a claim by Martha Robertson, the Emily's List-backed Democratic challenger in NY-23, that GOP operatives were caught trying to take down her website during a crucial fundraising period last fall. The District is a key priority for both parties, and money is pouring in from around the country. The District leans Republican, but Democrats are hopeful they can pull a rabbit out of a hat here because of the large liberal vote in the Ithaca area. It's a Wendy Davis strategy -- get out the base in the liberal areas, and hope others stay home. Robertson never has provided any evidence of such hacking, but promised to hire a forensic computer expert to provide the proof. Then Robertson broke that promise, and said she would not be hiring an expert. Jazz Shaw at Hot Air had a write up on Robertson's fundraising problem,Could NY-23 Dem candiate have (gasp) lied about GOP cyberattack? The claim of GOP hacking appears to have been false. The type of disruption her campaign described was the type of routine server issue almost every website experiences, and there is no evidence of any actual disruption. Rather than come clean, admit the error, and offer to refund donations to people who received the false solicitation, the Robertson campaign is in shutdown mode on the issue. They have not returned my inquiries for months, and now are dodging the major local media outlets. When the local Republican Party filed an election complaint recently, the Robertson campaign still refused media inquiries.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 31, 2014 10 Comments
NY-23, my home district, is a focus for both parties for 2014 because it is one of only a few competitive districts. The district is geographically enormous, a mostly rural area running along the Southern Tier of upstate New York. Once you leave Ithaca, it's a whole other country. Which is why incumbent Republican Tom Reed should be okay by a few percentage points. 2nd Amendment rights, and opposition to the NY SAFE Act, are big issues. Tompkins County, which includes Ithaca, is the exception. Tompkins County is one of only two upstate counties which has not passed a Resolution opposing the SAFE Act. County Opposition to SAFE Act ao January 2014 Guess who was the Democratic Chair of the Tompkins County legislature: Martha Robertson, the Emily's List-backed challenger to Reed. The SAFE Act is in play in the race because of Robertson's confusing voting record, where she appears to have both voted for and against the SAFE Act. WETM 18 reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 22, 2013 18 Comments
We have highlighted the race between Republican Rep. Tom Reed and Democratic challenger Martha Robertson in NY-23 many times. In part because it's my home district, but mostly because it is a swing district which leans Republican but includes liberal Tompkins County, making it competitive. It's not hyperbole to say the upstate NY districts like NY-23 will be key to Republicans holding the House by a comfortable majority. Robertson's problems with an apparently false fundraising claim that "GOP Ops" tried to take down her website during a crucial fundraising period gained statewide and even national attention. Legal Insurrection broke that story. Robertson said the campaign would hire a forensic investigative team, but the campaign has not responded to my email seeking an update as to whether a firm was hired and the status of the investigation of the alleged hacking. Robertson also is receiving local media attention for her years-long support for single payer, another story Legal Insurrection broke: I predicted that Robertson would have trouble with single payers support in the wake of the Obamacare debacle, and sure enough, she's running away from her past support for single payer. The Buffalo News reports on the controversy:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 8 Comments
Martha Robertson is the Democratic candidate challenging Republican incumbent Tom Reed in NY-23, my home district. We have highlighted Robertson many times before regarding her unsubstantiated fundraising claim that "GOP ops" tried to take down her website. Robertson's campaign never has provided proof of that claim, leading to a fair amount of negative local television coverage and even national press attention. The fundraising scandal, which I doubt is over, likely will be overshadowed by a much bigger problem: Robertson is a long-time and vocal supporter of mandates with the ultimate goal of single-payer. In light of the Obamacare debacle, and the inability of the federal government even to set up a website portal, a complete federal government takeover of the health care system is a hard sell. Some of Robertson's speeches were captured on video. Here are some excerpts where Robertson discussed her support for mandates, a government option and ultimately single payer: Nationally, Democrats are being hurt badly by the Obamacare debacle. Not surprisingly, Reed already has started to make Robertson's support for single payer an issue:
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