John Plumb
JAMESTOWN – The two candidates running for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes Chautauqua County, continued to exchange jabs against one another this week.
On Tuesday the campaign for Democratic Challenger John Plumb (D-Lakewood) sent out a media release criticizing Congressman Tom Reed’s (R-Corning) campaign for allegedly misleading voters and accusing it of committing fraud.
Plumb is pointing to the creation of a “DC John Plumb” website and account on social media – including Twitter and Facebook – which he says are intended to mislead voters. Plumb says they used the ‘John Plumb for Congress’ logo to mislead voters into believing it was authentic, and even invited them to donate to Reed’s campaign.
Plumb called the ruse ‘sad and shameful’ – adding that Reed’s campaign is now attempting to cover its tracks by removing some of the content that was originally on the site and giving it a different name.
“Not only is it sad and shameful that Congressman Tom Reed misled voters and raised money for his re-election by fraudulently impersonating me, but now he is trying to cover up his tracks,” said Plumb in a statement sent out on Tuesday afternoon. “Congressman Reed defended his campaign’s misleading tactics as a ‘good use of resources’ – which should already tell voters how much he’s gone the way of Washington.”
Reed addressed the issue during this week’s conference call with regional media, at which time he did say the tactic was a “good use of resources.”
“There’s a contrast between myself and my opponent and we want to make sure people understand what John Plumb is all about,” Reed said. “He’s been in the race for over a year and hasn’t taken many position other than taking multiple positions on each side. So making sure that his record and his positions are out there is something that I believe is fair to do, in order to demonstrate a contrast between him and us…. This is part of the process of getting a contrast out to people in order for them to know where we stand and where our opponent stands.”
The Tom Reed for Congress campaign has since revised the website. The site, formerly named DCJohnPlum.com, was changed late Monday or early Tuesday to redirect people to StopDCJohn.com. A facebook page entitled DC John Plumb remains active as of Wednesday morning.
REED QUESTIONS PLUMB’S VOTING RECORD
Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)
While John Plumb’s campaign was busy Tuesday pointing out fraudulent websites and social media accounts created by his opponent – Tom Reed’s people were putting their effort behind pointing out John Plumb’s voting record, or lack of one, in New York State.
On Tuesday Tom Reed for Congress spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg pointed out that John Plumb didn’t vote once in New York State for nearly the past 20 years – despite Plump saying he considered New York to be his home during that same time period.
“It is clear that New York is not DC John Plumb’s primary residence as evidenced by his voting record and declaration in his mortgage document. New York is his secondary residence which he only moved to because of political opportunity. Plumb is a typical Washington insider who can’t be bothered to focus on New York, or even send in an absentee or military ballot,” Hasenberg explained in the release.
Plumb grew up in Randolph but left the region for college followed by six years of active duty in the Navy and a series of jobs in Washington. He resigned from a White House position when he decided to move back to the area in May 2015 and run for Congress.
John Plumb uses common sense and experience in his judgments for gun legislation. Plumb’s not anti-Second Amendment or of the status quo Reed stance – to continue to sell out to lobbyist and cash in his wallet and sell to terrorists sideways.
Rep. Tom Reed has earned every penny he’s received from the NRA (over 10,000.00 since his first election). Reed says his 1st priority is protect Americans, but fails to even know that the path for refugees can take up to three years, and that Syrian refugees are scrutinized even further. Reed fails to understand that his votes to allow those on the Terrorist Watch List and No Fly lists only invite more attacks on American soil -those whom Reed says we need to be scared of.