RUTHFULLY YOURS

While Governor Kathy Hochul’s lead against Rep. Lee Zeldin seems to be tightening, there are other New York State races to watch.

City and State New York magazine identified six congressional races to watch, singling out one as “one of the most competitive in the country” — NY-22: Francis Conole (D) v. Brandon Williams (R).

Let’s take a look at how Williams’s #LetsVoteBrandon campaign started.

John Katko, the Republican representative for New York’s 24^th Congressional District, announced he was scurrying out of Washington forever after casting his Trump Impeachment vote in 2021.  (To which President Trump commented, “Great news, another one bites the dust.  Katko, from Upstate New York, is gone!”)

Indeed, there was no love lost between Katko and his constituents, who continually voted for him as the lesser of two evils, then loudly lambasted him for “continually backing Democratic legislation” that went against everything they believed in.

Then came the redistricting mess.  Katko was originally elected to New York’s 24^th Congressional District, much of which is now the new, open 22^nd district.

Enter Brandon Williams, a Navy veteran, husband, father and truffle farmer from Cayuga county.  “I just can’t sit by and see what’s happening to our country.  I think people are starting to wake up and say ‘Wow, we may be in trouble.’”  That’s what Williams told a local paper as he entered the race to represent the NY-22 back in February.

But Williams had only begun his labored ascent for the hearts and minds of Central New York voters. First, he had to battle the top dogs in his own party.

Steve Wells, Katko’s finance chairman and former treasurer of the State Republican Party, was the presumptive heir to the throne.

Wells donated $24,000 to Katko’s campaigns.  Perhaps most telling, right after Katko’s vote to impeach Trump, Wells gave him a maximum donation.  Besides those donations, Wells, a former Democrat, was donating to then Governor Andrew Cuomo.  The National File reported:

Despite his large donations to Katko and Cuomo, Wells has never donated to a Trump campaign or a Trump-aligned cause, helping to earn him the nickname “Liberal Steve Wells” on the campaign trail.

Katko’s former staff was running the Wells campaign, as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was pouring huge amounts of cash into the  campaign from the Congressional Leadership Fund.  Elise Stefanik, representing New York’s 21^st Congressional District and also serving as the House Republican Conference chair, gave her coveted endorsement to Wells instead of Brandon Williams.

Then Wells made a fatal mistake.  Too assured of his own victory, propped up by New York’s GOP establishment and sitting on a pile of congressional money, he refused to debate Williams.  Many believe it cost him the primary election.

After Williams trounced Wells, 58% to 41%, Wells and the GOP establishment lined up to make Williams their best buddy.  (Well, everyone lined up except John Katko, who was somewhere pouting in a corner, later refusing to explain his churlish silence as he refused to endorse his successor.)

That’s the backstory of how the lines got blurred between what one reporter called “the McCarthy-aligned anti-Trump establishment and the grassroots MAGA movement.”

Now we’re up to the final throwdown — Brandon Williams vs. Democrat nominee Francis Conole.

A recent Sienna College poll found Williams beating Conole, 45-40%.  A later poll commissioned by Conole’s campaign showed them in a dead heat.

Conole looks good on paper.  He’s a “U.S. Naval Academy graduate, Iraq War Veteran, and Defense Secretary Policy Advisor.”  However, his resume wasn’t strong enough for him to claim victory in his own party’s 2020 primary.  He lost to yet another repeat loser, Dana Balter.  (Balter repeatedly lost to Katko. If you read enough about her, it might explain why Republicans kept holding their noses and voting for Katko.)

Conole has recently taken flak after the publication of an October 18^th article in the Washington Examiner titled, “Democratic candidate touts family ties to prison slammed for ‘cruel and inhumane treatment’ of inmates.”

Apparently, Conole had the bright idea to film his latest campaign ad in front of the Onondaga County Justice Center in his hometown of Syracuse, NY.  He did this while boasting that it was named after his grandfather, a former sheriff there.  The only trouble was, as investigative journalist Gabe Kaminsky writes:

But what Conole failed to mention is that New York’s Commission of Correction, an agency that investigates jails, issued a comprehensive 2018 report detailing how the justice center was one of the “worst offenders” among prisons in breaking the law — applying “cruel and inhumane treatment” of inmates that was “in violation of their Constitutional rights.”

It’s a terrible story, and Kaminsky gives more details in his article.  A spokesman for Williams responded:

It’s disturbing that Francis Conole marched with Black Lives Matter pretending to care about injustices, while now shamelessly campaigning in front of his grandfather’s namesake jail that holds the record as one of the most mismanaged jails in New York — disproportionately impacting African American youth.

It’s even more disturbing that Conole touts four generations of family active in the Syracuse, NY area, a city that has been listed as “one of the poorest cities in America” for years.  Apparently, something in the family’s progressive worldview is not translating into a better life for their neighbors.

And, as predicted, Conole has taken a page from the Democratic playbook breathlessly repeated around the country.  This headline says it all:  “ In new TV ad, Conole elevates abortion as top issue in race for Congress.”

Conole and his cronies came out swinging. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the New York State Democratic Committee produced an ad and a mailer, respectively, stating that Williams, “supports allowing states to ban all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.”

They did this even though Williams was already on record supporting the three exceptions — hardly a surprise since it’s a viewpoint held by a “vast majority of Republicans.”

Williams will get a chance to prove himself and confront his opponent during a series of debates beginning October 26^th.

One thing is certain:  Of all the years to be running as a Republican candidate named Brandon, this is certainly the right one.  Williams owns LetsVoteBrandon.com and created the #LetsVoteBrandon hashtag.  That was a marketing nugget he didn’t have to pay for; it was handed to him.

Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com