John Plumb (D-Lakewood)

JAMESTOWN – The John Plumb for Congress campaign is once again going on the offensive against Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23), accusing him of putting the interests of Wall Street before residents in the 23^rd Congressional District.

On Thursday the Plumb Campaign sent out a media release criticizing Congressman Reed’s campaign for sharing a graphic on social media on Wednesday, Aug. 2. The graphic features a message that Reed is representing the “families here in the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes, and Western New York.” However, the accompanying image includes the Tom Reed Logo over a silhouette of the New York City Skyline.

Whether intentional or an oversight, the irony of the image didn’t go unnoticed by Plumb’s campaign.

Friends of John Plumb spokesman Sam Newton said the image is actually fitting for a representative that has taken over $1 million in campaign funding from Wall Street and the financial industry – including over $260,000 in this campaign cycle. He also claims that Reed has consistently voted to protect Wall Street at the expense of families here in Western New York.

A screenshot of the recent message and accompanying image on the Tom Reed’s social media.

“We appreciate that Congressman Reed is finally coming clean about who he represents in Washington – Wall Street bankers, not the hardworking families here in Western New York, the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes,” said Newton.

To support his claim of Reed putting Wall Street before Southern Tier Families, Newtown says that in June of this year, Reed voted along with his House Republican colleagues to block a new fiduciary rule that requires financial advisors to act in their clients’ best interests when giving financial advice, and bars advisors from ripping off clients in order to increase profits.

He also points to Reed’s vote in 2012 to repeal what Newton says was a key mechanism designed to keep Wall Street banks and the financial industry in check to prevent them from crashing the U.S. economy again and hurting working families.

And Newton said that Reed voted in 2013 for a bill almost entirely written directly by lobbyists for a top Wall Street bank that would have repealed a key regulation and allowed Wall Street banks to once again trade derivatives in house –which is a practice that the New York Times called “a main culprit in the 2008 financial crisis.”

And finally the Plumb campaign says that in 2011 Congressman Reed voted against a predatory lending restriction, which allowed financial industry advisors who had been convicted of fraud for engaging in predatory lending to veterans to continue to sell securities.

REED CAMPAIGN: PLUMB IS THE ONE PUTTING OUTSIDE INTERESTS AHEAD OF THE DISTRICT

In response to the Plumb campaign’s most recent accusations, the Reed campaign responded by saying Plumb is the one who’s putting other interests before the interests of local constituents.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

“John plumb is the one who is bought – bought by the DC establishment. This has been proven time and time again by Nancy Pelosi’s constant involvement in the district,” said Amy Hasenberg, Tom Reed for Congress Spokeswoman.  “She handpicked Plumb to move here to run for Congress and she already has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in television commercials. John Plumb is literally in the pocket of DC insiders. He doesn’t care about the needs of our families, he just cares about where his next fundraising check is coming from. Tom on the other hand is fighting for our families because New York is his true home. He is bringing New York’s voice to Washington.”

Hasenberg also said that when it comes to looking out for the interests of Wall Street, no one does it better than the Democratic nominee for president, whose received full support from Plumb.

“Hillary Clinton is the candidate bought by Wall Street this election and John Plumb has supported her all along. Tom is supported by New York’s 23rd District because he is fighting for fair policies for us.”

Plumb is challenging Reed for his seat in the 2016 general election. Over the past two decades he’s served as a submarine officer in the Navy and later as an official at the Department of Defense. Most recently he’s served as director of defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council and is also a Navy Reserve Commander. He graduated from Randolph High School in 1988.

Reed is an attorney and former mayor of Corning who was elected to Congress in 2010 and has represented Chautauqua County since January 2013, when redistricting created the new boundaries for the state’s 23^rd congressional district. Since first being elected to Congress in 2010 (defeating Mathew Zeller, D-Rochester), Reed won reelection in 2012 (defeating Challenger Nate Shinagowa, D-Ithaca) and in 2014 (defeating challenger Martha Robertson, D-Ithaca).

Tom Reed (left) and John Plumb

HORNELL – Congressional Candidate John Plumb (D-Lakewood) is once again criticizing his opponent, incumbent Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23), this time for taking credit for jobs supported by federal dollars that he voted against.

Plumb is referring to 400 new jobs that were recently announced in Hornell, located in the 23rd Congressional District. The city is the home to Alstom, a company that has just finalized a $2.5 billion contract to build high-speed rail cars for Amtrak. In addition to 400 jobs at Alstom, another 350 jobs will be spread across the region.

Reed spoke with the media on Monday calling the recent news an “exciting day” for the Southern Tier that will pay off for generations. But Plumb says Reed should have instead acknowledged his lack of support for the contract, and then apologized for voting several times to cut millions of dollars in Amtrak funding which was used to help make the Alstom contract possible.

To back up his claim, Plumb provided three different instances when he says Reed voted to cut funding for Amtrak:

• In June 2015, Reed voted for a Transportation-HUD Appropriations bill that cut $242 million from Amtrak.
• Reed voted for FY2015 Republican budget that eliminated Amtrak support.
• Congress Reed voted against an amendment to authorize $750 million in funding for an automated train control system for Amtrak.

“Congressman Reed is shamelessly taking credit for jobs he voted against,” Plumb said in a media release sent out by his campaign. “We need a new representative that will put politics aside, and prioritize the need to protect the jobs we have and create new ones throughout the Southern Tier and Western New York.”

An initial story from the Finger Lakes Daily News said that Reed was not able to immediately respond to the comments brought forward by Plumb.

“After be confronted with his record of voting to leave our district behind – all he can do is duck and cover,” Plumb said in response to the Daily News story, adding, “That’s not the cloth I was cut from.”

According to Plumb, when the Alstom contract to help build Amtrak’s next fleet of high-speed trains was announced in September 2015, Congressman Reed was specifically asked not to attend the announcement event. Senator Chuck Schumer was also quoted as saying, “We have to tell people who vote to cut Amtrak that it’s against our interest here in the Southern Tier.”

REED POINTS TO MANUFACTURING SUPPORT EFFORTS

While congressman Reed did not immediately respond to Plumb’s statement regarding Amtrak, he recently stated that he’s done several things to help promote manufacturing and bring new jobs to the 23rd District.

“We’re looking for strong policy that’s going to advance American manufacturing,” Reed said during his July 25 conference call with regional media. “That’s why we’ve done things like Revitalizing American Manufacturing Innovation Act (RAMI) on a bipartisan basis… which led to a $625 million investment here in upstate New York region, to provide the advanced manufacturing opportunities of tomorrow right here in our backyard.”

In addition to RAMI, Reed also points to this week’s manufacturing summit he hosted, which took place Tuesday in Corning  to give local manufacturers an opportunity to learn about what programs are available to them and share ideas so they can grow and create the jobs that the area’s workforce deserves.

Reed said other examples of policy that support manufacturing include working on various tariff bills as well as improving the tax code and adding permanent provisions that Reed said manufacturers can rely on to help grow their business opportunities, “rather than playing the wait-and-see game that DC politics has so often led to with those temporary extensions in the tax code.”

Also on Thursday Reed was in the district and visited Southerntier Custom Fabricators in Elmira. His campaign says he was there to listen and discuss additional ways to help regional manufacturers invest in themselves, as well as work to stop the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.

“We need to make sure our manufacturers have the tools to succeed,” said Reed. “Stopping the TransPacific Partnership is one of the many things we must do to keep manufacturing jobs around for generations to come.”

 “TPP is a deal that harms our workers and our families. We need more people to oppose this deal like Tom Reed,” said Don Kraft Sr., Steel Metal Workers Union 112, in a media release sent out by the Tom Reed for Congress campaign.

“Tom is fighting for jobs and our future while DC John Plumb fights for Washington,” said Amy Hasenberg, Tom Reed for Congress Spokeswomen.  “Tom Reed puts New York jobs first – he always has and always will.”

Plumb, however, has also gone on record as opposing TPP, as well as the other free trade agreements that Reed himself has supported, including FTAs with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. Reed’s campaign has said he’s supported those deals because of the additional business opportunities they’ve provided for farmers in the district.

A map featuring countries the U.S. currently has Free Trade Agreements with. The United States is in blue. Bilateral/Multilateral FTA’s are in green. Proposed/Suspended Bilateral/Multilateral FTA’s are in orange.

JAMESTOWN – Congressional candidate John Plumb (D-Lakewood) is taking Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) to task over his voting record when it comes to U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with other countries.  According to Plumb’s campaign, Reed has supported and approved every FTA that’s come before him and as a result they’ve resulted in thousands of jobs leaving the region.

However, Reed’s campaign say that while the Corning Republican has approved all three FTAs that have come up for a vote since his joining congress, it’s not true that they’ve resulted in thousands of jobs leaving the region. Instead, they say the agreements have benefited the region, especially when it comes to agriculture.

PLUMB: REED’S MANUFACTURING SUMMIT MEANT TO HIDE TERRIBLE RECORD ON TRADE

John Plumb

On Monday, Plumb’s campaign sent out a release criticizing Reed for holding a Manufacturing Summit this week in Corning, saying its part of his effort to hide his support for trade policy that’s hurt regional business and families.

“Congressman Tom Reed continues to say one thing and do another,” Plumb said in the release. “Now he is holding a manufacturing summit to try to hide his terrible record of rigging the system against working families here in Western New York. He has voted to approve every free trade deal that has come before him in Congress – and those bad deals have resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

In support of his comment, Plumb’s campaign included background data on foreign trade deals that have had an adverse impact on New York jobs, adding that they are similar to the ones that Reed has supported – including trade data stemming from NAFTA (which has cost NY 365,000 manufacturing jobs), as well as “free trade with China” (which has cost the state 180,000 jobs through 2013). He also pointed to Reed’s support of the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill – which gave Congress the right to approve or reject future FTAs – as his support of a policy that now makes it easier for the U.S. to pass foreign trade deals.

On Monday WRFA asked Congressman Reed if he’d respond to Plumb’s allegations, in particular his campaign’s reference to NAFTA, a Free Trade Deal with China, and the free trade deal with South Korea.

“It always amazes me, this misinformation and the falsehoods… to say we voted for NAFTA and other agreements that are out there; that was over a decade ago, well before any of my time in Washington DC.,” Reed said. “What we’re looking for is for fair trade. We’re looking for is to make sure our negotiators are putting forth trade policy in order to allow our manufacturers and businesses to compete on the International Stage.”

Reed is correct. He was not in office when NAFTA was approved and there is no free trade deal currently in place with China. In fact there are only three FTAs that have come before congress since Reed took office in late 2010 and they are the FTAs with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea (all approved in October 2011 and put into effect in May 2012).

REED’S SUPPORT OF S. KOREA, COLOMBIA, AND PANAMA FTAs

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

In his media release, Plumb also took Reed to task for his support of an FTA with South Korea, pointing out that the U.S. trade deficit with South Korea rose 48 percent in the top 10 products that New York exports to South Korea. But Plumb’s campaign did not present any data that could illustrate the specific impact the agreement has had on jobs and businesses in Western New York or the 23rd Congressional District to support his statement that “every free trade deal supported by Reed has resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

Meanwhile Reed’s campaign director confirms that Congressman Reed has approved three separate free trade deals, adding that they did have a benefit for the region.

“We need to protect our industries and our farmers,” said Reed campaign communications director Amy Hasenberg on Tuesday. “Tom supported the FTA with South Korea because there were tremendous trade benefits for our farmers. It helps our farmers sell their products in South Korea, in particular our fruit farmers.”

Hasenberg also said that the same reason applies for Reed’s support of the trade agreements with Panama and Colombia.

While no data is available on the specific impact each agreement had on farmers in the New York 23rd Congressional District, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows total U.S. agriculture export revenue for Colombia went up 115% between 2011 (the year before the agreement was enacted) and 2015. During that same time period agriculture export revenue increased 32% for Panama. However, total U.S. agriculture export revenue was down 13 percent for Korea during that same time period.

For the complete picture of how the FTAs that Reed supported affected overall trade surplus/deficit with each respective country, we turn to the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to Census data, before the South Korea FTA, the U.S. was running a trade deficit with that country of $13.20 billion (2011). That amount ballooned to a deficit of $28.31 billion in 2015.  So it would appear that overall, South Korea has definitely seen more benefit from the agreement.

The opposite is the case for Colombia. In 2011, the U.S. had a trade deficit of $8.78 billion in 2011. But by 2015, just 3 years after the FTA was implemented, the U.S. was actually running a trade surplus of $2.21 billion.

And for Panama there has been hardly any impact on overall trade balance. The U.S. had a trade surplus of $7.86 billion with Panama in 2011 and that surplus was down only slightly to $7.26 billion.

SUPPORT FOR SOME FTAs DOESN’T MEAN SUPPORT FOR ALL

So it appears that it is correct to say that Tom Reed has approved every trade agreement that’s come before him in congress, and at least one of those FTAs (South Korea) has resulted in more products and business coming into the U.S. rather than going out to that country. But given that the Colombian and Panamanian FTAs have had a positive to nil impact on trade, it’s not fair to say all FTAs supported by Tom Reed “have resulted in thousands of good jobs disappearing from our region.”

It’s also a stretch for the Plumb campaign to point to NAFTA as an example of a failed FTA and to try and draw a connection to Reed’s support of the other FTAs, considering he wasn’t even in office when that deal was finalized.

And since the United States doesn’t have an FTA with China (China become a trade partner with the U.S. in 2001 via the World Trade Organization), it’s again misleading to point to Chinese trade data with the U.S. in order to draw a conclusion that Reed’s support of other FTAs means he also supports policy that’s created the current trade deficit (and subsequent loss of jobs in New York) with China.

One of the major trade agreements currently being considered by congress is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) – an FTA among the twelve Pacific Rim countries (including the U.S.).  Congressman Reed has already come out and stated that he opposes TPP.

“Our farmers are just one of the reasons Tom opposed TPP,” Hasenberg said. “TPP is not fair to our farms because it will have a large negative impact on them. Tom is trying to take care of our families and that means standing up for all of our industries including the family farm.”

Plumb is challenging Reed for his seat in the 2016 general election. Over the past two decades he’s served as a submarine officer in the Navy and later as an official at the Department of Defense. Most recently he’s served as director of defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council and is also a Navy Reserve Commander. He graduated from Randolph High School in 1988.

Reed is an attorney and former mayor of Corning who was elected to Congress in 2010 and has represented Chautauqua County since January 2013, when redistricting created the new boundaries for the state’s 23^rd congressional district.

John Plumb (D-Lakewood), Left, announced in early July 2015 that he would challenge Tom Reed (R-Corning) for the NY 23rd Congressional District in the 2016 election.

JAMESTOWN – Congressional candidate John Plumb (D-Lakewood) says congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) would rather support Wall Street over helping local families.

On Monday the John Plumb for Congress campaign released a statement criticizing Reed of voting to rig the system against Southern Tier families.

For evidence Plumb points to Reed’s most recent campaign fundraising report, which shows the Corning Republican has so far received more than $100,000 this fundraising cycle in special interest money from big banks and the financial industry.

“Congressman Tom Reed has proven again that he is helping millionaires and big banks play by a different set of rules because they are helping his campaign – and he’s doing it at the expense of hardworking families here in the Southern Tier and Western New York,” Plumb said in the media release.

Plumb also said that Reed recently voted to roll back protections for working families trying to save for retirement. Last month, Reed voted along with his House Republican colleagues to block a new fiduciary rule that requires financial advisors to act in their clients’ best interests when giving financial advice, and bars advisors from ripping off clients in order to increase profits.

So far Reed’s campaign war chest has reported raising more than $2.33 million with more than $1.4 million of that coming from Political Action Committees and more than $860,000 being donated by individuals.

By comparison, Plumb’s campaign has so far raised $858,000 with nearly $680,000 of that coming from individuals and about $165,000 coming from PACS.

BANK DONATIONS TO THE REED REELECTION CAMPAIGN

John Plumb

JAMESTOWN – The two candidates running for New York’s 23^rd 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 (D-Lakewood), Left, announced in early July 2015 that he would challenge Tom Reed (R-Corning) for the NY 23rd Congressional District in the 2016 election.

WASHINGTON – Supporters of the Jamestown area democrat who will likely run against Congressman Tom Reed in the 2016 election are ramping up their attack against the Corning Republican.

the Friends of John Plumb campaign group is criticizing Tom Reed for supporting a transportation bill in June that would have slashed Amtrak funding by $242 million, only to come out earlier this month to take credit for a $2.5 billion Amtrak investment in Hornell.

Plumb said the move is typical of what voters have come to expect from Congressman Reed – saying he votes one way in Washington and then says the opposite back in his home district.

Reed, however, thinks those assertions are overstated and explained his support for the cuts in June to Hornell’s Evening Tribune newspaper.

“We have to do it on an economic basis and support it where it makes sense, where it doesn’t we’re obviously going to be an opponent to it,” he said in the article.

The transportation bill was tabled in June after a conference committee could not reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of the funding measure.

Meanwhile, the $2.5 billion Amtrak contract announced by Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office last week  is expected to create 400 new jobs in Hornell.

Reed, who has already said he plans to run for reelection in 2016, represents the New York 23rd Congressional District in Washington. The district has included Chautauqua County since 2012.