An article in today’s Buffalo News, reveals a particularly deceptive campaign strategy that incumbent Senator Mark Grisanti plans on deploying in the general election, says Mike Madigan, the Republican Party’s nominee for Congress in 2012.
“After running an aggressive primary campaign attacking Kevin Stocker for being too ‘liberal’ Grisanti announces to the Buffalo News that he now plans on running an aggressive campaign against ‘extremist right wing candidate Stocker,” Madigan explains, offended by the hypocrisy of the situation.
Grisanti lost his recent Republican primary to Kevin Stocker, a former Town Prosecutor in Tonawanda, and an attorney in private practice. Stocker trounced Grisanti in the primary, on the tails of anti-NYSAFE Act sentiment. Grisanti has become deeply unpopular in the GOP following that gun control vote.
Stocker’s campaign strategy consisted mainly of door to door interaction with voters at their homes, where he would spend generous amounts of time discussing his policy views. Stocker credits that door to door contact with his impressive primary win.
But Madigan credits Stocker’s win to a different issue: honesty.
“Grisanti shows an incredible lack of respect for his constituents as he seeks to mislead them like he did in 2010, 2012 and in the just completed 2014 Primary where the voters soundly rejected this very form of ugly, dirty and dishonest politics,” Madigan says. “After interviewing numerous republican primary voters this week, the most frequently cited reason why people voted against Grisanti was his lack of respect for his constituents, his outright lies and deceptions.”
The incumbant has also come under criticism for his often outlandish attack mailers targeting Stocker, in which he claimed Stocker is a radical liberal who supports abortion, taxpayer funded tuition for illegals, and who is owned by downstate interest groups. None of those claims is true.
In fact, Grisanti has taken many millions of dollars in campaign contributions from downstate special interests over the last four years — even from billionaires like Mike Bloomberg and Peter Senger. It is unclear whether his downstate donor base will pony up for a ‘rescue plan’ that local political operatives have priced at around $2 million. No doubt he will be making those phone calls.
“Apparently Grisanti plans more of the same disrespect and ugly politicking as he tries once again to fool the voters,” Madigan concludes.
Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy has expressed his support of Stocker, and stressed his respect for Republican primary voters. He is quoted in the Buffalo News article.
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