Thursday, April 25, 2024 | St. Lawrence County, NY
Elise Stefanik has been a strong advocate for her supporters, but, unfortunately, those supporters are not residents of the NY-21, and their interests are too often in conflict with those of the vast …
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Elise Stefanik has been a strong advocate for her supporters, but, unfortunately, those supporters are not residents of the NY-21, and their interests are too often in conflict with those of the vast majority of her constituents in NY-21.
From early on, in August 2013, a year before her TV ads first ran, a handful of very rich and very powerful supporters gave Stefanik lots of money – close to a million dollars. Looking at Federal Elections Commission records, these supporters can be categorized into three groups:
1. Billionaires wanting members of Congress who would vote for lower taxes for the rich.
2. Paul Ryan and other powerful House Republicans whose PACs contributed from the first days of her campaign
3. Corporate PACs of Wall Street firms and the largest defense contractors with narrow business interests and little or no interest in Northern NY.
Why would these rich and powerful back Stefanik, a recent college graduate with limited work experience, and who didn’t go to school or own property or pay property taxes in our congressional district?
Yet, these powerful Washington insiders and billionaires got their way. Stefanik was elected and then taxes were dramatically lowered for the ultra-rich, spending for defense contractors ballooned (along with the deficit), and Stefanik voted for Ryan to become Speaker of the House. So it is no surprise that these same interests are still backing Stefanik this year, giving more millions to pay for attack ads made by Washington PR firms aligned with PAC-rich politicians. Less than 7% of her funding comes from within the district.
This November 6th vote for the woman who will represent us and our district’s needs. Tedra Cobb is such a candidate. She lives and works in the district, owns property and pays property taxes to her North County school district where her kids attended. Tedra and her husband have each worked hard for years creating jobs in the district.
Unlike her opponent, Tedra will be beholden only to those regular folks who helped her raise an incredible $715,000 this past quarter, 65% from within the district and 87% from within the state, and all while refusing corporate PAC money. Vote for Tedra Cobb on Nov. 6.
Robert J. Penski
Colton
