To the Editor:

This morning I read a letter from Scott Gray, whom I assume is not the honorable NY Assembly member. He attacked Blake Gendebien, complete with name calling, saying he’s known him for 30 years.
This letter sounds a lot like oppositional research done by Constantino, who has a long history of doing whatever it takes to win, all complete with the mudslinging names, etc. So what was dug up? That Blake legally rented out office space to his campaign staff and that he legally bought tickets for the county fair at a time when he’s paying (out of his own pocket) workers to do the farm work that he’d normally do. Nothing illegal was mentioned; just that Blake didn’t show up for his town’s homecoming, probably because as a busy candidate he was at some other event.
Notably, Gray offers nothing personal from his 30 years of knowing Blake. No personal insight of some kind of misdeed or character flaw, some story from the past that Gray would have knowledge of. Nope. It was all information dug up and twisted, something very much like what Constantino does.

Well, here’s a real story from Blake’s past: When I was campaigning for my own candidacy, I met a young man who told me his 6 year old son needed a lot of services. The child was less than a pound at birth and the only place that could take such a severe case was a hospital in Boston for an entire year, and the parents were there most of the time. The man asked if I knew Blake Gendebien and then shared that he’d been working on Blake’s farm when his son was born and that Blake had given him a paycheck every week he was in Boston with his newborn child.
Farmers operate on narrow margins, yet Blake found a way to pay someone in need anyway. That is who Blake Gendebien is.

Ginger Storey-Welch
Colton