The "Fourth Term" of Richard Hanna?

An invitation crossed my desk today … an invitation to a fundraising cocktail reception at the Yahnundasis for Steve Wells. Nothing usual about that. Fundraisers are held for candidates all the time.

But a $150 minimum? Isn’t this a bit exclusive? Exclusive of the rank-and-file Republicans who have been financially harmed by Local, State, and National economic policies?

More telling, however, is the list of sponsors for this event, a Who’s Who of our local Republican Elite.

You know "Our Elite:”

• the ones who have no problem with a Sales Tax that is head and shoulders above surrounding counties …
  
• the ones who have no problem with some of the highest property taxes in the nation …
  
• the ones who had no problem closing down a perfectly-sized and well-maintained airport in return for a boatload of Federal funds, an oversized behemoth, and multiple opportunities for well-connected contractors to profit …
  
• the ones constantly dumping County taxpayer money into an “International” airport with no scheduled flights …
  
• the ones who used County tax money to build a passenger terminal that can only be used by those fortunate enough to fly private planes …
  
• the ones who have no problem taking water from Herkimer County and the residents of Greater Utica and sending it, at the people’s expense, to the Oneida Indian Nation and western Oneida County …
  
• the ones who support removing hundreds of acres from the local tax rolls and placing it into Federal Trust for the benefit of the Oneida Indian Nation …
  
• the ones who favor taking properties permanently off Utica’s taxrolls and closing city streets to grab $300 million in state funds for a new hospital, which can be built on sites nearby without the negative impacts …
  
• the ones who have presided over a drop in regional population of Biblical proportion …
  
• the ones who stood silent while the Republican County Executive appeared in television and radio advertisements against the Republican Gubernatorial candidate and actually endorsed Democrat Governor Cuomo …
• the ones who stood by while the voters of several Oneida and Herkimer County towns had their representation diluted by Suburban New York City voters in a Gerrymandered, string-bean shaped Assembly District in a blatant, but unsuccessful, attempt to depose the local Assemblywoman who had become a thorn in their side and a threat to "business as usual" …
  
• the ones who must have had a bad case of agita when that same Assemblywoman almost beat the incumbent Congressman in the last primary for the position.
  

Ahh, Our Elite . . . the ones who supported Congressman Hanna through two re-elections even though he:

• told Republicans to donate to Democrats to advance women’s issues …
  
• campaigned as a “fiscal conservative” yet opened the door to more spending by voting to increase the Federal debt ceiling every time it came up …
  
• campaigned as a “fiscal conservative” yet proposed new big-spending programs of his own …
• pushed for a larger role of the Federal government in education …
• voted tens of times in “show votes” to “repeal Obamacare,” yet shrank from using the power of the purse to neutralize Obamacare by voting to fund it …
• encouraged illegal immigration by voting against cutting off Section 8 housing subsidies for illegals …
• advocated for more visas for foreign workers with technical degrees at a time when the number of American technical graduates far exceeded the job supply and when companies have used foreign workers to displace Americans …
• approved of several "free trade" agreements that caused the loss of local jobs to foreign countries …
• aided the potential infiltration of our government by Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers when he attacked Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann’s call for an investigation of how Huma Abedin (a top aide of Hillary Clinton) was able to get a security clearance …
• routinely mocked conservatives who disagreed with him, including a 4^th grader!

Ahh, Our Elite . . . the ones desperately conducting a smear campaign against Claudia Tenney, mischaracterizing her record.

No one can seriously question Ms. Tenney’s bona fides as a Conservative, although in the dysfunction that is Albany, votes can be misconstrued any way you want. The trumpeted “missed votes” is a distortion: She DID vote – on paper – as was her right while attending to personal family matters. When that should have been the end of the story, those intent on making a smear discussed that she may have been campaigning while she was away from Albany to care for her mother . . . So What? Her constituents were already served by her written votes. Simply, she did not have to be present.

Ms. Tenney is well known, even in the national media, as a person guided by conservative, Constitutional, small-government principles that is not beholden to special interests -- especially Our Elite.

Mr. Wells claims to have supported the Republican candidate in the last gubernatorial election, yet admits that his company, which has contracts with the state, made a large donation to Andrew Cuomo. Isn't that duplicitous? Isn't that more of what we currently have representing us in Washington?

Since Mr. Wells has no record in the public eye, he can only be judged by the company he keeps – which is the same company kept by Mr. Hanna: Our Elite.

If you like the job Our Elite have done, and if you like the job done by Richard Hanna, then by all means vote for Mr. Wells. They, and he, give us no reason to believe they will do anything different.

Even though Mr. Phillips comes across as a knowledgeable candidate above the frey, he has not been under constant attack and lacks the legislative experience of Ms. Tenney.

If you are tired of “business as usual” politics and tired of Republicans promising to do one thing and then doing the opposite, then consider CLAUDIA TENNEY as your choice this Congressional primary on Tuesday, June 28^th.