To the Editor:
As a Republican leader in Madison County, I can’t hold my tongue when I read the debate about Claudia Tenney.
Voters deserve to know the truth about this Albany insider who is now running for Congress. Here it is: Last legislative term, she missed a staggering 525 votes in the State Assembly. You can look it up the way I did at www.nypirg.org.
Tenney’s supporters say she missed votes for family reasons. That’s a fraction of the story. She missed most of her votes in when she was running for Congress, unsuccessfully, two years ago. You can look it up at www.assembly.state.ny.us. To my mind, that’s putting per personal self-interest ahead of her constituents’ interests.
And when Tenney did vote, she voted with Shelly Silver – the Manhattan liberal Democrat who is now on his way to federal prison – 77 percent of the time. Again, you can look it up.
One of those votes was on Dec. 7, 2011, for bill S50002: Tenney voted for what the Republican State Chairman called “a net increase of nearly $2 billion” pushed by Silver and Governor Cuomo. [http://newyork.gop/op_ed_heres_how_cuomocanfix_taxes]
If you want more of the same from Washington, D.C., Claudia Tenney might be your choice. If you want a reliable conservative, Republicans have better choices.
Sincerely,
Ken Kunkel, DeRuyter