Brindisi campaign: Washington Post Fact Checker indicates super PAC supporting Tenney
CLF’s anti-Brindisi ad receives four-Pinocchio-rating from WaPo – Brindisi campaign calls on Tenney to denounce the ad
Congressional Leadership Fund, the same dark money super PAC that improperly distributed a former CIA officer’s confidential security questionnaire, was recently fact-checked by the Washington Post for running a series of misleading ads in key Congressional races, including NY-22.
The Washington Post determined that the ads were “grossly misleading” and “don’t make much sense.” The Post gave the ads – one of which made false claims about Anthony Brindisi’s relationship with the Marcy Nano project – four Pinocchios, the worst rating a claim can receive.
The ad in question falsely claims that Brindisi’s support of the project led to “lost money” and “lost jobs,” and ties him to a corruption scandal that slowed the project; but the Washington Post points out those claims aren’t true.
“Brindisi, a state lawmaker representing the Utica area, was not involved in the corruption allegations…the $585 million Cuomo had pledged was not paid out to AMS, and no jobs were lost,” they wrote.
Brindisi fought to keep the economic development money in the following year’s state budget; an editorial from the Utica Observer Dispatch at the time also argued that Brindisi and local leaders “did nothing wrong” and that the project is still ongoing.
“These false attack ads are another sign that Claudia Tenney’s supporters will stop at nothing to mislead voters and obscure her record of voting to take healthcare from her constituents while giving her corporate donors a major tax break,” said Ellen Foster, campaign manager for Anthony Brindisi. “People deserve to know the facts in this race. She should take a stand for the truth and denounce this ad.”