Republican congressional candidate Tom Reed of Corning said Wednesday that an attack by his opponent came from the playbook of former U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning.
In a recent You Tube campaign video, Democrat Matthew Zeller of Victor accused Reed of being more willing to look after his own interests than his constituents by accepting more than $1 million in state funding for the restoration of the Masonic Temple in Bath while voting as mayor of Corning to refuse to accept $280,000 in federal stimulus funds.
"You get me elected, I'm always going to have your best interests in mind, not my own," Zeller said in the brief video.
Asked about Zeller's remarks, Reed cited a similar accusation by Massa, who resigned in March from the 29th District seat that Reed and Zeller are seeking. Reed had responded to Massa that he and another partner were part of a limited liability corporation that owns the property, and none of that money went to him.
"We've been dealing with this issue for over a year. There's nothing new there," Reed said during his weekly teleconference with media. "I guess Eric Massa and Matt Zeller got together, and they're continuing to go with the old playbook. So if Zeller wants to run a Massa attack, I think that raises questions as to who's behind his campaign."
Asked whether he was linking Zeller and Massa, Reed denied it. "His actions are following the playbook of Eric Massa, and engaging in that type of a campaign is just old-school politics of negative campaigning, and we're not going to do it," he said.
Reed said he did submit letters as mayor of Corning requesting the stimulus funding, but as time went on, it became obvious that this type of spending was not about shovel-ready jobs and projects as it was initially described. "I am adamantly opposed to it," he said.
