Press Release:
The political race to unseat incumbent GOP congressman Tom Reed has reached a new, and sad level. The race has now reached the point of finger pointing over alleged stolen campaign signs...
Reed campaign press release:
For several weeks Tom Reed’s campaign has been placing Extreme Ithaca Liberal yard signs throughout the 23rd Congressional District to highlight their opponents’ extreme positions on the issues. Unfortunately the signs, paid for by Tom Reed for Congress, have been disappearing.
On Tuesday, June 12, Tom Reed’s campaign was tipped off that six Extreme Ithaca Liberal yard signs, placed adjacent to other political yard signs, were stolen from a public right of way and moved to a residence in Corning.
Tom Reed for Congress traveled to the residence and confronted the owner, a staffer for Tracy Mitrano’s campaign for Congress. After initially denying that they had stolen the signs, Tracy Mitrano’s “Corning Co-Captain” and his wife, a volunteer for the campaign, eventually admitted on camera to stealing the six Extreme Ithaca Liberal yard signs during an exchange with Tom Reed’s campaign manager.
“It is shocking to know that a Tracy Mitrano campaign employee was engaged in theft of political yard signs,” said Nicholas Weinstein, Campaign Manager for Tom Reed for Congress. “Apparently when you’re running on a platform that is completely out of touch with the district you want to represent – socialized government-run medicine, higher taxes, and heroin injection sites in our backyards – you start to get desperate.”
Stealing political yard signs suppresses the right to free speech. It can also be trespassing, larceny, and vandalism – all crimes punishable with jail time and fines.
Weinstein added, “Regardless of your political views, trespassing, stealing, and vandalism are wrong and against the law. Tom Reed cares about addressing the issues that matter to the people he represents and will continue to fight for the families who have chosen to make the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes and Western New York their home.”
This latest incident comes after reports from other candidates that their yard signs have also been disappearing, while the Mitrano campaign was already reportedly caught not filing the financial disclosure required by the House of Representatives, and threatening illegitimate legal action against Tom Reed’s campaign regarding the protected, legitimate use of an image of Tracy Mitrano in campaign advertising.
Seriously? These are the people that can vote to send us to war?
