Southern Tier’s Rep. Tom Reed faces spirited challenge from Tracy Mitrano
His lawn signs say, simply, "Tom for
His eight years in
But in light of an expected wave of Democratic voters and a giant infusion of cash in recent months for
"This is about defining someone who will say anything she needs to say to get elected," he said.
Mitrano, who raised nearly a million dollars toward her campaign in the third quarter, has hurled similar accusations against Reed. His talk of bipartisanship is not supported by his voting record or his negative campaign style, she said.
"How he campaigns totally belies how he would depict himself," said the cybersecurity expert and former director of informational technology policy at
As
The
Her campaign commissioned and released the results of an online survey it commissioned from
"We are within striking, if not crushing, distance of
"While I wouldn't necessarily say this district is winnable tomorrow for any Democrat, certainly there's some movement for it to be a closer, tighter race," he said.
Reed's campaign has worked to label Mitrano as an "extreme
At the national level, he points to his work as co-chairman of the
In a meeting with The Buffalo News Editorial Board, Reed said his support for a new House speaker -- Republican or Democrat -- will be tied to whether that person would pledge to adopt House rule reforms.
"I will not stay down there if this doesn't happen," he said.
New Jersey Rep.
"I've just seen the way he's really worked with
Reed serves with Rep.
According to FiveThirtyEight, a data and polling analysis website, Reed votes with Trump's position 96.6 percent of the time. Reed said while he is upfront about his positions, he also looks for common ground with people who disagree with him, pointing to the more than 250 town hall meetings he has held with both supporters and dissenters across the district.
Mitrano dismissed Reed's work with the
"I'm not taken in by his PR campaign," she said. "Problem Solvers have not accomplished a single, concrete thing."
Reed's name has been on only three pieces of legislation, she said, and two of them were for naming a post office, she said. She also criticized his vote on a compromise bill that would place a
"He's really just let it go to seed," she said.
She pledges to champion issues of single-payer health care and lowering student debt, issues she said Reed has voted against or ignored. She also said she would fight harder to bring broadband Internet access to rural parts of the district.
Reed described Mitrano as someone who changes her position on hot-button issues like the Second Amendment and health care, depending on her audience. He said she is not someone whose word you can count on.
He said he also supports greater broadband Internet access, as well as immigration and health care reform, infrastructure improvements and addressing the national debt crisis. He pointed to successes with his support of advanced manufacturing centers, investment in the cleanup of the
He criticized Mitrano's support for "government-controlled health care," which he said would ultimately raise health care costs and "collapse the entire system." Mitrano has argued that a single-payer Medicare system would provide the government the best leverage to negotiate lower health care costs and minimize bloated administrative and advertising fees.
Reed has a clear fundraising advantage over Mitrano, starting off the year with more than
But campaign finance reports show Mitrano's fund-raising efforts have rapidly gained on Reed's over the past few months. Posted campaign filings after the start of the year show Mitrano raised about
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