Bluey Blog - Official Blog of Robert B. Bluey

Tom Reynolds Must Be in Some Pretty Deep Do-Do

Another Republican in Congress will bite the dust today, making the GOP’s prospects even worse in a cycle when 29 members have already announced they won’t run for re-election. The latest casualty is Rep. Tom Reynolds of Clarence, N.Y., who has spent the better part of two years fighting scandals, poor management of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a hostile electorate back home.

Just a few weeks ago, Reynolds’ press secretary, L.D. Platt, told me I was dead wrong to speculate that his boss might retire. At the time I wrote my Feb. 27 post about the extinction of New York Republicans, I relied on information from longtime conservative journalist and my former Human Events colleague John Gizzi. He predicted Reynolds would call it quits.

Nonetheless, I let a Capitol Hill press secretary feed me a line of bull. “I can put to rest any speculation about Tom not running. He is running,” Platt wrote in an e-mail on Feb. 28. “And I would point out he has not be accused of any wrong doing, in fact no member has because it was one long serving employee who pulled an elaborate scheme over the course of 15 years.”

In the time since I reported Reynolds would indeed run for re-election, his mismanagement of the NRCC has become an even bigger story in Washington, which leads me to believe he was left little choice but to retire. The Post has run two front-page articles (here and here) about how the NRCC’s former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, began stealing what could amount to $1 million the year Reynolds took over as NRCC chairman. This marked the second scandal stemming from Reynolds’ tenure; his handling of former Rep. Mark Foley’s inappropriate messages to teenage House pages contributed to the GOP’s loss of Congress and nearly cost Reynolds his own seat.

The prospects for keeping New York’s 26th District in Republican hands appear grim. If an experience pol like Reynolds can barely hold the seat — despite outspending a protectionist Democrat opponent by more than 2-to-1 — then I can’t imagine a novice Republican will be able to win in what’s likely going to be a very tough environment, particularly with the poor economy in Upstate New York. And if Hillary Clinton is on the top of the ticket for Democrats, it won’t even be close.

You see, I really wasn’t lying when I said New York Republicans would soon be extinct. Even in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer debacle, I’m not seeing anyone on the GOP farm team in New York who’s ready to play in the big leagues.