Tom Reed campaign ad.
New York’s 23rd electoral district, currently represented by Republican Tom Reed, is a coveted prize for the national Democratic Party. In 2012 and 2014, the national party apparatus backed two Ithaca-area liberals with ties to Cornell, county legislators Nate Shinagawa and Martha Robertson, against Reed, a former mayor of Cortland.
Shinagawa was narrowly defeated by a margin reflecting the district’s overall slight Republican lean, but Robertson was thumped by a 25-point margin after briefly eclipsing Reed in the polls. A series of Legal Insurrection investigations, her increasingly liberal positions, and torturous debate performance–eliciting laughter from the audience when she accused Reed of waging a “war on women”–led to her campaign’s collapse.
Soured by back-to-back Ithaca defeats, the DCCC, it appears, is changing strategy and focusing on a candidate outside of the “ten square miles surrounded by reality.” The candidate already taking charge against Reed is former White House military aide John Plumb, who was born in NY23 but only recently moved back from Washington D.C.
The Buffalo News reports:
John F. Plumb, who served as director of defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council, told The Buffalo News that family and friends persuaded him to move back to the Southern Tier, thinking he could be a strong Democratic challenger to Reed, the Republican from Corning.
“I don’t think he’s represented the area very well,” said Plumb, 45.
Citing Reed’s vote to shut down the Department of Homeland Security in a budget dispute, Plumb added: “I think he puts himself before the region over and over.” If elected in the Southern Tier’s sprawling 23rd district, Plumb vowed to make economic development his top priority.
“My roots are here,” said Plumb, who was born in Jamestown and raised in Randolph, and who moved back to Lakewood in May. “Every time I’ve come back through the area, I can’t escape the feeling that the area just keeps getting left behind … The area needs someone that can represent it in a way that puts this region above politics, and that’s what I think I can do.” Plumb comes to the congressional race with a résumé that’s decidedly different from the last two Democrats who challenged Reed: Ithaca-area county legislators Nate Shinagawa and Martha Robertson.
A Notre Dame graduate with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado, Plumb is a former Navy submarine officer who still serves as a commander in the Navy Reserves.
Plumb’s military credentials, which would surely boost him nearly anywhere else in the country, might actually make life more difficult should he try to win the treasure trove of Democrat votes in Ithaca. The blue-dog image he seems to exude probably appeals to everywhere else across NY23, but not to virulently counterculture Ithacans.
The Reed campaign was quick to discredit Plumb as a carpetbagger:
Choice is what democracy is all about. During the short time the people of New York have sent us to Washington, we have been a voice for putting people to work, defending the Social Security retirement fund, and protecting the rights granted to Americans by the Constitution. My wife Jean and I grew up here, are raising our family here and have proudly called Upstate New York home for more than 40 years. We know the people of Western New York, the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes and they know us. We look forward to another campaign and trust the voters to decide who will best represent them in Washington.”
I additionally wanted to make you aware that:
- John Plumb only registered to vote in Chautauqua County less than two weeks ago (6/25/15) after being registered in Washington, DC
- John Plumb has not voted in New York or lived in New York for at least the last fifteen years and actually owns a house in Colorado that he called home before moving to the District of Columbia
- As a District of Columbia resident John Plumb voted there most recently last year in the 2014 election but only voted in fewer than half of the elections he was eligible to vote in, including missing the important 2010 Congressional election
It remains to be seen how the DCCC and Plumb will position their campaign against Reed. Clearly, swinging further to the left on made-up issues like the “war on women” doesn’t win over voters worried about jobs in economically-ravaged upstate New York. While Reed carries the baggage of a Republican Congress which has not delivered upon any of its much promised mandates–repeal Obamacare, tax reform, resist further ballooning of Executive authority, etc.–Plumb carries the baggage of being affiliated with the White House’s indefensible foreign policy record.
For more analysis, see Legal Insurrection: National Dems to Ithaca Liberals: We’re just not that into you anymore (#NY23)
