Brooks Slaughter Race for Congress is Heating Up
By: Vanessa Herring
Updated: September 18, 2012
Another twist in the battle for the new 25th congressional district seat.
Louise Slaughter was surrounded by party leaders at the Monroe County Democratic Headquarters as they launched the tour. They say it's time for voters to take a closer look at Brooks record, which they say, includes awarding political cronies with jobs and contracts, and then forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab.
We'll have to wait to see if the effort will earn Slaughter votes, "whether or not that will help me, I don't know," said Slaughter, who currently represents New York's 28th district, "as I said in my statement, having stood up for integrity has not always won me the populatrity contest, but nonetheless, that's who I am."
The Brooks campaign dismissed the attack, but issued a statement slamming Slaughter's voting record. They're accusing Slaughter of spending more time at swanky fundraisers than on the floor of the house, doing the people's business, "she's engaging in these silly theatrics, these ridiculous tours to talk about issues that really aren't related to this congressional race," said Noah Lebowitz, Maggie Brooks' campaign manager.
SUNY Geneseo professor Jeff Koch says nasty campaigns aren't new, "it's gone on in county supervisor races. I don't think it's happened that much in races that Louise Slaughter has been in, at least by her, because, her races typically have not been very close."
He says negative campaigns can give candidates an edge, "negative information can be found by voters to be very important, negative information usually gets peoples attention too."
Kouch says both Brooks and Slaughter should be careful, "there can be a point where voters start to see some of the charges maybe going beyond the boundary, and start to sound just kind of nasty and foolish, and it could be the case that whoever is making the charges it actually comes back to haunt them."
The Brooks campaign will release its first ad on Wednesday, and it will focus on Maggie's record.
The Brooks campaign will release what's being called, "contrast ads," but Lebowitz says they will not include, "personal character attacks."
