Republican incumbent Claudia Tenney lost her bid for a second term last year 51-49 to Democrat Anthony Brindisi, and she’s once again talking about seeking a rematch in New York’s 22nd Congressional District. Tenney told the radio station WUTQ in late February that she was not ruling out another bid for this upstate New York seat, which includes Utica and Rome, and was “looking at all the options.”
Tenney also had some choice words about her successor, accusing Brindisi of “introducing my old bills” and using “mostly plagiarism” to copy her old letters to committee chairs and to the White House, though Luke Perry of Utica College notes that she “did not provide specific examples.” Tenney oddly also used that very same interview to claim that, in addition to “literally copying what I did,” Brindisi also had the “single-most left wing voting record” when he served in the state Assembly.
Perry also notes that Tenney’s Twitter handle, which she started using again this month after a three-month hiatus, still identifies her as a current member of Congress, but her old GOP colleagues may not be so keen to have her running again. Last year, Tenney earned an ignominious distinction: New York's 22nd backed Donald Trump by a wide 55-39 margin, making it the Trumpiest seat that a House Republican managed to lose in 2018. According to Bloomberg’s Greg Giroux, Republican gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro also carried this seat by a wide 56-36 margin as Tenney was losing, so she managed to alienate quite a few conservative voters.
Indeed, Tenney had a knack for attracting plenty of bad headlines for herself during the campaign. In just one of many examples, she hurled hoary anti-Italian slurs at Brindisi last year by saying his father had represented "some of the worst criminals in our community" who were members of "organized crime"—in other words, mafia figures. In September she doubled down on line of attack, a very bad strategy in a seat where one in seven residents are Italian-American.
If Tenney runs again, she’s face an old opponent in the primary. Teacher George Phillips, who was appointed to the Broome County Legislature in 2013 and stepped down months later, announced on Thursday that he was running for Congress again. Phillips unsuccessfully challenged Democratic incumbent Maurice Hinchey in 2008 and 2010, and both he and Tenney sought this seat in 2016 when it was last open. Tenney beat another candidate 41-34, while Phillips took third with 25 percent.
Broome County District Attorney Stephen Cornwell also announced in January that he had opened an exploratory committee for a potential bid here, but the FEC doesn’t show him having filed a fundraising committee yet.
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