via Daily Freeman
KINGSTON >> John Faso has clinched the Ulster County Republican endorsement for the state’s 19th Congressional District seat, giving him the backing of the GOP committees in 10 of the 11 counties in the district.
Ulster County GOP Chairman Roger Rascoe said Faso, who garnered 62 percent of the committee’s vote Wednesday, “distinguished himself” from the other candidates.
“John Faso knows firsthand the challenges that we face in Ulster County and in this country,” Rascoe said.
But Dutchess County Republican Andrew Heaney dismissed the endorsement, saying in a press release that Faso “limped to the finish line of the county screening process, barely beating out himself to win the insider game.”
He called on Faso, a former state assemblyman who worked on former Gov. George Pataki’s transition team, to come clean about his role in a 2010 scandal involving the state pension fund.
Heaney, who has been endorsed by the Dutchess County Republican Committee, has said he will challenge Faso in a primary for the Republican line on the November ballot in the 19th District.
The district’s current congressmen, Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, is not seeking re-election and has taken the first steps toward running for governor in 2018.
Faso, who also lives in Kinderhook, served in the Assembly from 1998 until 2002, representing the 102nd District. He gave up his seat in the to run for state comptroller in 2002 but lost Democrat Alan Hevesi. He ran for governor in 2006 and was defeated by Democrat Eliot Spitzer by almost 40 percentage points.
In his press release, Heaney campaign likened Faso to Spitzer, who was forced out of office in 2008 in the midst of a prostitution scandal.
“This time, it’s John’s candidacy that is hobbled by similar charges of corruption as, ironically, he was caught in the same pay-to-play net that sent his former opponent (Hevesi) to prison,” stated Campaign manager David O’Connell.
Hevesi pleaded guilty to corruption charges in April 2011 and served about 20 months in state prison.
O’Connell said Faso has “refused to answer direct questions about his role in a 2010 scandal that banned him from lobbying state pension funds for five years, and prompted a fine of $550,000 to the law firm where he worked because of his illegal lobbying activities. Instead he’s using the same Albany mish-mosh, lawyer double-talk to evade the truth about his role in the scandal.
“It’s time for John to come clean,” the campaign stated.
The Faso campaign shot back in an email Friday, branding Heaney as a carpetbagger and supporter of President Obama.
“After flunking the Republican endorsement … Heaney is at it again,” stated Faso spokesman Dian Pascocello. “Mr. Heaney, an Obama donor who just moved to this area from New York City, has done nothing but attack John Faso, the endorsed Republican candidate with deep roots in our community. His pattern of vitriol and lies says far more about Mr. Heaney than it does about anyone else.”
This is not the first time Faso has defended himself against allegations by Heaney’s campaign that he is a “disgraced pay-to-play pol.”
In a Feb. 8 letter to Heaney, sent to the press by the Faso campaign, Faso blasted Heaney’s “smear tactics” and lobbed allegations of his own, claiming Heaney was illegally coordinating his campaign with the Super PAC Heaney created and funded to level “false” and “defamatory” allegations in TV ads.
“The truth, as you know full well, is that I have never been fined, sanctioned or penalized for violating any professional or ethical requirement,” Faso wrote in the letter.
Faso also stated he was not part of any settlement and never represented anyone before the state pension fund.
“This entire matter was nothing more than [Gov.] Andrew Cuomo’s vindictive effort to smear my reputation,” Faso wrote. “He did not succeed, but now you, as a purported New York Republican candidate, attempt to revive the failed political smear of Democrat Andrew Cuomo.”
On Feb. 3, a complaint was filed with the Federal Elections Commission by an organization called Campaign for Accountability, calling for an investigation into requesting the alleged illegal coordination between Heaney’s campaign and New York Jobs Council, a super PAC Heaney appears to have established.
In addition to Faso and Heaney, Bob Bishop, who lives in the Delaware County town of Hamden, has announced his candidacy for GOP line in the 19th Congressional District race.
The 19th Congressional District comprises all of Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Delaware, Sullivan, Schoharie and Otsego counties; most of Dutchess and Rensselaer counties, and parts of Montgomery and Broome counties.
Democratic committees in the district have endorsed Zephyr Teachout, who challenged Cuomo for the Democratic line in the 2014 gubernatorial race. Town of Livingston Councilman Will Yandik also has also announced plans to seek the Democratic line on the ballot in the congressional race.
Editor’s note: This story was amended at 4:19 p.m. on Feb. 20 to indicate that allegations against Faso were made by Heaney’s campaign manager David O’Connell.