Jack Davis (industrialist)
Encyclopedia
John "Jack" Davis is an American industrialist and politician from Newstead, New York
. He made his fourth bid for New York's 26th congressional district
seat in the U.S. House of Representatives
in the special election held on May 24, 2011. The election was held to fill the seat vacated by Republican
Chris Lee who resigned in February 2011 due to a scandal. He ran as a self-financed independent—Tea Party candidate against Republican State Assemblywoman Jane Corwin
, Democrat Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul
, and Green Party nominee satirist
Ian Murphy.
He said he was running again because of his concern that the country is being destroyed by U.S. free trade policies which he says have led to the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and the decline of manufacturing in the United States. Noted for his party-switching, Davis has said that if he won this election, he would caucus in the House with the Republican and Tea Party caucuses.
A lifelong Republican, Davis switched to the Democrats after being kicked out of a fundraiser headlined by Dick Cheney
in 2003 when he tried to ask Cheney questions about free trade policies. He then ran for the U.S. Congress seat in his home district, NY-26, in 2004, 2006 and 2008 as a self-funded candidate, pouring in millions of his own funds and coming close to beating the incumbent Republican Thomas Reynolds
in 2006. In the 2008 election, however, he came in third out of three in the Democratic primary. He switched his affiliation back to Republican with the election of fellow wealthy industrialist Chris Lee, becoming an ally and supporter of Lee. After Lee's abrupt departure from Congress in February, 2011 Davis tried and failed to get the Republican nomination to replace Lee, then decided to run as an independent on a newly created Tea Party line.
Davis is the founder and owner of I Squared R Element Company, an Akron, New York
manufacturer and seller of heating elements for high temperature furnaces, and has never outsourced jobs. He is also known for filing a successful lawsuit
against the Federal Election Commission in 2006, claiming that the so-called "millionaire's amendment" to McCain-Feingold Act
was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito
writing for the 5-4 majority, sided with Davis, striking down the down the millionaire's amendment as violating the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.
; he moved with his family to Buffalo, New York
after World War II. His father was an engineer, and Davis discovered early on that he liked working on cars with his father and building things. He graduated from Amherst Central High School in 1951. He enrolled in the University of Buffalo
, where he majored in industrial engineering and received his degree in 1955.
Davis completed Marine Corps
Officer Training as a reservist
while in college, and served three years as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard
upon graduation. He began work as an engineer in 1958, first at General Motors as a maintenance engineer, then at The Carborundum Company as a supervising sales engineer.
He started his silicon carbide
heating element manufacturing business, I Squared R Element, in 1964 in a garage, and now employs 75 people in Akron, New York
who receive employer provided health care and pension benefits. He has touted the fact that he has never outsourced any jobs. According to 2011 financial disclosure statements, Davis' net worth is between $18.2 million and $83.4 million (about half that of his opponent Jane Corwin).
. Davis insisted on talking to Cheney about U.S. free trade policies, which Cheney's staff refused to allow, ordering Davis to be ejected from the fundraiser. Davis then quit the Republican party. He later became a Democrat
(2003), then founded the Save Jobs Party (2004-5), then rejoined the Republican Party (2008), and in March 2011 created the Tea Party ballot line by obtaining the required number of signatures.
, described by the New York Times as one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. In the 2008 race, Davis finished third place in a three-way Democratic primary to Alice Kryzan. In the ongoing 2011 election, Davis, who has been a registered Republican since 2008, is now s running on the "Tea Party" line. He has said he is running again because of his concern that the country is being destroyed.
A major theme of Davis' campaigns is that too many U.S. manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries, with 53,000 manufacturing plants closed in the past 30 years and 17 million Americans presently unemployed. He believes U.S. free trade policies and agreements have caused the job loss and the great recession. He says the free trade policies have been pushed by multinational corporations and big box stores such as Walmart who effectively have purchased the White House and the U.S. Congress. Davis says he is free of those influences, and wants to go to Washington to save American jobs, farms and industries.
for the U.S. Congress from the 26th District of New York against incumbent Republican Representative Tom Reynolds
, who was considered unbeatable. Davis doubled his original financial commitment to the race, pouring a total of $1.2 million dollars of personal money into his campaign. Reynolds was forced to begin running campaign ads for the first time since his election in 1998.
On election day, Reynolds won, 56 percent to 44 percent; in contrast, he won the 2002 election 75 percent to 25 percent against the Democratic challenger. Many cite the amount spent by Davis as compared to Reynolds' prior challenger as the primary factor for the change. Some observers attributed the narrowed margin of victory to an undercurrent of resentment in the working-class areas of the 26th district over economic decline and a lack of manufacturing sector jobs. Others attributed the margin to the politics of the specific candidates; Reynolds' politics more closely resembling big-government neo-conservatism while Davis' more closely resembles the limited-government libertarian conservatism of Goldwater, the type of conservative thought more widely adhered to in Upstate New York
.
After the election, Davis was fined for a violation of campaign finance reporting laws. Davis had used his non-profit "Save Jobs" organization to funnel money into his political efforts, failing to comply with political disclosure requirements of both the federal government and New York State.
(NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Davis believed that free-trade allowed low-wage nations, such as China to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops. Davis believed that this would be a popular idea in his native Upstate New York
, which contained many struggling farms and factories. Although Republicans accused him of using the party merely as a springboard for a 2006 rematch against Reynolds, Davis sponsored more than a dozen candidates for public office in races across Western New York.
However, the Save Jobs party soon ran into trouble with state and federal officials. In one incident, an Erie County
legislator sought an FBI
investigation over
last-minute automated phone calls (robocalls] that had been made from Davis's campaign headquarters. In another, Davis' deputy campaign director and chair of his state PAC, took a plea deal in a petition fraud case involving Davis' party. In early 2006, Davis' state PAC was sued in State Supreme Court for improper filing of financial disclosures. Davis abandoned the fledgling party.
, Working Families
and Independence
Parties in 2006. Davis received the Democratic nomination since no other Democrat chose to run in the September 12, 2006 primary. He appeared on three ballot lines and votes from all three nominating parties counted towards Davis' total under New York's electoral fusion
rule.As in 2004, Reynolds won, but by a much narrower margin.
With the Mark Foley scandal
in full swing, pundits re-evaluated the odds of Davis winning against Reynolds. It was widely reported that Reynolds had knowledge of earlier e-mails between Foley and a page, although he was unaware of more explicit instant messages reported by ABC News
.
Davis led Reynolds in several polls taken during October, 2006, but an early November poll showed him trailing 46 to 50. He lost by a "hair's breadth", according to The Washington Post.
. Democrats viewed Powers as their strongest candidate, and blamed Davis' attack ads for taking him out in the primary. Powers finished second, Davis third, with little-known environmental attorney Alice Kryzan winning the primary. She lost the general election to Republican Christopher J. Lee 55-40 percent.
against the Federal Election Commission between his 2006 and 2008 runs for office, claiming that the so-called "millionaires amendment" to the McCain-Feingold Act
election reform law was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito
writing for the 5-4 majority, struck down parts ofneededf the act as violating the First Amendment
for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.
. Davis also had discussions with Erie County Conservative Party chairman Ralph Lorigo regarding a potential run on that line, but after Corwin received Republican nomination, the other two parties put her on their ballot lines.
Finally, Davis briefly, but unsuccessfully courted the Democrats for their nomination, then decided to run on a newly created independent line, under the name "Tea," sending out paid campaign workers to collect the 3,500 required signatures for a ballot listing (Davis's campaign workers collected over 12,000 signatures in total). He received the endorsement of the Tea Party Coalition of New York, but his Republican opponent Corwin got the endorsements of TEA New York and the Tea Party Express. Davis has said that if elected, he will caucus with the Republicans and Tea Party caucus because his opinions and positions align more closely with those groups than with the Democrats. The Tea Party Coalition is an organization run by Libertarian Party activists James Ostrowski and Allen Coniglio, who use the name "Tea Party" for the ballot line on which they run their independent candidates; Ostrowski and Coniglio previously had used the line for David DiPietro in a state senate race and Janice Volk in a congressional special election in another district
prior to Davis using the line.
Davis' main issue is his opposition to free-trade policies and agreements which he believes have allowed low-wage nations, such as the People's Republic of China
, to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops.
Davis been described as favoring gun rights, and has said that his position on the Second Amendment rights is similar to that of other members of the Tea Party movement. He has given inconsistent answers on the issue of abortion rights. Davis opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
and also opposed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
.
. The Times also cited the third party candidacy of Davis as a factor which is "siphoning support" from Corwin.
A late April poll by Sienna College had Corwin in the lead with 36 percent, followed by Hochul with 31 percent and Davis with 23 percent of the vote. An early May poll by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Institute showed Hochul at 35 percent, Corwin at 31 percent and Davis at 24 percent. An unusual number of voters had a negative opinion of each candidate, according to the pollster: Hochul, 42 percent for Corwin and 43 percent for Davis.
National media attention was given to a 15 second video clip that appeared to show Corwin's Assembly chief of staff, Michael Mallia, repeatedly asking Davis why he had skipped a campaign debate, followed by Mallia yelping as Davis apparently shoved him or flapped at the camera. The video clip was circulated by local and national Republican organizations and prompted bipartisan criticism of both Davis and Mallia. Requests to see a longer tape and a tape made by second camera were refused by Corwin and her campaign. In response to Davis' complaints that he had been harassed, Corwin said, "I've had cameras on me for two months now, and I've never hit anybody ... and I think that's the difference is how you handle a situation like that."
The Tea Party Express
and TEA New York which endorsed Corwin traveled to Rochester and Buffalo to hold events where they criticized Davis' use of the Tea Party name. After the election, TEA New York blamed Davis for Hochul's win.
Roll Call reported that Davis had promised to spend as much as $3 million of his own funds and that Corwin had invested nearly $2.5 million of her own funds in the campaign as of May 13. Roll Call also said that outside funds coming from both liberal and conservative groups had "turned the Buffalo and Rochester airwaves into a steady stream of campaign ads." Davis, in contrast to his opponents, received no assistance from outside funds.
Newstead, New York
Newstead is the most northeastern town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 8,404 at the 2000 census. The name is reportedly derived from Newstead Abbey in England....
. He made his fourth bid for New York's 26th congressional district
New York's 26th congressional district
The 26th Congressional District of New York is a congressional district for the United States House of Representatives in Western New York. It includes all of Genesee, Livingston, and Wyoming counties, and parts of Erie, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans counties...
seat in the U.S. House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in the special election held on May 24, 2011. The election was held to fill the seat vacated by Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
Chris Lee who resigned in February 2011 due to a scandal. He ran as a self-financed independent—Tea Party candidate against Republican State Assemblywoman Jane Corwin
Jane Corwin
Jane Lewis Corwin is an American politician and businesswoman who has served as a Republican Party member of the New York State Assembly since 2009. She represents the 142nd Assembly District which covers parts of Erie and Niagara counties...
, Democrat Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul
Kathy Hochul
Kathleen Courtney "Kathy" Hochul is the Democratic U.S. Representative for New York's 26th congressional district, serving since June 1, 2011. She prevailed in the four-candidate special election of May 24, 2011 to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Republican Chris Lee, and is the...
, and Green Party nominee satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
Ian Murphy.
He said he was running again because of his concern that the country is being destroyed by U.S. free trade policies which he says have led to the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries and the decline of manufacturing in the United States. Noted for his party-switching, Davis has said that if he won this election, he would caucus in the House with the Republican and Tea Party caucuses.
A lifelong Republican, Davis switched to the Democrats after being kicked out of a fundraiser headlined by Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
in 2003 when he tried to ask Cheney questions about free trade policies. He then ran for the U.S. Congress seat in his home district, NY-26, in 2004, 2006 and 2008 as a self-funded candidate, pouring in millions of his own funds and coming close to beating the incumbent Republican Thomas Reynolds
Thomas Reynolds
Thomas Reynolds was the fifth Premier of South Australia, serving from 9 May 1860 to 8 October 1861.He was born in England in 1818, and on leaving school had experience in the grocery business. He came to South Australia in 1840 as an early colonist at the invitation of his brother, who had a...
in 2006. In the 2008 election, however, he came in third out of three in the Democratic primary. He switched his affiliation back to Republican with the election of fellow wealthy industrialist Chris Lee, becoming an ally and supporter of Lee. After Lee's abrupt departure from Congress in February, 2011 Davis tried and failed to get the Republican nomination to replace Lee, then decided to run as an independent on a newly created Tea Party line.
Davis is the founder and owner of I Squared R Element Company, an Akron, New York
Akron, New York
Akron, New York is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was listed as 3,085 in the 2000 census. The name means a high place. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area....
manufacturer and seller of heating elements for high temperature furnaces, and has never outsourced jobs. He is also known for filing a successful lawsuit
Davis v. Federal Election Commission
Davis v. Federal Election Commission, 554 U.S. 724 , is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that Sections 319 and of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 unconstitutionally infringed on a candidate's First Amendment rights.-Background:Section 319 of the Bipartisan...
against the Federal Election Commission in 2006, claiming that the so-called "millionaire's amendment" to McCain-Feingold Act
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito
Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
writing for the 5-4 majority, sided with Davis, striking down the down the millionaire's amendment as violating the First Amendment to the United States Constitution
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.
Early years and education and business career
Davis' early years were spent in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
; he moved with his family to Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
after World War II. His father was an engineer, and Davis discovered early on that he liked working on cars with his father and building things. He graduated from Amherst Central High School in 1951. He enrolled in the University of Buffalo
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...
, where he majored in industrial engineering and received his degree in 1955.
Davis completed Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
Officer Training as a reservist
United States Marine Corps Reserve
The Marine Forces Reserve is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command in the U.S...
while in college, and served three years as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
upon graduation. He began work as an engineer in 1958, first at General Motors as a maintenance engineer, then at The Carborundum Company as a supervising sales engineer.
He started his silicon carbide
Silicon carbide
Silicon carbide , also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive...
heating element manufacturing business, I Squared R Element, in 1964 in a garage, and now employs 75 people in Akron, New York
Akron, New York
Akron, New York is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was listed as 3,085 in the 2000 census. The name means a high place. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area....
who receive employer provided health care and pension benefits. He has touted the fact that he has never outsourced any jobs. According to 2011 financial disclosure statements, Davis' net worth is between $18.2 million and $83.4 million (about half that of his opponent Jane Corwin).
Party affiliations
Davis was a self-described "Goldwater Republican" for 50 years. In late 2003, he attended a Republican fundraiser in Buffalo, featuring Vice President Dick CheneyDick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
. Davis insisted on talking to Cheney about U.S. free trade policies, which Cheney's staff refused to allow, ordering Davis to be ejected from the fundraiser. Davis then quit the Republican party. He later became a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
(2003), then founded the Save Jobs Party (2004-5), then rejoined the Republican Party (2008), and in March 2011 created the Tea Party ballot line by obtaining the required number of signatures.
Political career
In 2004 and 2006 Davis ran as a Democrat in the general elections facing no primary challengers. He lost both times to incumbent Republican Tom ReynoldsThomas M. Reynolds
Thomas M. Reynolds , commonly known as Tom Reynolds, is a politician from the U.S. state of New York, formerly representing the state's 26th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives...
, described by the New York Times as one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. In the 2008 race, Davis finished third place in a three-way Democratic primary to Alice Kryzan. In the ongoing 2011 election, Davis, who has been a registered Republican since 2008, is now s running on the "Tea Party" line. He has said he is running again because of his concern that the country is being destroyed.
A major theme of Davis' campaigns is that too many U.S. manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries, with 53,000 manufacturing plants closed in the past 30 years and 17 million Americans presently unemployed. He believes U.S. free trade policies and agreements have caused the job loss and the great recession. He says the free trade policies have been pushed by multinational corporations and big box stores such as Walmart who effectively have purchased the White House and the U.S. Congress. Davis says he is free of those influences, and wants to go to Washington to save American jobs, farms and industries.
2004 Congressional campaign
In 2004, Davis officially entered politics, running as a DemocratDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
for the U.S. Congress from the 26th District of New York against incumbent Republican Representative Tom Reynolds
Thomas M. Reynolds
Thomas M. Reynolds , commonly known as Tom Reynolds, is a politician from the U.S. state of New York, formerly representing the state's 26th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives...
, who was considered unbeatable. Davis doubled his original financial commitment to the race, pouring a total of $1.2 million dollars of personal money into his campaign. Reynolds was forced to begin running campaign ads for the first time since his election in 1998.
On election day, Reynolds won, 56 percent to 44 percent; in contrast, he won the 2002 election 75 percent to 25 percent against the Democratic challenger. Many cite the amount spent by Davis as compared to Reynolds' prior challenger as the primary factor for the change. Some observers attributed the narrowed margin of victory to an undercurrent of resentment in the working-class areas of the 26th district over economic decline and a lack of manufacturing sector jobs. Others attributed the margin to the politics of the specific candidates; Reynolds' politics more closely resembling big-government neo-conservatism while Davis' more closely resembles the limited-government libertarian conservatism of Goldwater, the type of conservative thought more widely adhered to in Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
.
After the election, Davis was fined for a violation of campaign finance reporting laws. Davis had used his non-profit "Save Jobs" organization to funnel money into his political efforts, failing to comply with political disclosure requirements of both the federal government and New York State.
Save Jobs Party
Following his defeat in 2004, Davis continued his political activism by forming the Save Jobs Party to further his goals of repealing free-trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade AgreementNorth American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
(NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Davis believed that free-trade allowed low-wage nations, such as China to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops. Davis believed that this would be a popular idea in his native Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
, which contained many struggling farms and factories. Although Republicans accused him of using the party merely as a springboard for a 2006 rematch against Reynolds, Davis sponsored more than a dozen candidates for public office in races across Western New York.
However, the Save Jobs party soon ran into trouble with state and federal officials. In one incident, an Erie County
Erie County, New York
Erie County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which in turn comes from the Erie tribe of American Indians who lived south and east of the lake before 1654.Erie...
legislator sought an FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
investigation over
last-minute automated phone calls (robocalls] that had been made from Davis's campaign headquarters. In another, Davis' deputy campaign director and chair of his state PAC, took a plea deal in a petition fraud case involving Davis' party. In early 2006, Davis' state PAC was sued in State Supreme Court for improper filing of financial disclosures. Davis abandoned the fledgling party.
2006 Congressional campaign
Davis ran against Reynolds as the candidate of the DemocraticDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, Working Families
Working Families Party
The Working Families Party is a minor political party in the United States founded in New York in 1998. There are "sister" parties to the New York WFP in Connecticut, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Oregon, but there is as yet no national WFP...
and Independence
Independence Party of New York
The Independence Party is an affiliate in the U.S. state of New York of the Independence Party of America. The party was founded in 1991 by Dr. Gordon Black, Tom Golisano, and Laureen Oliver from Rochester, New York, and acquired ballot status in 1994...
Parties in 2006. Davis received the Democratic nomination since no other Democrat chose to run in the September 12, 2006 primary. He appeared on three ballot lines and votes from all three nominating parties counted towards Davis' total under New York's electoral fusion
Electoral fusion
Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate...
rule.As in 2004, Reynolds won, but by a much narrower margin.
With the Mark Foley scandal
Mark Foley scandal
The Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006, centers on soliciting e-mails and sexually suggestive instant messages sent by Mark Foley, a Republican Congressman from Florida, to teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages...
in full swing, pundits re-evaluated the odds of Davis winning against Reynolds. It was widely reported that Reynolds had knowledge of earlier e-mails between Foley and a page, although he was unaware of more explicit instant messages reported by ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
.
Davis led Reynolds in several polls taken during October, 2006, but an early November poll showed him trailing 46 to 50. He lost by a "hair's breadth", according to The Washington Post.
2008 Congressional campaign
After Reynolds announced his retirement from Congress in 2008, Davis ran a third time for the seat. He began as the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic Party nomination but he faced stiff competition from Iraq War veteran and teacher Jon PowersJon Powers
Jonathan Powers, commonly called Jon Powers is an Iraq War veteran and was the Working Families Party nominee for Congress in New York's 26th congressional district. Powers also unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for Congress. Following the campaign, Jon became the Chief Operating...
. Democrats viewed Powers as their strongest candidate, and blamed Davis' attack ads for taking him out in the primary. Powers finished second, Davis third, with little-known environmental attorney Alice Kryzan winning the primary. She lost the general election to Republican Christopher J. Lee 55-40 percent.
Davis v. Federal Election Commission
Davis filed a successful lawsuitDavis v. Federal Election Commission
Davis v. Federal Election Commission, 554 U.S. 724 , is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that Sections 319 and of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 unconstitutionally infringed on a candidate's First Amendment rights.-Background:Section 319 of the Bipartisan...
against the Federal Election Commission between his 2006 and 2008 runs for office, claiming that the so-called "millionaires amendment" to the McCain-Feingold Act
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
election reform law was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito
Samuel Alito
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006....
writing for the 5-4 majority, struck down parts ofneededf the act as violating the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.
2011 Congressional campaign
Davis changed his political affiliation from Democratic back to Republican in 2010, after developing a favorable working relationship with Chris Lee over the course of Lee's time in office. He expressed interest in the special election to replace Lee, who resigned in February 2011. Davis met with the Republican chairs regarding a possible run, but according to Davis, the meeting "didn't go great". The Party was dissatisfied with his brief time in the Democratic Party and his willingness to run on a third-party line if he didn't get the Republican nomination, according to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. A GOP county chair told the The Buffalo News that Davis had disqualified himself by expressing views that were contrary to typical Republican positions. The Republican nomination went to Jane CorwinJane Corwin
Jane Lewis Corwin is an American politician and businesswoman who has served as a Republican Party member of the New York State Assembly since 2009. She represents the 142nd Assembly District which covers parts of Erie and Niagara counties...
. Davis also had discussions with Erie County Conservative Party chairman Ralph Lorigo regarding a potential run on that line, but after Corwin received Republican nomination, the other two parties put her on their ballot lines.
Finally, Davis briefly, but unsuccessfully courted the Democrats for their nomination, then decided to run on a newly created independent line, under the name "Tea," sending out paid campaign workers to collect the 3,500 required signatures for a ballot listing (Davis's campaign workers collected over 12,000 signatures in total). He received the endorsement of the Tea Party Coalition of New York, but his Republican opponent Corwin got the endorsements of TEA New York and the Tea Party Express. Davis has said that if elected, he will caucus with the Republicans and Tea Party caucus because his opinions and positions align more closely with those groups than with the Democrats. The Tea Party Coalition is an organization run by Libertarian Party activists James Ostrowski and Allen Coniglio, who use the name "Tea Party" for the ballot line on which they run their independent candidates; Ostrowski and Coniglio previously had used the line for David DiPietro in a state senate race and Janice Volk in a congressional special election in another district
New York's 29th congressional district elections, 2010
Two elections in New York's 29th district were held on November 2, 2010. The candidates vied to replace Eric Massa, who resigned the seat on March 8, 2010 as a result of health issues and allegations of sexual harassment....
prior to Davis using the line.
Political positions
Davis' ideology is "too inconsistent to be readily categorized", according to the Washington Post. When asked about the issue of illegal immigration during his interview for the Republican endorsement in 2011, Davis reportedly shocked local Republican leaders by suggesting that illegal immigrants could be deported and unemployed black youth bussed from the cities to pick the crops. Davis' spokesperson said the comments could be viewed as politically and racially incorrect; "but when you have African American people in Buffalo who do not have jobs and are out of work, why are you bringing people into this country illegally to take jobs?" he asked.Davis' main issue is his opposition to free-trade policies and agreements which he believes have allowed low-wage nations, such as the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops.
Davis been described as favoring gun rights, and has said that his position on the Second Amendment rights is similar to that of other members of the Tea Party movement. He has given inconsistent answers on the issue of abortion rights. Davis opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress...
and also opposed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of , commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis...
.
Campaign
The special election was initially thought to be a "certain victory" for the Republican candidate, but became "fiercely competitive", according to The New York Times, because of a U.S. House Republican plan to privatize MedicareMedicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
. The Times also cited the third party candidacy of Davis as a factor which is "siphoning support" from Corwin.
A late April poll by Sienna College had Corwin in the lead with 36 percent, followed by Hochul with 31 percent and Davis with 23 percent of the vote. An early May poll by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Institute showed Hochul at 35 percent, Corwin at 31 percent and Davis at 24 percent. An unusual number of voters had a negative opinion of each candidate, according to the pollster: Hochul, 42 percent for Corwin and 43 percent for Davis.
National media attention was given to a 15 second video clip that appeared to show Corwin's Assembly chief of staff, Michael Mallia, repeatedly asking Davis why he had skipped a campaign debate, followed by Mallia yelping as Davis apparently shoved him or flapped at the camera. The video clip was circulated by local and national Republican organizations and prompted bipartisan criticism of both Davis and Mallia. Requests to see a longer tape and a tape made by second camera were refused by Corwin and her campaign. In response to Davis' complaints that he had been harassed, Corwin said, "I've had cameras on me for two months now, and I've never hit anybody ... and I think that's the difference is how you handle a situation like that."
The Tea Party Express
Tea Party Express
The Tea Party Express is a California-based group founded in the summer of 2009 to support the Tea Party movement. Founded as a national bus tour to rally Tea Party activists, the group's leadership also endorses and promotes conservative candidates running for state and federal offices...
and TEA New York which endorsed Corwin traveled to Rochester and Buffalo to hold events where they criticized Davis' use of the Tea Party name. After the election, TEA New York blamed Davis for Hochul's win.
Roll Call reported that Davis had promised to spend as much as $3 million of his own funds and that Corwin had invested nearly $2.5 million of her own funds in the campaign as of May 13. Roll Call also said that outside funds coming from both liberal and conservative groups had "turned the Buffalo and Rochester airwaves into a steady stream of campaign ads." Davis, in contrast to his opponents, received no assistance from outside funds.
Electoral history
See also
- List of political parties in New York
- Radical center