Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson has his first declared challenger for the 2012 election in New York’s 20th Congressional District.
Weekly progressive radio host and four-term Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner, a Democrat from the town of Clinton, plans on unseating the freshman representative by harnessing anti-Tea Party energy, promising to reflect the will of the “Real Majority” and offering a different avenue for economic recovery.
“In the worst recession we’ve been in in 75 years … we need to send people to Washington who haven’t forgotten the legacy of [President Franklin Roosevelt],” said the 47-year-old candidate.
Tyner stressed that his challenge isn’t personal and said he opposes Gibson’s positions, like his support for the recent debt ceiling compromise.
Gibson spokeswoman Stephanie Valle wouldn’t address this critique, but said the congressman’s views reflected visits to all 137 towns in the district. She said that Gibson heard firsthand from families, seniors, business owners, farmers and many other interests in the state while running for election in 2010.
Valle said Gibson is fully committed to running again in 2012.
As for Tyner’s chances in the district, which leans Republican, he said his personal past and the district’s recent past, with past victories by Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Scott Murphy, indicate he can win. Before his string of victories in District 11 in the Dutchess County Legislature, he noted that his campaigns struggled in the “rock ribbed Conservative bastion.”
Categories: Schenectady County
