Two candidates running for a Congressional seat in New York's 7th District teamed up on Monday to attack another on accepting money from Political Action Committees as the race heats up ahead of the June 23 primary.
"At the outset of the race for NY-7, candidates made a commitment to reject super PAC spending. It is now clear that Claire Valdez has broken that promise," Antonio Reynoso and Julie Won, the Brooklyn Borough President and City Council Member, said in a joint statement.
Valdez has turned the race into a Super PAC-driven election, the two candidates said.
"The hypocrisy is staggering. Claire Valdez is benefiting from a super PAC funded by a MAGA Republican megadonor while accepting support from a tech billionaire, a contractor who pleaded guilty in a wage-theft case involving immigrant workers, and an executive at a hotel company with a long record of labor disputes. This is no way to end Citizens United – we must stop unlimited and undisclosed spending by super PACs in politics and protect transparency in our democracy," the two candidates said, referring to the Supreme Court decision in 2010 that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.
"What is even more troubling is that her campaign updated its “redbox” immediately following the first televised debate to direct her super PACs to attack other candidates," referring to a way to post public messaging instructions to outside spending groups, Reynoso and Won added.
In response, Ravi Sahai, Valdez's campaign manager, said Valdez is the only candidate who doesn’t take real estate money and who has consistently and vocally opposed the US-backed genocide in Palestine.
"Those were decisions made by Antonio Reynoso and Julie Won, not Claire. Our campaign is powered by more than 22,000 small dollar donors, far more than both of our competitors combined," Sahai said in a statement.
