In his quest to become the 20th Congressional District’s Conservative Party nominee, Sandy Treadwell has made some extraordinary claims.

In a four-page fundraising letter that arrived in mailboxes last week, Treadwell says he is tired of high taxes and wasteful spending.  Treadwell is shocked that “a whopping $20 billion worth of pork projects were added to the bill” to fund our troops in Iraq.

Treadwell’s outrage is disingenuous.  He appears to have forgotten that during his tenure as Republican National Committeeman he never denounced Republican congressional majorities for their egregious deficit and pork spending.  Also, Republican Chairman Treadwell was silent in 2003 when GOP state legislators enacted the largest tax increase since the Rockefeller era.  Nor was there a word of criticism from him when Pataki-Bruno-Silver cut their annual pork spending deal (which often included millions for the rich man’s paradise – Lake Placid).  And no one ever heard Treadwell condemn the Pataki administration’s squandering of taxpayers’ money to reward cronies, placate lobbyists and contractors, and neutralize municipal, healthcare and teachers’ labor unions.

There’s more empty rhetoric in Treadwell’s fundraising letter:  He pledges to be an “outspoken voice for … our conservative values…. And will fight any and all attempts to enact unnecessary gun control laws.”

An outspoken voice?  Where was Treadwell’s voice when Governor Pataki trashed cherished conservative values?  Treadwell was silent when Pataki:

• Abandoned his opposition to Medicaid abortion funding;

• Pledged to remove the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform;

• Ended the “conscience clause” for religious medical institutions thus forcing them to provide services contrary to their religious principles;

• Signed into law the state gay rights bill;

• Signed into law the hate crimes bill.

As for gun control, there is no record of Treadwell opposing Pataki’s March 2000 proposal, which The New York Times described as “perhaps the widest ranging gun controls in the county” and Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long called a law “against law-abiding people.”

Yes, when Pataki sold Conservatives down the river, Treadwell was silent.  The Latin legal maxim is “qui tacet consentiret” – silence gives consent.

Treadwell boasts in his letter that “as the former Chairman of the New York Republican State Committee, I know what it takes to win [in the 20th C.D.]”  And in a recent Journal News interview, he said “I am proud of my record as state chairman.”

The GOP endured devastating defeats when Treadwell was party chairman.  They lost control of major GOP county strongholds and lost State Senate and Assembly seats.  In November 2004, after Treadwell’s hand-picked nominee, Howard Mills, received the lowest percentage of votes for a major party U.S. Senate candidate in New York’s history, then Congressman John Sweeney said:  “We used to be a party that stood for something, but we’re now headed in the direction of a party that doesn’t stand for anything anymore….”  Congressman Peter King of Long Island said the New York GOP “has no overwhelming vision or course.”

Treadwell ends his fundraising letter with these sentiments:  “I have worked side by side in the trenches with committed Republicans like you to make our country, state, and neighborhoods better.  I’ll bring that same can-do attitude and work ethic with me to Washington where I will fight for a common sense agenda aimed at lower taxes, smaller government, and our shared conservative values.”

Treadwell working in the trenches?  A trench for Treadwell is a sand trap at one of Lake Placid’s exclusive golf clubs.

As for making our state better – for years Treadwell defended Governor Pataki’s reckless fiscal policies that left New York with the highest per capita state and local taxes in the nation.

Candidate Treadwell is a liberal.  And New York Conservatives are not going to fall for expensive marketing campaigns that try to convince them otherwise.

This entry was posted on September 30, 2007 at 1:40 pm and is filed under NY Politics-SCC. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.