Archive: Opinions

The campaign of Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton has been approached by Ms. Kelly Kheel, who initially represented herself, on Sept. 8, as follows:

I am hosting a Meet the Candidate night in Tompkins County, NY. 
This is a non partisan forum.  We plan to send invitation (sic) and
moderate the event.  The date is Sept. 25 at 7 pm.  Mr. Reynolds has
agreed. 

Thank you for your consideration.

Cordially,
Kelly Kheel

The Lifton campaign has already committed to and advertised 5 public candidate forums/meet the candidates events sponsored by community groups around the district, and is open to arranging more, schedule permitting.

The Lifton campaign made repeated efforts to work with Ms. Kheel to agree to a time and format  that would allow Assemblywoman Lifton's participation in a forum.  Repeated requests for information about Ms. Kheel's "group" were responded to with minimal or misleading information.  Eventually, the Lifton Campaign was able to discover, through on-line research, that Ms. Kheel's group is 912 TEA CTCNY. 

Reading the information on their website , reveals that many of their 66 members reside outside of the Cortland/Tompkins area that they purportedly represent.  Their current headline reads "We Surround Ithaca."  The web page also reveals that Assemblywoman Lifton's opponent has been an active member of this group since April 14, 2010, although this information is not included on his campaign website. Nor did Ms. Kheel mention that Mr. Reynolds was a member of her group in her correspondence with the Lifton campaign until we brought this fact up with her.

The Lifton Campaign challenges Mr. Reynolds to be open and above-board with the public about his true party affiliation.  On the 912 TEA CTCNY group's website, his member page identifies him, in his own words, as a "Reagan republican Chief Financial Officer," and he has also represented himself to the media as a Republican.  Yet, while he is the Republican nominee for the 125th Assembly seat, his Board of Elections records identify him as a registered member of the Conservative Party. 

We also challenge him to be honest about his membership in any anti-government groups. He has made public challenges to our campaign to engage in large numbers of debates, and then apparently encouraged the organizers of an ideologically-extreme group, of which he is an active member, to misrepresent itself as an impartial entity and set up a rigged "forum" in which the group leader acts as moderator.

Fair play and honest public discourse are the cornerstones of our democracy.  The Lifton campaign challenges her opponent to engage in honest dicussion, in truly impartial forums, of the actual issues facing NYS government.  We also challenge Mr. Reynolds to explain how he would uphold the Constitution of the State of NY if he accepts the 4th principle of Ms. Kheel's group: "The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government."  What does this principle mean? Would he be willing to uphold NYS laws? Is his goal to become a NYS Assembly Member, or to spread the anti-government message of the 912 TEA CTCNY group?

Krys Cail
Campaign Manager
Lifton for Assembly
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