“I find it extremely difficult to believe my opponent’s claim that he doesn’t know who’s running all these negative ads for him,” Assemblywoman Russell said. “If he truly doesn’t know who’s funding these ads, let me educate him. Most of the money comes from wealthy out-of-state donors who have a very specific agenda.”
Close to $2 million in funding for NYIA comes from just four contributors, none of whom live in New York. They are spending massive sums of money to elect legislators who will help them pass a special tax break that would allow wealthy people to write off large donations to private schools.
“I have strongly opposed their agenda, which is why they’re targeting me with these negative ads,” Assemblywoman Russell said. “These Wall Street billionaires want to sway North Country voters to elect someone who will do their bidding.”
NYIA receives a lot of its funding from five wealthy donors:
• Thomas McInerney, an investment banker who runs private equity firm Bluff Point Associates, based in Westport, Connecticut. He has contributed $800,000 to NYIA;
* Anthony J. de Nicola, co-president of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a $3 billion private investment firm, and his wife, Christie. De Nicola and his wife live in New Jersey. They have contributed nearly $600,000 to NYIA;
• Russell Carson, a founder of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, based in New York City. He contributed $500,000; and
• Alice Walton, daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and heiress to over $33.7 billion, who lives in Arkansas. She has contributed $450,000 to NYIA.
“Now that he knows who’s behind these negative ads, the question John Byrne really needs to answer is: does he support these out-of-state millionaires and billionaires coming into the North Country and trying to buy this Assembly seat? If they are successful, funding for our North Country schools will be impacted,” Assemblywoman Russell said.
“If John Byrne doesn’t support the agenda of this group, he should ask them to take their negative ads off the air,” Assemblywoman Russell added. “And if he does support their agenda, that should tell North Country voters all they need to know about John Byrne.”
She added his suggestion that he doesn't know who is behind the ads fits a pattern he appears to have about dealing with the truth evidenced by his inability to give straightforward answers about his businesses.
Mr. Byrne made a quick u-turn, never answering the question posed by the moderator from WWNY TV 7, when asked about those businesses at a debate earlier this week despite repeating his experience as a small business owner on the business trail.
"It's all smoke and mirrors. It's no surprise that Mr. Byrne, who is trying to portray himself as a corruption fighter, doesn't want to talk about his own shady business practices and the thousands of dollars in fines he paid the State Liquor Authority for improper practices at his bar, including selling bottom shelf liquor in top shelf liquor bottles at top shelf prices," she said.
