Schumer Gets a Local Challenger

Jay Townsend announces his candidacy to challenge U.S. Senator Charles Schumer in November. Jay Townsend believes that U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is beatable!

The Hudson Valley resident and national political advisor who orchestrated former Representative Sue Kelly’s three successful campaigns in the 19th Congressional District announced his candidacy to oppose the popular Democratic incumbent.

Last weekend in Cornwall Townsend charged that Senator Schumer’s popularity had waned: “The man has been on the public payroll since he was 23 years old and has never held a private sector job. Senator Schumer’s voting record is abysmal. Why would New York’s senior senator so punish his own people and his own state by casting votes that are bankrupting businesses—votes that have cost half a million New Yorkers their jobs? Why has Senator Schumer voted for policies that have forced 1.5 million New Yorkers to pack their bags, sell their homes, and leave this once-great state? The answer is a dirty little secret and well-known fact in Washington. Senator Schumer is more interested in being Majority Leader than fighting for the people of New York.”

Townsend agreed that Senator Schumer is a formidable opponent, however, “his $22 million war chest may impress his lobbyists and the insiders in Washington, but it doesn’t impress me, because since being reelected six years ago, the senator has raised more than $3 million a year, which breaks down to $70,000 a week or $10,000 each and every day of his term. Any elected official who spends that much time raising that kind of money is either ignoring his constituents or selling out on the state that sent him to Washington.”

Townsend charged that Schumer wants to “Europeanize the United States by borrowing $10 trillion for the Schumer- Obama spending spree.”

Concerning the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Townsend criticized the incumbents for failing to develop an exit strategy while according to the candidate: “Iraq is better off today that it was five years ago.”

Townsend, who began his own political career at the age of 23 as an aide to a U.S. senator, has been involved in more than 300 campaigns in over 25 states since that time.

Townsend charged that “Washington is not listening. When they do listen they are not hearing the people who are expressing their dismay and disgust about the direction the U.S. is going—down a road that is leading to disaster as the result of our Imperial Congress.”