Felony Indictments Could Help Flip NY-27

Blue America has just endorsed a new congressional candidate– new for us anyway. Nate McMurray is the progressive Democrat running for the very red seat (NY-27) that surrounds Buffalo on the north, south and east and goes east to the exurbs west and south of Rochester. It’s very white (92%), very Republican (R+11) and pretty Trumpist. He beat Hillary there 59.7% to 35.2%, although it’s worth noting that in the primary Bernie beat Hillary by a very wide margin in every part of the district.

Nate was a Bernie supporter and he’s running on many of Bernie’s populist economic ideas to help working and middle class families, like Medicare for All.

The DCCC has no interest in his race and have refused to back him, claiming he’s too progressive for the district, despite how much better Bernie did than Hillary. And this, despite the incumbent, Chris Collins, a Trump fanatic, being arrested by the FBI in his NYC penthouse and charged with numerous counts relating to insider trading including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, seven counts of securities fraud, and lying to the FBI. He announced he wouldn’t run for reelection but a few weeks later his lawyers told him that if he is reelected he could use his congressional seat– as in resigning from it– as a bargaining chip in negotiating for a lighter sentence.

Unlike Nate, whose family has lived in the district for four generations, Collins is from North Carolina and spends his time in DC and New York City. Real Clear Politics now rates the race a “toss up,” despite the Republican lean of the district.

This week the Buffalo News reported that NRCC chairman Steve Stivers announced that Collins shouldn’t expect any financial help from the NRCC. The paper reported that Stivers “didn’t sound particularly thrilled with Collins’ decision last week to reverse himself and run again in New York’s 27th congressional district… ‘I don’t plan to spend a thing in that race.’… Collins faces a spirited but underfunded challenge from Democrat Nathan McMurray, the Grand Island town supervisor. There’s also a Reform Party candidate in the race: West Seneca businessman Larry Piegza, who has been pledging allegiance to President Trump and who could siphon votes from Collins.”

McMurray: “Wow. The National Republican Party is running away from Chris Collins. Every day I find more and more voters in NY-27 who are doing the same.”

Stivers added that he thinks “Collins has a record to run on.” I asked Nate about Stivers’ assertion. He told me that “the record Mr. Collins can run on– aside from his arrest record– is voting nearly 50 times to take healthcare away from people who live here. The New York State Alliance Of Retired Persons gave him a zero rating– ZERO– for failure to do anything to protect Social Security and Medicare. His record is abysmal.”

If you can, please consider contribution to Nate’s campaign today.