| Remember the mysterious robocalls I told you about Friday night? It turns out that two other people contacted me and said that they had also received robocalls targeting Sen. Malcolm Smith over education funding. In all, four people said that they received these calls. Two of them were from Oswego County and one was from SD-37, where Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer is facing Republican Liz Feld. The fourth person did not disclose where they lived.
Today, the DSCC issued this statement about the robocalls that no doubt are connected to the Republicans and their efforts to remain in the majority.
"The Republicans dirty tricks are not surprising. They've been as good for education as Bush has been for the economy. That's the only way they can win after supporting Bush and running New York into the highest debt in history. While Democrats protected your child's education funding, Republicans protected their special interest friends. This new lie proves it's time for a change."
This is a dirty trick for many reasons. For starters, the people who have told me that they have received these calls all say that the call does not say where it is originating from. It's pretty obvious that it is the Republicans, considering the timing of these calls correspond with an exchange between Sen. Smith and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. When Sen. Smith said that nothing was off the table - a reference to possible spending cuts because of budget problems - Skelos responded that Smith wanted school aid cuts.
The irony here is that Skelos and his Republican Senate has supported the property tax cap, which has many educators worried that the property tax cap will hurt funding for schools. Don't take my word for it. Listen to Karen Scharff.
Of course, if you were going to mislead citizens in targeted Republican districts, you could at least say that it is you (the GOP) calling these people so that they aren't left wondering who is calling them. This was a dirty trick and it is a dirty trick we have come to expect from the Republicans here in New York.
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