DCCC targets Gibson

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeted U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, in two separate press releases today.

Gibson is running for re-election in New York's new 19th Congressional District. He currently represents the 20th District, which includes parts of the North Country. The new district does not include any parts of the North Country.

In the first release, DCCC points to comments made by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that paint Gibson as being "vulnerable" and facing a "real challenge." Boehner wasn't speaking specifically about Gibson, but discussed GOP representatives in California, Illinois and New York in "orphan districts" where this year's presidential election isn't expected to be all that competitive.

Here's the rest of that release:

Gibson has been endangered for months, as voters have rejected his failed priorities — protecting millionaires, billionaires, and Big Oil at the expense of the middle class and Medicare for seniors.

“Even Speaker John Boehner admits what voters already know: Representatives like Chris Gibson in New York are ‘pretty vulnerable’ and face a ‘real challenge’ in their re-election,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It’s clear Chris Gibson’s re-election is in jeopardy and Speaker Boehner knows it. Voters have a deep sense of buyer’s remorse and Gibson is in danger after repeatedly choosing to put millionaires, billionaires, and Big Oil first, and New York seniors and the middle class last.”

BACKGROUND

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday that his party faces a “real challenge” in holding on to its majority in the House. “I believe that we will but we’ve got a real challenge,” he said when asked if the GOP will maintain control. Boehner said that his biggest worries were districts in Democratic-leaning states that would not be contested at the presidential level. In many, the local Republican parties are less organized and less used to running competitive races. “We have 50 of our members in tough races, 89 freshmen running for their first reelections and we have 32 districts that are in states where there is no presidential campaign going to be run, no big Senate race and we call these orphan districts,” he said. “You take 18 of them, California, Illinois and New York, where you know we’re not likely to do well at the top of the ticket and those districts are frankly pretty vulnerable.” Boehner put the odds at two to one that the GOP will hold onto control. “I would say that there is a two in three chance that we win control of the House again but there's a one in three chance that we could lose and I'm being myself, frank. We've got a big challenge and we've got work to do,” he said. [The Hill, 4/23/12]

The second release from DCCC calls out Gibson on congressional earmarks. Here's what they're saying:

According to Politico, Representative Chris Gibson (NY-19) has been caught “begging” Republican leaders to bring back earmarks. Gibson signed a letter in support of earmarks “even though it runs counter to the earmark ban Republicans campaigned on in 2010 and instituted when they took power.” While Gibson breaks his promise and pushes for these taxpayer-funded earmarks, he continues to support ending Medicare and raising health care costs for seniors.

You can read that letter here and check out the Politico report here.