Seeing Past The Ads: NY-18 Candidates
Credit: Element5 Digital on Pexels
Midterm elections across the nation are in full swing, and the Hudson Valley has a House of Representatives seat for the 18th District of New York up for election. Democratic incumbent Pat Ryan is the current house member after being elected in August in the special election for the new 18th district, and Colin Schmitt, who is the house representative for New York’s 99th district, is the republican candidate up against Pat Ryan for the seat.
In recent weeks, ad space on TV, YouTube and other social media platforms has been taken up by attack ads on each candidate with many damning claims about each candidate. These sorts of ads are clockwork each election season with new ways to get voters swayed towards a candidate, and popular ads for each candidate are worth investigating the claims made ahead of this election.
Starting off with the incumbent candidate, Pat Ryan. According to the Pat Ryan for Congress website, Ryan is a resident of the Hudson Valley from Gardiner and a former West Point cadet. Before his time as a house representative, Ryan was a former Ulster County Executive as well as a combat veteran and small business owner. He began his career as a Congressional representative in August of this year after winning a special election against the republican candidate, Marcus Molinaro. Now, Ryan is campaigning to hold his seat in the NY-18th district after serving only two months.
Recently, ads have appeared on YouTube and other platforms aiming to dissuade voters in the 18th district from one candidate that are sometimes hosted by the other candidate’s campaign team or a Political Action Committee (PAC). One includes a catchphrase calling Ryan “dangerously liberal” in the ad called “Vote Against Pat Ryan: Dangerously Liberal,” which is posted on YouTube from the account, CLFSuperPAC.
When evaluating the video and the statements made in it, the focus is on the Black Lives Matter protest in June of 2020 in Kingston, New York. This ad shows protesters calling to defund or abolish the police along with adding quotes with footage of the crowd calling for looting. The video then shows Ryan at the protest saying that “I’m here in solidarity” from a video credited to @OliviaLeachNews on Twitter. The ad goes on to critique statements made by Ryan about law enforcement and New York State bail reform. As attack ads go, there are inconsistencies with how Ryan feels about these issues and where his stances lie. To get a better picture of Ryan as a candidate, here are some areas where the ad takes liberties with the facts:
The statement made by Ryan in the ad, “I’m here in solidarity” played after the sound bite of a protester calling for looting is misleading. The full quote states “I’m here in solidarity since we need change, and it's going to take every single one of us to drive that change so I’m committed to that.” The change Ryan is referencing is a change in American society about how Black people are treated on a systemic level, including the relationship between law enforcement and BIPOC across the country.
At the beginning of the ad, footage of protesters is shown with the audio “they marched to abolish police” followed by audio of a chant saying “defund the police” accompanied by a photo of Ryan at the protest. When researching Ryan’s relationship with local law enforcement, Ulster County Sheriff Juan Figueroa endorsed Ryan. Ryan expressed his gratitude for this endorsement with a statement saying in response, “Keeping our communities safe is the core role of government, and I am proud to continue the work in Congress to enhance public safety and support law enforcement.” Ryan also recently co-sponsored a house bill, H. R 6375, also called COPS on the Beat Grant Program Reauthorization and Parity Act of 2022, sponsored by Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina that aims to increase police compensation and the hiring of law enforcement officials.
The ad also claims Ryan is striping law enforcement of equipment which comes from an op-ed Ryan wrote in the Albany Times Union in June 2020 when he served as Ulster County Executive, where he reflects on the protests of that summer and the military-level equipment law enforcement used that Ryan was familiar with from his military service. The ad takes the quote from Ryan that says, “A bipartisan group in Congress has started a new push to shut down the Defense Department initiative that transfers military weaponry to local police departments. I fully support this effort” and frames this to say that general law enforcement equipment should be taken away which Ryan does not allude to in this article.
As for Ryan’s stance on New York State bail reform, the ad claims Ryan is backed by an organization looking to end cash bail in the state which will release defendants from jail on a “get-out-of-jail-free card” quoted from an op-ed by the New York Post in August 2021. The organization in question, The Working Families Party, is “leading the fight for social, racial, and economic justice in New York state. By pushing for progressive legislation and by also training, recruiting and supporting progressive leaders to run for office, we form a unique bridge between progressive activism and electoral success,” according to their website. As for their stance on bail reform, the 2022 voting guide cited in the ad does not specifically mention an agenda of cash bail reform but instead lists the organization endorsement.
This ad ultimately does not shed light on the actual candidate that Ryan is. By researching the claims made through information available online, it can be seen that this ad is designed to put Ryan in a poor light.
As for the republican candidate Colin Schmitt, Schmitt is a New York State assemblyman from New Windsor representing the 99th district elected in 2018 and 2020, representing portions of Orange and Rockland counties. As an assemblyman, he was elected to leadership and committee positions. Schmitt also served in the military as a member of the National Guard and is a licensed real estate broker.
Many of the bills he has co-sponsored include bipartisan legislation from “tax relief, ethics reform, preservation of our community and natural resources, and delivering our fair share of funding from Albany” according to the Colin Schmitt for Congress website. The website lists many issues Schmitt is dedicated to, including inflation, crime, gas prices, immigration, tax relief, law enforcement, veteran support and more. One such issue missing from this list is the topic of reproductive rights and his stance on this issue. An ad that has circulated frequently is an ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) about Schmitt and his stance on reproductive rights. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, reproductive rights have been on voters’ radar, and this ad seeks to show where Schmitt is on the issue. Looking closer at the ad and its claims will tell where he stands on these issues.
Colin Schmitt voted against protecting reproductive rights: The ad cites the New York State Assembly bill S51002 which states that “No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof…pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in their civil rights.” This bill was created in response to Roe v. Wade reversal in June of this year. Voting records confirm that Schmitt and 45 other members voted no on this bill. The ad also cited the bill S240 from 2019 which aimed “to amend the public health law, in relation to enacting the reproductive health act and revising existing provisions of law regarding abortion…” Schmitt also voted no to this bill.
Schmitt will join a nationwide movement to criminalize abortion nationwide: This claim has information cited from articles by the New York Times and Associated Press where the New York Times covers a case of a mother and daughter being prosecuted for an abortion in Nebraska in August and the Associated Press covering a case from April of this year where a Texas woman faced murder charges for a self-induced abortion. Then the ad claims Schmitt will join others in a push to criminalize abortion nationwide, even in the cases of rape, incest or when the life of a pregnant person is at risk. The ad does not offer a citation for this claim, however, looking at endorsements online of Schmitt from pro-life organizations shows there is support for Schmitt and his stance and voting record on abortion. These include Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a non-profit 501 organization and the National Right to Life Committee. Schmitt stated on Twitter “@PatRyanUTC is extreme on the issue of abortion… Taxpayer funded late-term abortion, non-doctors performing abortion, removal of parental notifications for minors in distress, & removal of penal code for women attacked while pregnant… I am for common sense and compassion”
By looking at the claims made in this popular ad and comparing voting records and public statements from Schmitt, this ad is correct on Schmitt’s stance on reproductive rights, although there are issues with the ad without sources for a statement about his goals to create a criminalize abortion nationally.
By going through and analyzing these popular attack ads for each candidate, we can see where each candidate stands on different issues Hudson Valley voters are worried about, and will go to the polls to address.