FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O'Reilly, 212-396-9117
REPUBLICAN LOSS IN FORMER SKELOS SENATE DISTRICT AN INDICTMENT OF INSIDER ALBANY POLITICS: PIDOT
"Sen. Jack Martins is Textbook Case of a
Cozy Albany Dealmaker Who Broke his Word to Voters"
NY-3--Apr. 20...
Long Island voters starkly rejected insider Albany politics Tuesday in electing former federal prosecutor Todd Kaminsky to the state senate over the handpicked Republican candidate of the Nassau County political machine, and that doesn't bode well for Albany insider State Senator Jack Martins, pro-term-limit Republican congressional candidate Philip "Flip" Pidot today said.
Mr. Pidot, a
former corporate fraud investigator who is credited with blowing the lid off a massive national campaign finance scandal involving millions of dollars in illegal donations to politicians including then Sen. Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and many others, is running in the Republican primary against Mr. Martins in New York's third congressional district, now held by retiring Rep. Steve Israel.
"Republican voters have it with being double crossed by Albany politicians," Mr. Pidot said, "and nowhere was that more clear last night than in the NY-9 senate district where many Republicans failed to turn out for the machine candidate, or actually supported the Democrat in the race. The failure of Republicans in Albany to honor their campaign promises is perfectly personified in Mr. Martins who time and again has broken his word for political expediency. There's a reason why Mr. Martins was ranked the most liberal Republican in the senate by the State Conservative Party last year; he blows with the wind when it benefits him politically."
Earlier this month, Mr. Martins, the State Senate Labor Committee Chairman, broke his word to protect beleaguered small businesses on Long Island by voting for Governor Andrew Cuomo's $15 minimum wage -- a 70% hike -- after specifically saying it would hurt businesses and job growth.
In an interview earlier this year, Mr. Martins said, among other things, "
Y
ou can't increase the minimum wage and kill your small businesses
." And then he voted for it, reportedly in a deal cut with Governor Cuomo and a major New York labor union involving the NY-9 seat vacated by convicted former Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos. According to reports, Mr. Cuomo agreed not to campaign on behalf of Mr. Kaminsky, the Democrat in the race, and SEIU 1199, one of the most left-leaning unions in America, outright backed Republican Chris McGrath in his losing race.
The
dramatic minimum wage increase will cost New Yorkers between 200,000 and 500,000 jobs, according to one expert estimate.
Philip "Flip" Pidot, is a Glen Cove father of three and a passionate proponent for federal tax reform, term limits, and audits of federal waste. He has pledged to impose term limits on himself in Congress and will introduce legislation to replace pensions for members of Congress with 401-k-type plans, like many regular Americans have, if elected. Mr. Pidot believes that defined benefit public pensions encourage politicians -- at every level of government -- to remain in office as long as possible.
Mr. Pidot, who holds a B. A. from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Virginia, began his career in fraud investigation in the late 1990s, working on high-profile corporate fraud cases of the time and achieving the designation of Certified Fraud Examiner. He published a nationally-respected investigative blog for nearly a decade that included a months-long financial investigation into Hillary Clinton campaign bundler Norman Hsu, ultimately identifying millions of dollars in Ponzi scheme proceeds that the convicted fugitive had illegally steered not only to Clinton, but to dozens of federal and New York State elected officials, most of whom were eventually shamed into returning the illicit funds.
Mr. Pidot's findings were covered by
The Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, San Francisco Examiner,
Sunlight Foundation, and Michelle Malkin's #1 bestseller
Culture of Corruption.
He is a frequent political guest on Fox News "The Strategy Room" and has also appeared on Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV as an economic and market analyst. Mr. Pidot is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.
Last year, Mr. Pidot helped launch the local political reform movement Glen Cove United, which seeks to implement sorely lacking transparency and accountability into local government and to replace entrenched machine politicians with reform-minded citizens and civic leaders. He serves on the Board of Regents of Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola and is a steering committee member of the Committee for a Sustainable Waterfront.
NY-3 includes parts of Suffolk, Nassau, and Queens counties.
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