Republican Rob Astorino will continue running negative attack ads against challenger Noam Bramson, despite a finding by the non-partisan Fair Campaign Practices Committee that the ads are riddled with misleading and false claims.
“Rob Astorino would rather make false attacks than have an honest debate about real issues, because he’s afraid Westchester voters will find out just how extreme his views really are,” said Bramson campaign spokesman Barry Caro. “As long as he’s running ads chock-full of falsehoods we can’t trust anything else he says. The dishonesty here is especially glaring after Rob’s campaign manager admitted his ad contains factual errors.”
The Fair Campaign Practices Committee found this week that there were five false and misleading allegations packed into a single 30-second TV ad from the Astorino campaign. During the FCPC hearing Wednesday, Astorino campaign manager Phil Oliva acknowledged errors in the attack on Bramson’s record.
“This comes down to a basic question of trust. And by repeating demonstrated lies, Rob is forfeiting whatever trust he still had,” concluded Caro.
This is not the first time the Astorino campaign has made up facts to bolster a weak campaign argument. Earlier this summer, Rob Astorino falsely claimed the support of prominent pastors who had never endorsed him or even met him. And Astorino has mounted a massive campaign of public deception about the County’s affordable housing settlement, with wildly inflated — and repeatedly disproven — claims about housing requirements and costs.