Calls highlight Magnarelli's support for bill that would have prohibited discrimination against transgendered people, saying 'bathroom bill' would allow men dressed as women to use women's restrooms and locker rooms.
Syracuse, NY -- Telephone calls Sunday and Monday by the Rick Guy campaign to households in the 120th Assembly District has his Democratic opponent calling the tactics reprehensible.
Guy, the Republican, Conservative and Independence candidate for Assembly, faces 12-year incumbent William Magnarelli, running on the Democratic and Working Families ballot lines, in the Nov. 2 general election.
» Bill Magnarelli and Rick Guy don't agree on much in race for the 120th NY Assembly
The calls highlight Magnarelli’s support of an Assembly bill that would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. In other words, the bill supported the rights of transgendered people. The bill never was enacted into law.
The calls highlighted Magnarelli’s support for what Guy called the bathroom bill, which he said would allow men dressed as women to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms.
Guy via e-mail said lawmakers in Albany should focus on the budget and state spending instead of social issues like the transgender bill.
“I think they are just upset that people are finding out just what Mr. Magnarelli’s voting record really is,” Guy wrote in an e-mail when contacted about the calls.
Christine Fix, Magnarelli’s campaign chairwoman, criticized Guy.
“This is negative campaigning at its worst,” she said. “It seems to me that if you had issues, policies or plans, you would more likely put that out rather than distort someone else’s record.”
She noted that neither call identified Guy’s campaign as sponsor of the calls.
Fix said her campaign headquarters received several calls about so-called push poll calls used Sunday and robo calls on Monday.
A push poll is defined as a seeming unbiased telephone survey that actually disseminates negative information about an opponent. Robo calls are defined as an automated call that plays a recorded message.
Although some states regulate the use push polls, New York state does not, according to the state Board of Elections.
The Guy campaign used both push poll and robo calls, according to the Magnarelli campaign, which provided The Post-Standard with audio copies of each type of call.
Tim Glisson, Guy’s campaign manager, admitted the campaign was responsible for the calls but unapologetic.
“The last thing we want to do is, No. 1 lie to anybody, No. 2 be disingenuous with people, No. 3 upset people, except for the fact, quite frankly, we do want to upset people (and tell them) that Bill voted for this bill,” he said. “I won’t shy away from that. That’s what campaigns are about.”
--Contact John Stith at jstith@syracuse.com or 251-5718.
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