Rematch between Michael Arcuri and Richard Hanna for NY-24: A high-stakes battle of 'lies' and 'fabrications'

More than $4 million flows into one of the most competitive House races in the nation.

Washington -- U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri says he took the high road in his 2008 re-election campaign against Republican businessman Richard Hanna: Arcuri refused to run negative advertising about his opponent, even though he was under attack.

“Two years ago, I did not run a single negative ad,” Arcuri said. “And I saw a 22-point lead dwindle down to four points.”

Arcuri, D-Utica, held on to win a second term in Congress by fewer than 10,000 votes. When it came time for a rematch with Hanna this year, Arcuri said he decided he had no choice but to respond if Hanna went negative.

The result: The race for the 24th Congressional District seat in Central New York has turned into one of the most competitive, intense and expensive battles for a House seat in the nation this year.

Almost $4 million from coast to coast has flowed into the race from a variety of interest groups as the district emerged as a leading battleground for Democrats and Republicans fighting for control of Congress.

Most political analysts in Washington have rated the race a “toss-up,” although one poll last week commissioned by The Hill newspaper in Washington showed Arcuri with a lead of 10 points (margin of error plus or minus 4.9 percent).

For voters in a district that covers all or part of 11 counties, including southern Cayuga and all of Cortland counties, some of the issues may have been drowned out by an unrelenting series of negatives ads from both sides.

Hanna, 59, an Oneida County businessman who made a fortune in construction and real estate, says he is “slandered” hourly by the commercials from Arcuri and his supporters.

“The negative ads he has run this time are not just negative — they are just out-and-out lies,” Hanna said in an interview Friday.

Hanna insists he did not start the nasty ad war.

“We never went negative,” he said of his commercials about Arcuri. “It was about his record, and he didn’t like it.”

Arcuri, 51, seeking his third term in the House, disagrees about who started the battle.

“This year, I didn’t run a negative ad until he did,” Arcuri said of
Hanna. “So I think it’s kind of disingenuous for him to sit here and act like he is the victim.”

For all of their disagreements and highly charged accusations, Arcuri and Hanna have moved closer to each other and moderate viewpoints on many key issues over the past two years.

Both candidates have tried to follow in the footsteps of Sherwood Boehlert, the moderate Republican who held the region’s seat for 24 years before retiring in 2006.

The swing district’s 395,077 enrolled voters tilt slightly to Republicans (165,730) over Democrats (134,110). That makes the district’s 75,865 independent voters even more important in deciding elections.

As a result, both Arcuri and Hanna have tried to court independent voters by moving to the ideological center on many of the key issues in the campaign.

Arcuri and Hanna support extending all of the Bush-era income tax cuts, which were enacted in 2001 and 2003 and expire at the end of this year. They agree tax cuts for the middle class should be permanent. The only difference is that Hanna wants to make tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent; Arcuri wants to grant an extension to the wealthy for only one or two years.

The candidates agree that President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan approved earlier this year needs to be changed. Arcuri, who voted against the final bill, wants to make changes without repealing the existing bill; Hanna says he would favor repeal only if changes could not be made.

Arcuri and Hanna also have common ground on the future of Social Security (both oppose privatization of any kind) and on the war in Afghanistan (both support Obama’s surge of 30,000 troops and oppose setting firm deadlines for withdrawal).

Both men say they would rein in federal spending. Arcuri is a member of the fiscally
conservative Blue Dog caucus in the House. And on social issues, they both support abortion rights and civil unions (not marriage) for gay couples.

With so much common ground, Arcuri and Hanna have focused in recent weeks on their personal differences.

Arcuri’s campaign ads have attacked Hanna, a millionaire who owns a construction company and invests in real estate, on his record running a business. Hanna said the ads call him “a bad, dishonest businessman who lied and overcharged.”

Hanna said the ads are all lies.

“It’s gotten uglier,” Hanna said of the campaign. “The sad thing for me is I had a good career in business with 450 employees. But my opponent has chosen to go down a road and lie about me.”

Hanna said he is proud that his firms were fined about $3,000 to $4,000 for federal safety violations over a 30-year career — a small amount, he says, for the volume of business he has done.

“The point is, I’m a good guy doing this for the right reasons,” Hanna said of his second run for the 24th District seat. “It’s so disappointing that after four years of being in Congress, I have yet to hear him talk about anything that he accomplished.”

Hanna said his experience in the business world makes him better-equipped to represent the region in Congress and tackle the tough economic and budget issues that arise.

“I’ve been in the trenches building a business, making a payroll and dealing with the state,” Hanna said, adding that Arcuri (the former Oneida County district attorney for 13 years) has never held a job outside the public sector.

Arcuri counters that Hanna “is telling fabrications” about his past.

“He knows I had my own private law practice for nine years,” Arcuri said. “That’s a small business.”

In the end, Arcuri said it should be clear to voters that he has the experience — and ideas — to take on the nation’s economic problems and help create jobs.

“The biggest difference is that he and his campaign have no idea of how to improve the circumstances that we are in,” Arcuri said of Hanna. “He points out all of the problems. But he has not a single idea, not a single view, not a single creative proposal to make things better.”

Arcuri compares Hanna’s campaign rhetoric to the urban renewal program of the 1970s that left many urban areas bulldozed, with no solid plans for reconstruction.

“You can’t just knock something down unless you have something to put in its place,” Arcuri said. “He just wants to point out the problems, but he doesn’t want to propose solutions.”

With a little more than a week to go before the Nov. 2 election, it will be up to voters to sort through the messages and choose a candidate. But it appears that is not an easy task for many undecided voters.

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, who publishes the Rothenberg Political Report in Washington, D.C., ranks the race as one of the 16 most competitive House elections in the nation.

As of Friday, Rothenberg said, the race is a “pure toss-up” between Arcuri and Hanna.

National Republican strategists say they view the 24th District seat as essential in their effort to take back majority control of the House of Representatives. Republicans want to pick up at least four House seats in New York this year (the GOP currently has two of the state’s 29 seats) as part of a strategy to reach a net gain of at least 39 seats nationwide — the amount needed to win control of the House.

Rothenberg is predicting a Republican gain of 40 to 50 seats nationwide.

With the stakes so high, big money has flowed into both campaigns, and outside groups have spent more than $1.4 million to try to sway local opinions.

The Republican-leaning group Americans for Job Security has spent more than $472,000 against Arcuri, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington, D.C., that tracks campaign spending.

Americans for Job Security is an independent organization that has no limits on campaign spending and does not have to disclose where it raised its money.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, has spent an additional $217,000 attacking Arcuri.

On the other side, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, has spent more than $715,000 attacking Hanna.

The candidates’ individual campaigns have also raised and spent considerable sums on the campaign.

Arcuri raised more than $1.5 million and spent more than $1 million through Sept. 30, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Hanna raised more than $900,000 and spent more than $500,000, according to FEC records. He has loaned his campaign more than $120,000 of his own money.

--Contact Washington correspondent Mark Weiner at mweiner@syracuse.com or 571-970-3751.