FREEDOM – The Democrat candidate for New York State’s 57th Senate Seat said last week’s stand against the state’s crumbling infrastructure by Representative Tom Reed and several elected officials did more harm than good.
In an interview with WNYNewsNow Monday morning, Austin Morgan said the group politicized the issue and did not offer solutions.
“Congressman Reed, inserting himself the way he did, was an incredibly unhelpful thing to do,” said Morgan. “The way he put together this news conference created a spectacle, came out swinging with this incredibility partisan language, attacking the Governor without any real concrete facts to back him up was not helpful to the negotiations between the state and the Seneca Nations of Indians, and it was not helpful to the People of New York.”
Morgan said, in order to solve the road issues within the Seneca Nation, the area needs someone who is willing to help negotiate and put politics aside.
“Career politicians like Reed like to assign blame to anyone but themselves, it makes them feel good,” Morgan explained. “I’m sick of politics as usual. Let’s do what the people trust and pay us to do: work together, improve their lives, and fix the damn roads.”
On Thursday Congressman Reed, alongside Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello and Assemblyman Joe Giglio, primarily blamed Governor Andrew Cuomo for the lack of attention to roads through Western New York.
Citing the possibility of injury to motorists and damage to vehicles, the Congressman served the Governor and other DOT officials with a formal letter of defective conditions.
Morgan said he spoke with New York’s Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul last week, who reports negotiations are occurring and have been a long process. Reed just is not part of the negotiations, Morgan stated.
The candidate wants to see someone elected to New York’s 57th Senate Seat that is invited to the negotiation table and can help moderate.
Tom has been in Congress since 2010. This issue with the Indians goes way back before 2010. Only took 9 years to bring this issue to the surface. Congressman probably never drives Rt 86 near Salamanca or Rt 90 in Irving. So, he was not aware of this issue. Better late than never.