SCHENEVUS – Republican state Sen. Peter Oberacker’s campaign manager in his congressional race against Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY-19) has labeled the incumbent a “phony and a hypocrite” after he appeared on CNN on Tuesday to discuss a bill that would ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
A spokesperson for Riley fired back at Oberacker, calling him “a bullshit artist.”
Per the Oberacker campaign, Riley owns a mutual fund that holds shares of Iberdrola, the parent company of NYSEG. According to a financial disclosure filed last year, Riley has between $100,000 and $250,000 invested in the Fidelity International Index Fund.
“While (Riley) talks about high utility bills and corruption in Congress, he is profiting off Upstate New Yorkers’ misery,” Pascocello said. “Families, farmers, and small business owners are struggling to make ends meet, and Josh Riley is laughing all the way to the bank. Upstate New Yorkers simply cannot afford any more of Josh Riley’s corruption.”
Mauranda Stahl Evans, a spokesperson for Riley, fired back by calling Oberacker “an Albany bullshit artist incapable of telling the truth about anything.”
“Here are the facts: Josh Riley doesn’t own any stocks, and he’s leading the effort in Congress to ban stock trading,” Stahl Evans added. “Pay More Pete accepted campaign cash from utility monopolies as they were jacking up rates. And when given the chance to stand up for ratepayers, he voted to help the utility monopolies instead.”
Riley has repeatedly criticized NYSEG and its parent company, Avangrid, over high utility rates and the millions of dollars sent to their owner, the Spanish multinational Iberdrola. Oberacker has received two contributions from the Avangrid New York PAC totaling $350 over the past four years, but Pascocello said those funds were returned.
During his CNN appearance, Riley said: “I think it’s really important for everybody to remember there’s a direct line between the corruption in this place and the struggles folks are having at their kitchen table right now. There are families who are getting hit with the utility bill, hit with the grocery bill, and having tough conversations with their kids about whether they’ve got to cancel summer vacation. People know that the challenges they have in a rigged economy are directly related to the corruption of this place.”
Last week, Riley and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) introduced the No Taxes on Utility Bills Act, which would allow taxpayers to deduct taxes and state-mandated surcharges on utility bills, including gas and electric bills. The proposal would apply to residential and small-business ratepayers and would take effect for taxable years beginning after the legislation is enacted.
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