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Former National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) announced Thursday he will not seek a sixth term in office, becoming the 29th GOP incumbent to bow out of the House. Reynolds’s retirement creates another potential opening for Democrats to pick up a seat in New York state, where they made significant inroads in 2006. He is the second GOP incumbent from the state to announce his retirement, joining Rep. James Walsh, who like Reynolds narrowly won re-election in 2006. Reynolds, 57, won re-election over millionaire businessman Jack Davis in 2006 with only 52 percent of the vote, despite representing a solidly Republican district. Davis and 29-year-old Iraq war veteran Jon Powers have already declared they will run in the Democratic primary. Reynolds, noting his tough 2006 victory in a horrible environment for the GOP, insisted a Republican will hold on to his seat. "Even in the worst political environment in a generation, the voters of this community returned me to office for a fifth term, which leaves me no doubt that had I broken with tradition and sought another term, I would have succeeded," he said. "Make no mistake. This is a Republican district, and it will again be represented by a Republican next year." The five-term lawmaker’s tenure at the NRCC was riddled with scandal and disappointment. A tough election cycle caused by the corruption and incarceration of two GOP members, paired with the congressional page scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), cost the Republicans the majority in 2006. More recently, Reynolds’s leadership of the organization has come under scrutiny because of recently discovered accounting irregularities at the NRCC, which appear to have occurred under Reynolds’s watch. The NRCC may have lost as much as $1 million after former Treasurer Christopher J. Ward allegedly funneled money from NRCC accounts to his own personal and business accounts. A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the party was well positioned to pick up the seat, even though the district leans Republican. Forty percent of New York's 26th district identify themselves as Republicans while 31 percent are registered Democrats. Twenty-seven percent of the district’s voters are not affiliated with either party. In 2004, George Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) 55 to 43 percent among voters in Reynolds’s district. |
