Thomas M. Reynolds

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Tom Reynolds
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 26th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 6, 1999
Preceded by	Maurice Hinchey
Born	September 3, 1950 (1950-09-03) (age 57) Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Donna Reynolds
Religion	Presbyterian

Thomas M. Reynolds (born September 3, 1950), commonly known as Tom Reynolds, is a politician from the U.S. state of New York, currently representing the state's 26th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. The district includes suburban Buffalo and Rochester as well as many rural communities. Reynolds was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the official Republican House campaign organization, for the 2006 election cycle. He will retire at the end of 2008, and will not run for reelection this November^[1]. He currently is supporting Chris J. Lee to replace him.

[edit] Early life

Reynolds was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and graduated from the Springville-Griffith Institute. He served in the New York Air National Guard from 1970 to 1976,^[2] and was elected to the Concord, New York town board in 1974. Reynolds was elected to the Erie County legislature in 1982. He was elected to the New York Assembly as a Republican from Erie County in 1988.

[edit] U.S. House of Representatives

[edit] 1998 election

Reynolds ran for the House in 1998 after Bill Paxon was forced out of his leadership role in the House Republican leadership ranks because of his role in a coup attempt against Newt Gingrich. He endorsed Reynolds, who had managed several of his past campaigns, as his successor. There was controversy because Reynolds did not live in Paxon's district, his Springville home being in the neighboring district of fellow Republican Jack Quinn who was running for his own reelection. Reynolds would not move into the district until eight months after the election when he purchased a home in Clarence — near Amherst, one of the larger towns in the seven-county district.

[edit] Committee Assignments

• • Ways and Means Committee
  • Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures
  • Subcommittee on Trade

[edit] Political positions

Reynolds has a "conservative" voting record in Congress. His 83 percent rating from the American Conservative Union ties him with Peter T. King of Long Island as the third most conservative among the state's 29 Representatives. Only Representatives Randy Kuhl (92%) and Vito Fossella (84%) received higher ratings.^[3]

[edit] Re-elections

In the 2000 round of redistricting, a special master proposed a plan that would have put considerably more Democrats into Reynolds' district. While Republicans would have still held a plurality, this would have exposed Reynolds. According to one political strategist, Reynolds and his allies in Washington wanted a district that would let him vote "like a Southern conservative."^{[citation needed]} With the help of Vice President Dick Cheney, Reynolds pressured the state legislature to redraw his district so that it remained heavily Republican [1]. He was elected from this district in 2002, and again 2004. His 2004 opponent was millionaire industrialist Jack Davis was bested by 12 percent of the vote. In 2006 Reynolds again defeated Davis by 4% of the vote amid the Mark Foley page scandal.

[edit] NRCC

Reynolds served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee during the 108th Congress. In this capacity, he oversaw the loss of 29 seats from the Republican caucus.

[edit] 2006 House page scandal

Main article: 2006 Mark Foley scandal

Rodney Alexander (R-Louisiana), the sponsor of a House page (from his district) who received e-mails from Representative Mark Foley, told reporters that he learned of the e-mails from the page's family in November, 2005. Alexander said the family did not want the matter pursued. Alexander also said he passed information that Foley had appeared overly friendly first to Majority Leader John Boehner, and later to Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.^[4] Carl Forti, a spokesman for the GOP campaign organization, said Reynolds also was told by Alexander that the parents did not want to pursue the matter and that they did not want a large-scale investigation.

Reynolds later issued a statement that he had spoken with House Speaker Dennis Hastert about the matter early in 2006. According to the Washington Post, "Republican insiders said Reynolds spoke out because he was angry that Hastert appeared willing to let him take the blame for the party leadership's silence."^[5] Hastert did not "explicitly recall" that conversation but said he did not dispute it.[2]

On October 2, Reynolds held a press conference [3] on the matter, from Buffalo at Daemen College while surrounded by numerous children of his adult supporters. He said he took the Foley matter to his "supervisor" as soon as he found out about the matter. Reynolds claimed that he had no knowledge of any sexual conversations or e-mails between Foley and the page until after it was disclosed in the media. [4] Soon afterwards, he came out with a television campaign advertisement claiming that he had no knowledge of the depth of Foley's transgressions until afterwards.

In December, 2006, Reynolds was largely exonerated by the Republican-controlled House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which probed the Foley case. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported in its December 9th edition that "Rep. Tom Reynolds told the truth when he said he told House Speaker Dennis Hastert about ex-Rep. Mark Foley's questionable e-mails to congressional pages, the House ethics committee has concluded," while the Associated Press reported the "the House ethics committee on Friday cleared Rep. Thomas Reynolds and his ex-chief of staff Kirk Fordham of wrongdoing in the congressional page scandal."

On page 76 of its report, the committee reported they had uncovered the fact that "the communications directors for both the House Democratic Caucus and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also had copies of the e-mails in the fall of 2005," months prior to Reynolds' knowledge of the incident. During the 2006 campaign, Republicans charged that Democrats had prior knowledge of Foley's inappropriate e-mails with a House page. Democrats, including DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel, vehemently denied the accusation.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• U.S. Congressman Thomas M. Reynolds official House site
• Thomas M. Reynolds at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Thomas M Reynolds campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Thomas Reynolds issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Tom Reynolds campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Thomas M. Reynolds (NY) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Tom Reynolds profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Thomas Reynolds voting record
• Congressman Tom Reynolds official campaign site
• Tom Reynolds Watch