laid off employees at his business<\/a> in favor of robots. Smullen accused Constantino of trying to buy the race.<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s actually spent millions of dollars on this race so it\u2019s no surprise. What\u2019s disturbing in this is it was branded as a made-in-America event when in fact my opponent has laid off workers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just one of many exchanges that have led to the race\u2019s now notoriously negative tone. Those issues also include a Constantino ally claiming that Smullen was using his late son as a political prop, which Smullen linked directly to the candidate and subsequently refused to shake his hand at a recent debate. Both candidates point to the other\u2019s character issues as disqualifying.<\/p>\n
Constantino\u2019s press conferences are a near-constant refrain that Smullen is a \u201cpathological liar,\u201d a charge Smullen volleys right back.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the layoffs, Constantino claimed that he was forced to let employees go because of Democrats encouraging boycotts of his company.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why he would want to pile on that negative attitude toward a local business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Smullen told Spectrum News 1 that despite the hullabaloo around Constantino\u2019s campaign, his campaign has the energy to win going into Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been in every county in this district, we\u2019re going to continue to do so to make sure we ring the bell in every corner of this district,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m the only conservative in this race, and when I\u2019m in Congress I\u2019ll be able to represent the people of the 21st Congressional District as such.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smullen, who has spent much of the campaign on the attack, has consistently worked to remind voters that Constantino was at one time registered as a Democrat in what has become a cornerstone of his argument against the Sticker Mule CEO, who rose to fame after building a massive \u201cVote for Trump\u201d sign in view of the New York State Thruway in Amsterdam during the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am the only lifelong Republican, my opponent has registered twice as a Democrat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Constantino dismissed the issue Thursday, claiming that he was registered to help a friend who was running for office in deep-blue Albany and the goal was to elect a more right-leaning candidate. Jordan jumped to his defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cRonald Reagan was a Democrat before he became a great Republican,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In another mark of the deep party divisions, Constantino did not commit Thursday to backing Mike Johnson for speaker if Republicans maintain control of the House of Representatives and Johnson runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to see what happens when we get elected, right now I\u2019m focused on winning my race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smullen told Spectrum News 1 he would give the current speaker the nod if it comes down to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Mike Johnson were to run for speaker, I would vote for him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Amid a race where the Republican infighting, along with what Democrats see as subtle discontent among some Republicans with Trump\u2019s performance, has some banking on a Democratic upset, both face questions over whether, given the tone of the primary, they could unite the party. Neither has committed to stepping aside if they lose, and Smullen has said he will remain on the Conservative Party line either way.<\/p>\n
The situation carries echoes of that Tea Party-influenced 2009 special election.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisagreements are normal in life, when you\u2019re making decisions of great importance, disagreement is normal. I can come back to the table and work with anyone,\u201d Constantino said of whether he\u2019ll be able to bring the party together if he wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely can. Keep in mind and remember, I was appointed by President Trump, my campaign platform is battle-tested, upstate first,\u201d Smullen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the already bruising and divisive Republican primary in New York\u2019s 21st Congressional District between state Assemblyman Robert…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":877496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,17547,327,25223,51754,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,17545,5227,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-877495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-congress","tag-decision-2026","tag-jack-arpey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116775019225855444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}