Southold, NY--A mailer sent by the Palumbo camp makes a false charge against Democratic Assembly candidate Tom Schiliro, uses a false, altered photograph of Mr. Schiliro, and wrongly footnotes the false claim to an August 10 “Southold Dem Press Release 8/10/14”.
Neither the Southold Town Democratic Committee nor any other facet of the Southold Town Democrats issued a press release on 8/10/14. “We never issued a press release containing the false charge against Mr. Schiliro,” said Art Tillman, Chairman of the Southold Town Democratic Committee. “We support Mr. Schiliro.”
On August 10, the Schiliro campaign put out a press release entitled, “LABOR GROUPS LINE UP BEHIND TOM SCHILIRO FOR STATE ASSEMBLY”, which was distributed in many ways, including posting it on the Southold Town Democrats website at www.southolddems.com. The press release announced:
“Schiliro has earned the support of 1199 Service Employees International Union (1199 SEIU), Local 338 Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), Local 1104 Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 1049 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 46 Metallic Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers, and the Allied Printing Trades Council.”
The release went on to quote a written statement from “Michele Lynch, 1199SEIU regional Political Director on Long Island”, which included the following:
“1199SEIU members in the 2nd Assembly District will be working to elect Tom Schiliro because he supports many issues that are important to us; local living wage laws, the Dream Act, campaign finance reform and women’s rights.”
Lynch’s comment about Mr. Schiliro’s support for the Dream Act is the closest this 8/10 press release comes to supporting the false Palumbo mailer, but since the Dream Act involves in-state tuition, not free tuition (see, e.g. the National Immigration Law Center’s summary of the Dream Act here: https://nilc.org/dreamsummary.html) it’s obvious that the mailer is simply libelous—completely without foundation in fact.
The Southold Democrats denounce the libelous mailer, and call on Republican Candidate Anthony Palumbo to retract it, in writing, and apologize—both to Candidate Schiliro and to us.
“If Anthony Palumbo is the kind of person he tells voters he is,” added Tillman, “he will act immediately to correct the record, and he will apologize for the libel committed in his name.”
