Thomas M. Reynolds | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York | |
| In office January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Paxon |
| Succeeded by | Chris Lee |
| Constituency | 27th district (1999–2003) 26th district (2003–2009) |
| Minority Leader of theNew York State Assembly | |
| In office June 30, 1995 – March 2, 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Clarence D. Rappleyea Jr. |
| Succeeded by | John Faso |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly from the147th district | |
| In office January 1, 1989 – December 31, 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Paxon |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Burling |
| Chair of theErie CountyRepublican Party | |
| In office 1990–1996 | |
| Preceded by | Victor N. Farley |
| Succeeded by | Robert E. Davis |
| Member of theErie County Legislature from the 13th District | |
| In office 1983–1988 | |
| Preceded by | Ronald P. Bennett |
| Succeeded by | Frederick J. Marshall |
| Clerk of the Erie County Legislature | |
| In office 1980–1981 | |
| Preceded by | Terrance B. Newcomb |
| Succeeded by | David Swarts |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1950-09-03)September 3, 1950 (age 74) Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Donna Reynolds |
| Children | 4 |
| Residence(s) | Clarence, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Political assistant |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1970–1976 |
| Unit | New York Air National Guard |
Thomas M. Reynolds (born September 3, 1950) is an American politician from theU.S. state ofNew York, formerly representing the state's27th and26th Congressional districts in theUnited States House of Representatives. Reynolds was chairman of theNational Republican Congressional Committee, the official Republican House campaign organization, for the 2006 election cycle. He retired amid scandal at the end of the 110th Congress. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by theHouse Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.Chris Lee was elected to succeed him.
Reynolds was born inBellefonte, Pennsylvania, and graduated from theSpringville-Griffith Institute. He served in theNew York Air National Guard from 1970 to 1976.[1]
He entered politics as aRepublican, and was elected to theConcord, New York, town board in 1974, and to theErie County legislature in 1982. He was a member of theNew York State Assembly (147th D.) from 1989 to 1998, sitting in the188th,189th,190th,191st and192nd New York State Legislatures. He was Minority Leader from June 1995[2] to March 1998.[3]
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Reynolds ran for the House in 1998 afterBill Paxon was forced out of his leadership role in the House Republican leadership ranks because of his role in a coup attempt againstNewt Gingrich. Paxon 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; hisSpringville home was in the neighboring district of fellow RepublicanJack 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 inClarence, nearAmherst, one of the larger towns in the seven-county district.
Reynolds had aconservative voting record in Congress. His 83 percent rating from theAmerican Conservative Union tied him withPeter T. King of Long Island as the third-most conservative among the state's 29 Representatives as of the 110th Congress. Only RepresentativesRandy Kuhl (92%) andVito Fossella (84%) received higher ratings.[4] Reynolds is on record as a member of theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[5]
In the 2000 round of redistricting, aspecial master proposed a plan that would have made his district slightly moreDemocratic. Although Republicans would have still held a plurality, the plan would have left Reynolds vulnerable to a primary with a moderate Republican. According to one political strategist, Reynolds and his allies in Washington wanted a district that would let him vote "like a Southern conservative". With the help of Vice PresidentDick Cheney, Reynolds pressured the state legislature togerrymander his district so that it closely resembled his former territory.[6]
He was handily reelected from this reconfigured district in 2002. In 2004, his opponent was millionaireindustrialistJack Davis. Reynolds won by 12 points, an unusually close margin given that he had won with 72% of the vote two years earlier. In 2006 Reynolds again defeated Davis by 4% of the vote amid theMark Foley page scandal.
On March 20, 2008, Reynolds announced he would not run for a sixth term: "it was time to take up new challenges". Aside from fallout from the scandal regarding U.S. RepresentativeMark Foley (R-FL), another factor was thought to be revelations that a former NRCC treasurer[who?] hadembezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the committee treasury while Reynolds chaired it.[7] According to theNew York Daily News political reporter Elizabeth Benjamin, the NRCC was never independently audited during Reynolds' three-year tenure as its chairman.[8]
Reynolds was the 29th Republican incumbent to announce he would not run again in 2008. Despite the perception that Reynolds had the district redrawn to protect him, it is actually a somewhat marginal district on paper; it has aCook Partisan Voting Index of R+3.[citation needed]
In 2017, Reynolds joined Washington, D.C., lobbying firm Holland and Knight as a senior policy advisor.[9]
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Reynolds served as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 2003 to 2006. During the2004 House elections the Republicans gained three seats to increase their majority to 232. The2006 House election saw a Republican loss of 30 seats, losing the majority to the Democrats.
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Rodney Alexander (R-Louisiana), the sponsor of aHouse page (from his district) who received e-mails from RepresentativeMark 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 said he passed information that Foley had appeared overly friendly first to Majority LeaderJohn Boehner, and later to Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.[10]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.[citation needed]
Reynolds later issued a statement that he had spoken with House SpeakerDennis Hastert about the matter early in 2006. According toThe 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."[11] Hastert did not "explicitly recall" that conversation but said he did not dispute it.[12]
On October 2, Reynolds held apress conference[13] on the matter, fromBuffalo atDaemen 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 it. 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.[14]
Soon after, he made a televised campaign advertisement stating that he had had no knowledge of the depth of Foley's transgressions until afterwards. In December 2006, Reynolds was largely exonerated by the Republican-controlledHouse Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which probed the Foley case. TheRochester Democrat and Chronicle reported in its December 9 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 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 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, includingDCCC ChairmanRahm Emanuel, denied the accusation.[15]
| New York State Assembly | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theNew York State Assembly from the147th district 1989–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minority Leader of theNew York State Assembly 1995–1998 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 27th congressional district 1999–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromNew York's 26th congressional district 2003–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Thomas M. Davis Virginia | Chairman of theNational Republican Congressional Committee 2003–2007 | Succeeded by Tom Cole Oklahoma |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas former U.S. Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as former U.S. Representative | Succeeded byas former U.S. Representative |
