To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy.
After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2010, said he would not stand for re-election.
According to the website Ballotpedia, Republicans who announced their candidacy so far include Joe Sempolinski, Richard Moon, Mario Fratto and Hugh Bahar.
Sempolinski, a former aide to Reed, chairs the Republican Party of Steuben County, according to his campaign website.
Richard Moon’s campaign website uses a movie-trailer-style video to depict Moon as a pharmacist, small businessman and 3rd-degree black belt in judo.
Fratto is a criminal defense attorney with a Twitter page that touts him as an “honest lawyer” who hosts a YouTube program, “Making the Case with Mario Fratto.”
A campaign website or Twitter presence could not immediately be found for Bahar.
In the general election of November 2020, Reed defeated Democrat Tracy Mitrano 58% to 41%. Mitrano’s website describes her as a cybersecurity expert, consultant and “former Congressional candidate … supporting my Finger Lakes community in new ways.” The Ballotpedia website did not list any current declared Democratic Party candidates for the seat. Likewise, an Internet search also failed to turn up any.
When it comes to West Valley, the home of a former Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessing plant near Ashford, N.Y., Reed’s signature accomplishment was shepherding the West Valley Reauthorization Act to Congressional passage in December 2019.
The bill targets a $75-million funding floor for site cleanup and instructs the Government Accountability Office to report on waste disposal options for West Valley. The report, issued in January 2021, said Congressional action is needed to clarify disposal options for certain waste at West Valley. For example, the DOE does not consider transuranic waste from the New York site to be defense-related and does not currently take it for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
