SU alumnus urges U.S. Rep. John Katko to pull ad against Dana Balter

Dear Editor,

I am a 1971 Syracuse University graduate.

Our 240 year experiment in democracy is dependent on our leaders being truthful. For citizens to make wise decisions in a election year we need facts; not distortions and lies presented as truths.

The TV attack advertisement by Representative John Katko is long on distortion and short on truth.

The first distortion is that the ad approved by Rep. Katko states that Candidate Dana Balter failed to pay business taxes of $2,176.30 in Florida.

But, candidate Balter owed the state $47.29 which she paid when she received the bill in March 2013 in Syracuse.

The second distortion is that the TV ad then states Candidate Balter lived in this “swanky” home in 2013 when she wasn’t paying her business taxes. The ad shows a photo of a pool ringed by palm trees with a large building behind it with floor to ceiling windows.

That building was not Candidate Balter’s home. It was the clubhouse to a pool at the condominium. Balter lived at her brother’s house in the complex from 2010 to 2012. By 2013 Candidate Balter lived in a house in Syracuse she paid $95,000, according to Onondaga County Property records.

When asked by a Syracuse reporter in a Facebook Live interview on Oct. 17 why he didn’t pull the ad, three days after a fact check article appeared in the Sunday Post-Standard stating the ad had a number of misleading “facts,” Rep. Katko said, “Because it’s accurate.”

Rep. Katko should pull the ad immediately. Citizens of the 24th Congressional District deserve better.

Peter Wirth

Fayetteville, New York

SU Graduate