Rep. Tom Reynolds (R) Elected 1998, 3d term
Born:	Sept. 3, 1950, Belfonte, PA
Home:	East Amherst
Education:	Springville-Griffith Inst., Kent St. U.
Religion:	Presbyterian
Marital Status:	married (Donna)
Elected  Office:	Concord Town Bd., 1974-82; Erie Cnty. Legislature, 1982-88; NY Assembly, 1988-98, Min. Ldr., 1995-98.
Military Career:	NY Air Natl. Guard, 1970-76.
Professional Career:	Real estate & insurance broker; Erie Cty. Repub. Chmn., 1990-96.
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The destination of the Erie Canal, the great state engineering project that made New York the Empire State--is Lake Erie, and for its last hundred miles the canal passed through the rolling countryside of western New York. This was land scarcely settled, except by Indians, when the canal was begun in 1817, and in many ways it is part of the Midwest: water here flows not into the Atlantic but into the Great Lakes; people speak not in the pungent accents of New York City but in a flat Midwestern tone; the economy, based originally on farming fertile land, by the late 19th century became dominated by heavy industry. This land was settled mostly by New England Yankees, with cultural folkways quite different from those of New York City; later they were joined by Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants who came to work in the factories of Buffalo and Rochester. For most of its history, western New York has had an economy more prosperous than that of the rest of the country, as you can still see in the solid houses and schools, stores and factories built to weather the Upstate winter. But in the 1980s and 1990s economic growth has lagged behind the rest of the nation. Many of Buffalo's factories have closed and Rochester's premier industries, Kodak and Xerox, fell on hard times: in 2002, the two employed less than two-thirds of the workforce they had a decade earlier.

The 26th Congressional District covers much of western New York. About half its people are in the suburbs of Buffalo in Erie and Niagara Counties, though none in the city of Buffalo itself. It extends from the city limits of Buffalo to the city limits of Rochester and includes that city's northwestern suburbs. In between is rural and small town territory, with many towns bearing the classical names sprinkled by state commissioners across Upstate New York. One such is Attica, scene of the terrible prison riot in 1970. Politically, this is ancestrally Republican territory. For a long time this was due to Upstaters' distrust of Democratic New York City. But as economic growth has lagged, Upstate New York has moved toward the Democratic party. Not enough to make the 26th District Democratic, however: it is one of six New York districts which voted for George W. Bush in 2000.

The congressman from the 26th District is Thomas Reynolds, a Republican elected in 1998. Reynolds grew up in Springville, in southern Erie County, and became an insurance and real estate broker there. He got into politics early: in 1973 he was aide to an assemblyman and that same year, at 23, he was elected to the Concord town council. In 1982 he was named to a vacant seat in the Erie County Legislature. In 1988 he was elected to the Assembly and also helped run the congressional campaign of Bill Paxon, who was elected to succeed Jack Kemp in Congress from the Buffalo suburbs. From 1990-96 he was Erie County Republican chairman, from 1995-98 the Assembly Minority Leader. In early 1998 it seemed sure that he would stay in Albany. Then, suddenly, what is now the 26th District seat fell open in February 1998 when Paxon announced he would not run for reelection. At his side when he made his announcement in Erie County was his long-time friend and ally Reynolds, who announced he was running for the House the next morning. No serious Republican opposition appeared; Democrats nominated a professor at SUNY-Geneseo. It was not a suspenseful or eventful campaign. Reynolds won 57%-43%.

In the House, Reynolds, with some help from Paxon, quickly won the favor of the Republican leadership and became only the second Republican freshman in a century to win a seat on the Rules Committee. That assignment gave him quick entry into the House's leadership circles and the Capitol's back rooms. Like Paxon, Reynolds proved a skillful fundraiser, gaining appointment to chair the NRCC's Battleground 2000 program, which raised $21 million from House members. In January 2001 Speaker Dennis Hastert gave Reynolds a slot on the leadership-friendly House Administration Committee, which has responsibility for campaign finance legislation. As a further unusual sign of the leadership's gratitude to Reynolds for his campaign service and a mark of his growing influence, Hastert also got him a seat on the Ways and Means Committee; technically he is on leave on the committee, presumably pending the retirement at Ways and Means of Upstate neighbor Amo Houghton, and still serves on Rules. Reynolds became increasingly active as a legislative strategist. When the House took up the campaign finance regulation, he said that the Shays-Meehan bill had a loophole allowing Democrats to use their $40 million soft money building fund for hard money purposes; the language was fixed. After September 11, some Democrats criticized him as more interested in the priorities of the White House than the needs of New York, but Reynolds responded that he played an essential role as honest broker in getting money to his home state. Stylistically, his personal empathy--more than the specific words of his substantive appeal--can convince listeners to accept his case.

Despite his national activities and ambitions, local redistricting posed a challenge. Sluggish population growth meant that Upstate New York would lose a seat, and Reynolds's elongated district was in perfect geographical position to be carved up among its neighbors. On May 23, 2002, a three-judge federal court considering the case ordered adoption of a special master's plan which would have placed Democrat John LaFalce and Republican Jack Quinn in the same Buffalo-Niagara Falls district and which would have left Reynolds in a district with not much of a Republican edge. But the court gave the legislature more time to act and said it would happily adopt its plan if it met the June deadline for circulating nominating petitions. The legislature in this case meant Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Republican state Senate President Joseph Bruno and Governor George Pataki; everyone knew that anything they agreed on would be automatically passed. Reynolds worked with Democrat Nita Lowey, then head of her party's House campaign committee, to convince Silver, Bruno and Pataki that they should agree on a plan that would give the two of them safe districts so that they could campaign for their parties across the country. Dick Cheney phoned Bruno to put on the pressure. On June 5 the legislature passed its plan, which left Reynolds with a 26th District in which he would be safe. In November he won by a 74%-22% margin.

A week after the election, House Republicans chose their new team of leaders. Both Reynolds and Jerry Weller ran vigorous campaigns to chair the NRCC. The two occasionally sniped at each other behind the scenes and among Republican lobbyists, who were pressured to contribute to the campaign fund of each. Weller's district is adjacent to that of officially neutral House Speaker Dennis Hastert, although other leadership members, especially Tom DeLay, backed Reynolds. He won 123-91.

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DC Office
332 CHOB 20515, 202-225-5265; Fax: 202-225-5910; Web site: www.house.gov/reynolds

State Offices
Rochester, 585-663-5570; Williamsville, 716-634-2324.

Committees

• NRCC Chairman
.
• House Administration (6th of 6 R).
• Rules (9th of 9 R): Technology & the House.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	0	7	0	13	25	100	56	100	92	86	92
2001	5	--	10	21	--	--	62	96	88	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	33%	--	66%		16%	--	81%
Social	20%	--	69%		32%	--	63%
Foreign	4%	--	87%		15%	--	78%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Tom Reynolds (R-Ind-C)	135,089	74%	$642,641
	Ayesha Nariman (D)	41,140	22%	$8,377
	Other	7,230	4%
2002 primary	Tom Reynolds (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Tom Reynolds (R-C)	157,694	69%	$832,254
	Thomas W. Pecoraro (D)	69,870	31%	$27,587
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (57%)

2000 presidential
	Bush (R)	144,516	51%
	Gore (D)	126,693	44%
	Other	14,188	5%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Twenty-Sixth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 4
• District Size: 2,749 square miles
• Population in 2000: 654,361; 71.2% urban; 28.8% rural
• Median Household Income: $46,653; 6.9% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.4% blue collar; 61.7% white collar; 14.8% gray collar; 12.9% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 92.3% White, 3.0% Black, 1.5% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.8% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 1.9% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 20.6% German, 12.3% Irish, 11.9% Italian
• Click here for statewide demographic data.