Jack Davis (industrialist)

In 2004, Davis officially entered politics, running as a Democrat for the U.S. Congress from the 26th District of New York against incumbent Republican Representative Tom Reynolds, who was considered unbeatable. Davis doubled his original financial commitment to the race, pouring a total of $1.2 million of personal money into his campaign. Reynolds was forced to begin running campaign ads for the first time since his election in 1998.

On election day, Reynolds won, 56 percent to 44 percent; in contrast, he won the 2002 election 75 percent to 25 percent against the Democratic challenger. Many cite the amount spent by Davis as compared to Reynolds' prior challenger as the primary factor for the change. Some observers attributed the narrowed margin of victory to an undercurrent of resentment in the working-class areas of the 26th district over economic decline and a lack of manufacturing sector jobs. Others attributed the margin to the politics of the specific candidates; Reynolds' politics more closely resembling big-government neo-conservatism while Davis' more closely resembles the limited-government libertarian conservatism of Goldwater, the type of conservative thought more widely adhered to in Upstate New York.

After the election, Davis was fined for a violation of campaign finance reporting laws. Davis had used his non-profit "Save Jobs" organization to funnel money into his political efforts, failing to comply with political disclosure requirements of both the federal government and New York State.

Following his defeat in 2004, Davis continued his political activism by forming the Save Jobs Party to further his goals of repealing free-trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Davis believed that free-trade allowed low-wage nations, such as China to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops. Davis believed that this would be a popular idea in his native Upstate New York, which contained many struggling farms and factories. Although Republicans accused him of using the party merely as a springboard for a 2006 rematch against Reynolds, Davis sponsored more than a dozen candidates for public office in races across Western New York.

However, the Save Jobs party soon ran into trouble with state and federal officials. In one incident, an Erie County legislator sought an FBI investigation over last-minute automated phone calls (robocalls] that had been made from Davis's campaign headquarters.[13] In early 2006, Davis' state PAC was sued in State Supreme Court for improper filing of financial disclosures.[14][15] Davis abandoned the fledgling party.

Davis ran against Reynolds as the candidate of the Democratic, Working Families and Independence Parties in 2006. Davis received the Democratic nomination since no other Democrat chose to run in the September 12, 2006 primary. He appeared on three ballot lines and votes from all three nominating parties counted towards Davis' total under New York's electoral fusion rule.[16] As in 2004, Reynolds won, but by a much narrower margin.

With the Mark Foley scandal in full swing, pundits re-evaluated the odds of Davis winning against Reynolds. It was widely reported that Reynolds had knowledge of earlier e-mails between Foley and a page, although he was unaware of more explicit instant messages reported by ABC News.[17]

Davis led Reynolds in several polls taken during October 2006, but an early November poll showed him trailing 46 to 50.[18] He lost by a "hair's breadth", according to The Washington Post.[8]

After Reynolds announced his retirement from Congress in 2008, Davis ran a third time for the seat. He began as the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic Party nomination[8] but he faced stiff competition from Iraq War veteran and teacher Jon Powers. Democrats viewed Powers as their strongest candidate, and blamed Davis' attack ads for taking him out in the primary.[8] Powers finished second, Davis third, with little-known environmental attorney Alice Kryzan winning the primary. She lost the general election to Republican Christopher J. Lee 55–40 percent.[8]

Davis filed a successful lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission between his 2006 and 2008 runs for office, claiming that the so-called "millionaires amendment" to the McCain-Feingold Act election reform law was unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Alito writing for the 5–4 majority, struck down parts of the act as violating the First Amendment for fundamentally restricting the right of a self-financing candidate to spend his or her own money in a preferred way.[9]

Davis changed his political affiliation from Democratic back to Republican in 2010, after developing a favorable working relationship with Chris Lee over the course of Lee's time in office.[6][19] He expressed interest in the special election to replace Lee, who resigned in February 2011.[20] Davis met with the Republican chairs regarding a possible run, but according to Davis, the meeting "didn't go great". The Party was dissatisfied with his brief time in the Democratic Party and his willingness to run on a third-party line if he didn't get the Republican nomination, according to the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.[21] A GOP county chair told The Buffalo News that Davis had disqualified himself by expressing views that were contrary to typical Republican positions.[22] The Republican nomination went to Jane Corwin.[23] Davis also had discussions with Erie County Conservative Party chairman Ralph Lorigo regarding a potential run on that line,[24] but after Corwin received Republican nomination, the other two parties put her on their ballot lines.

Finally, Davis briefly, but unsuccessfully courted the Democrats for their nomination, then decided to run on a newly created independent line, under the name "Tea," sending out paid campaign workers to collect the 3,500 required signatures for a ballot listing (Davis's campaign workers collected over 12,000 signatures in total).[1] He received the endorsement of the Tea Party Coalition of New York, but his Republican opponent Corwin got the endorsements of TEA New York[25] and the Tea Party Express. Davis has said that if elected, he will caucus with the Republicans and Tea Party caucus because his opinions and positions align more closely with those groups than with the Democrats.[7] The Tea Party Coalition is an organization run by Libertarian Party activists James Ostrowski and Allen Coniglio, who use the name "Tea Party" for the ballot line on which they run their independent candidates; Ostrowski and Coniglio previously had used the line for David DiPietro in a state senate race and Janice Volk in a congressional special election in another district prior to Davis using the line.

Davis' ideology is "too inconsistent to be readily categorized", according to the Washington Post.[8] When asked about the issue of illegal immigration during his interview for the Republican endorsement in 2011, Davis reportedly shocked local Republican leaders by suggesting that illegal immigrants could be deported and unemployed black youth bussed from the cities to pick the crops.[22] Davis' spokesperson said the comments could be viewed as politically and racially incorrect; "but when you have African American people in Buffalo who do not have jobs and are out of work, why are you bringing people into this country illegally to take jobs?" he asked.[22]

Davis' main issue is his opposition to free-trade policies and agreements which he believes have allowed low-wage nations, such as the People's Republic of China, to compete unfairly with American-produced manufactured goods and agricultural crops.

Davis been described as favoring gun rights,[8] and has said that his position on the Second Amendment rights is similar to that of other members of the Tea Party movement.[26] He has given inconsistent answers on the issue of abortion rights.[8] Davis opposes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act[27] and also opposed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

The special election was initially thought to be a "certain victory" for the Republican candidate, but became "fiercely competitive", according to The New York Times, because of a U.S. House Republican plan to privatize Medicare.[28] The Times also cited the third party candidacy of Davis as a factor which is "siphoning support" from Corwin.[28]

A late April poll by Sienna College had Corwin in the lead with 36 percent, followed by Hochul with 31 percent and Davis with 23 percent of the vote.[29] An early May poll by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Institute showed Hochul at 35 percent, Corwin at 31 percent and Davis at 24 percent.[30] An unusual number of voters had a negative opinion of each candidate, according to the pollster: Hochul, 42 percent for Corwin and 43 percent for Davis.[31]

National media attention was given to a 15-second video clip that appeared to show Corwin's Assembly chief of staff, Michael Mallia, repeatedly asking Davis why he had skipped a campaign debate, followed by Mallia yelping as Davis apparently shoved him or flapped at the camera.[5][32] The video clip was circulated by local and national Republican organizations[33] and prompted bipartisan criticism of both Davis and Mallia.[5] Requests to see a longer tape and a tape made by second camera were refused by Corwin and her campaign.[32][34] In response to Davis' complaints that he had been harassed, Corwin said, "I've had cameras on me for two months now, and I've never hit anybody ... and I think that's the difference is how you handle a situation like that."[33]

The Tea Party Express and TEA New York which endorsed Corwin traveled to Rochester and Buffalo to hold events where they criticized Davis' use of the Tea Party name.[35][36] After the election, TEA New York blamed Davis for Hochul's win.[37]

Roll Call reported that Davis had promised to spend as much as $3 million of his own funds and that Corwin had invested nearly $2.5 million of her own funds in the campaign as of May 13.[38] Roll Call also said that outside funds coming from both liberal and conservative groups had "turned the Buffalo and Rochester airwaves into a steady stream of campaign ads."[38] Davis, in contrast to his opponents, received no assistance from outside funds.[39]