WASHINGTON – Rep. Anthony Brindisi will begin airing the first TV ads of his re-election campaign on Wednesday, even before he knows who his opponent will be in November.

The early ad campaign is the latest sign that the 22nd Congressional District will once again be one of the most competitive House races in the nation this year.

Brindisi’s campaign said the TV ads will be the first to air this year from any incumbent House member in the nation. In the 2018 campaign, Brindisi and his opponent, former Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, began airing TV ads in July and August.

Brindisi, D-Utica, won the election by about 1 percentage point after the candidates and their supporters spent a combined $24 million on the race.

Independent political groups from outside of Upstate New York spent $16 million on the campaign – the most for any House race in New York and seventh highest total in the nation.

Brindisi’s campaign declined to disclose how much money it was spending on the TV ads that will start to air Wednesday. The ads will air on broadcast and cable TV in the Binghamton area.

The eight-county 22nd Congressional District covers three media markets – Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton.

Brindisi’s ad campaign, touting his record in his first year in Congress, comes as he faces an early blitz of political attack ads during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

American Action Network, a nonprofit group that supports House Republicans, has spent more than $725,000 on a series of TV ads against Brindisi that started in December.

The latest ad is part of a $300,000 TV campaign that began airing Jan. 17 during Trump’s impeachment trial. The ad criticizes Brindisi for voting with House Democrats to impeach the president.

Watch Brindisi’s first TV ad of 2020 campaign

Tenney is among four Republicans competing for the GOP designation to challenge Brindisi in November. The others are former Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell; George Phillips, a high school history teacher from Broome County; and Franklin W. Sager, a high school math teacher from Broome County.

As of Monday, Tenney had secured the designation from three (Oswego, Madison and Herkimer counties) of the eight Republican county committees in the district.

If there’s a Republican primary election in the district, it would be held June 23. The 22nd district covers all of Madison, Oneida, Cortland and Chenango counties and portions of Oswego, Broome, Herkimer, and Tioga counties.

Read more

Claudia Tenney wins GOP designation for Congress in 3 Upstate NY counties

Rep. Anthony Brindisi starts 2020 with $1.8 million in campaign cash

Brindisi targeted by $300K ad campaign during Trump impeachment trial

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751

Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.