{"id":3035,"date":"2010-10-21T07:20:04","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T11:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2010-10-21T11:52:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T15:52:31","slug":"morning-read-gop-comptroller-candidate-wrestles-with-north-country-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/10\/21\/morning-read-gop-comptroller-candidate-wrestles-with-north-country-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning Read: GOP Comptroller candidate wrestles with North Country history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Harry Wilson is hoping to win the state Comptroller’s job away from Democratic incumbent Tom DiNapoli.<\/p>\n

But a major issue in the campaign is Wilson’s involvement with FiberMark, a paper and fiber company based in Lowville.<\/p>\n

Wilson’s investment company bought FiberMark’s debt during a bankruptcy proceeding and according to the Buffalo News<\/a> his involvement left many workers in the community seething.<\/p>\n

Wilson, they contend, presided over a low point in company history after his Silver Point investment firm acquired FiberMark debt during bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Silver Point’s control resulted in a frozen pension, wage reductions, elimination of retiree health insurance, an imposed labor contract, and charges against the company filed by the National Labor Relations Board.<\/p>\n

“I know that nobody who works for FiberMark will be voting for Harry Wilson,” said [Roger] Turck, president of Local 1988, United Steelworkers. “And this is a Republican county.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, an industry journal called Crain’s New York Business<\/a>, is arguing that the story is being used as part of a political attack mounted by the incumbent, DiNapoli.<\/p>\n

Crain’s interviewed Buffalo News reporter Robert McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is making opponent Harry Wilson\u2019s actions in the restructuring of bankrupt manufacturer FiberMark a centerpiece of his campaign.<\/p>\n

Latching on to a Buffalo News<\/em> article published on Monday, DiNapoli rounded up workers from an upstate FiberMark paper and fiber plant to complain about the wage and benefit cuts they endured.<\/p>\n

However, Bob McCarthy, who wrote the piece, says he \u201cworked very hard to fairly present both sides of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reporter notes that while he quoted the disgruntled workers, \u201cI also recognized that Wilson had an important message.<\/p>\n

He told me he believed [his investment firm] Silver Point\u2019s actions saved FiberMark and the Lowville plant, and that was also included prominently in the story.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Harry Wilson is hoping to win the state Comptroller’s job away from Democratic incumbent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[886],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3036,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}