Faso foe has long history of activism, familiar residency questions

ALBANY – Three decades ago, Brian Flynn's brother, J.P., was one of 243 passengers killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In the wake of the tragedy, Flynn, then 19, began walking the halls of Congress, demanding accountability for the terrorist attack and ultimately its Libyan perpetrators.

"When the bombing killed my brother – being Irish –," Flynn recalled, "we quickly went from shock and sadness, to anger."

After decades of leading that fight, Flynn is now in another one: The seven-person Democratic primary to take on Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso. Flynn says he is the lone candidate with the longtime progressive, activist bona fides to win major victories in Congress.

"I decided to take my activism to the next level," Flynn said. "I'm not some kid, trying to carve out a career in politics."

Flynn's supporters tout him as a small businessman they say has created hundreds of well-paying jobs and can best speak to voters facing economic anxieties.

But like the other Democrats seeking to take on Faso, Flynn faces questions about his short history as a full-time resident in a district where many voters dismissed the Democratic nominees in 2014 and 2016 as carpetbaggers.

District 19 – which stretches from Rensselaer, Columbia, Greene, Schoharie and Montgomery counties into Ulster and Dutchess counties and west into Broome County – is considered a major battleground as Democrats seek to retake control of Congress.

Flynn is a fairly new full-time resident to Elka Park, a hamlet in Greene County.

As an entrepreneur, he touts himself as the only person in the race that has created jobs – more than 400, by his own count – but many were moved from Buffalo to North Carolina in recent years.

On his campaign website, both the residency and jobs issues were once addressed at length, but  those explanations have been removed. That was the result of a decision to "tighten up the messaging" when campaign staff was hired, and Flynn has "never hid from anything," his campaign says.

In an interview, Flynn did answer questions about his residency and other issues.

Candidates' residency histories are of secondary concern for voters, he said.

"That doesn't matter," Flynn said. "What have you done in life? What are you going to do for me?"

When President Donald Trump was elected in November 2016, Flynn was still registered to vote at an apartment in Manhattan, a borough where he had been a voter for many years. He changed his registration to his current Greene County address on November 29, 2016, but says he had already "started the process" of moving before Trump's election.

Less than three months after registering to vote in the Hudson Valley congressional district, Flynn formed a campaign committee to raise money for a run for Congress.

In 2003, Flynn bought a property in Elka Park and began building a new house.

While Flynn says he maintained a deep connection to the area for more than a decade, he put off moving there full-time until 2016 because of his need to care for his mother, who has Alzheimer's.

While planning the move north six years ago, Flynn had sold his condo in Manhattan. But he ended up staying and renting there until 2016 to care for his mother, he said.

Last year, Flynn said he finally found the "right care" for his mother, and his kids began attending school in the Catskills in 2017.

"I didn't move here to run," Flynn said. "I love it here."

Elinor Burkett, an Academy-award winning film producer and Flynn supporter, said she extensively asked around Flynn's community to see if he actually had spent a lot of time in the Catskills. She was told his children had grown up there, and that he wasn't just a weekender.

"As far as I can tell, Brian is not a liar," Burkett said. "I don't find him to be defensive."

Burkett said she had been impressed by the candidate's ability to speak with voters on issues from foreign policy to small business regulations.

"He has a fluency, and he doesn't talk down to people," Burkett said. She noted that was an important trait in a congressional district she described as being "old, white and under-educated."

Originally from Rochester, Flynn has deep family roots in the congressional district. His grandfather, who emigrated from Ireland, was a bartender in Leeds in Greene County. His great uncle was Michael Quill, the legendary founder of the Transport Workers Union of America, after whom an Irish cultural center is named in East Durham.

Flynn speaks publicly often and has held town hall meetings about a plan to implement "Medicare For All." He has been involved in environmental activism.  His campaign staff is among just a handful nationwide that is unionized, and he himself would be among just a few union members in Congress if elected.

Flynn has lent at least $650,000 of his own money to his campaign. Including the self-funding, Flynn has raised the second most money in the Democratic primary to attorney Antonio Delgado.

Flynn graduated from Georgetown in 1991 with a degree in business administration. His professional history has included starting a web technology company, turning around a public relations firm and founding a business advisory firm, Schlossberg:Flynn.

Flynn is now the president of a medical devices firm, AccuMED, and earned over $1 million in total compensation in 2016. He has helped lead AccuMED since 2008, which he turned around from the edge of bankruptcy, and says more than 300 jobs have been created.

In 2014, the company shut down its AccuMED Buffalo factory and moved more than 100 jobs to North Carolina and the Dominican Republic.

Flynn says the move to North Carolina was made for two reasons: the constraints of poor infrastructure in Western New York – especially a lack of reliable rail or shipping options in the winter – and a far more extensive pool of trained engineers.

If the move had not been made, the company's customers would have gone elsewhere in the United States or to China, he said.

"I've created hundreds of jobs in North Carolina," he said. "There's no other person running for this office, including John Faso, that has created any jobs."

The workers that didn't move from Buffalo to North Carolina were highly skilled and "scooped up" by other companies in New York, he said.

Following his brother's death in 1988, Flynn served as spokesman of Victims of 103, Inc., a group that fought for accountability for the Pan Am bombing. He wrote dozens of articles, did frequent television appearances, served on a major presidential commission on aviation security, and met with lawmakers and aides on Capitol Hill more than 100 times, while helping draft legislation that led to sanctions.

The results were new regulations improving airline safety, a law pressuring Libya to hand over two suspects, and accountability for Pan Am itself, which was found liable for "willful misconduct."

Flynn in 2005 co-founded a company called Cybrinth, a cyber-security firm. In 2007, Cybrinth signed a $2.3 million deal with Libya, according to court records, the country whose leadership Flynn had long sought to hold accountable for the bombing.

Flynn said that he was only involved with Cybrinth for about six months, and had no involvement with it as of 2007, when the company did business with Libya.

Unlike some other candidates in the primary, Flynn has longstanding Democratic Party credentials. When now-U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was first running for the House in 2006, Flynn was an early fundraiser and volunteer.

"Because of his long history, I can trust him," said Peter Finn, a Democratic activist in Averill Park and retired state worker. "He's not just the creation of some consultants and pollsters."

In a crowded congressional primary, it was a small, mostly unnoticed act that helped earn Finn's vote.

At a candidate forum last year, most of the candidates were busily preparing to speak. But Flynn instead quietly moved chairs into the room so more people in the crowd could sit.

"When he sees stuff," Finn said, "he does it."