Living in the 19th Congressional District, I'd prefer any Democrat to Republican incumbent John Faso, who has betrayed us. Yet I'm concerned about primary candidate Brian Flynn, who claims he's a union champion and small-business man who's created hundreds of jobs.

Flynn originally worked for Citibank, becoming senior vice president for marketing and product development for the United States and Europe. In 1999, he co-founded Annotate Technologies, raising $8 million by partnering with clients such as Merrill Lynch. In 2001, he became president of RLM Public Relations, attracting Comcast, Allergan (Botox) and FujiFilm as clients. In 2004, he co-founded Schlossberg:Flynn, serving Fortune 500 companies and restructuring others. That's how he became president of AccuMED.

AccuMED, a medical device company, was founded in Buffalo in 1994 by Thomas Blaszczykiewicz, and employed several hundred workers. Following Flynn's takeover, manufacturing was transferred to the Dominican Republic — where 1,600 of its 1,700 workers are. Buffalo jobs fell to 75 and, after a $500,000 incentive from North Carolina, AccuMED moved its headquarters there. (It also uses a subcontractor in China and Taiwan.) Its annual sales revenues are $100 million. Yet Flynn advertises that "billionaires and corporations have rigged the system against us."

Joan Murray

Old Chatham