Washington Post piece on Rent-A-Kid’s victory
It’s a pretty good piece. The conclusion sums it up pretty well:
After thousands of trees were splintered by a freak blizzard last month, Reynolds walked the streets in the snow and helped engineer a federal emergency disaster declaration worth tens of millions of dollars in aid.
“I think Tom was dead in the water,” former Democratic congressman John J. LaFalce told the Buffalo News. “He needed an act of God to be competitive. And he got an act of God.”
But God stayed too local to help across the board.
[...] to show off some of his much ballyhooed clout by bringing in some FEMA aid (heckuva job, Tommy). Later analysis concluded that this may have allowed Reynolds to regain his political [...]