Democratic congressional candidate Nate McMurray tweets blast after blast at State Sen. Chris Jacobs, his Republican opponent in April's special election for Congress.
But McMurray also hammers away at Jacobs' family ties to Buffalo-based hospitality and tourism giant Delaware North – which also happens to be where McMurray himself has worked for the past half-dozen years.
"Every time I see Jacobs smiling, I think, 'Must be easy to smile when you own the Boston Bruins, casinos, jets,' " McMurray tweeted last Tuesday.
And, one day later, McMurray wrote, "In our part of the world only people named Jacobs and Native Peoples (under law) got casino licenses. And now they want a Congr(e)ssman. To get more? Haven’t they got enough?"
Some of McMurray’s tweets are, at best, misleading; Jacobs has said he has no direct financial connection to Delaware North.
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But a political campaign that stretches the truth is not unusual. What is unusual is how hard McMurray is biting the hand that feeds, a company that employs thousands worldwide and hundreds in Buffalo and is not known for favoring one political party over another.
It's also far from clear whether McMurray's populist barrage will pay off.
"This is the equivalent of running for Congress in Arkansas and attacking Walmart," said Christopher M. Grant, a veteran Republican political operative who is not involved in this race.
For his part, Jacobs shrugged off McMurray’s attacks. He said he is proud of his family’s achievements.
"I will continue just to focus on my campaign and the things I can do to make sure we can create more Delaware Norths in this area," Jacobs said.
The campaign for the seat formerly held by Chris Collins is shining a spotlight on the privately owned Delaware North, an active player in politics at all levels.
The company’s vast operations include lucrative concessions contracts at national parks and other federal properties. Those concessions deals can be worth billions of dollars, and the decisions awarding the contracts have generated controversy.
The company and its executives contribute to Democrats and Republicans alike, host fundraisers and employ lobbyists across the country to promote their interests.
This year, the company’s leadership already has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Jacobs’ campaign, but nothing to McMurray – who didn’t have their support in 2018, either.
McMurray, a vice president of business development for Delaware North, said the company never had a problem with his 2015 run for Grand Island supervisor or his unsuccessful 2018 run against Collins, who resigned last year.
But he said company officials asked him to take a leave of absence during the special election, where he faces Jacobs.
"It sounds like a punishment, considering in the past this never happened to me before and I'm not the only person at the company that holds elective office, and I'm not the only person that holds high-profile public service positions," he said.
Delaware North said it could not comment on McMurray's employment status because it is a personnel matter, and it declined to respond to his critiques of the company.
Politically connected
Privately owned Delaware North is one of the largest companies based in Buffalo, with annual revenues of $3.7 billion. It has 57,000 full- and part-time employees worldwide, including several hundred at its downtown headquarters.
The company manages hotels, resorts and casinos, and it sells food, beverages and souvenirs at venues ranging from airports to sports stadiums. Delaware North and its rivals compete fiercely for concessions contracts from the federal government for national parks and properties such as the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, which Delaware North has operated since 1995.
Federal agencies such as the Park Service and NASA make the decisions on those contracts, but Delaware North works hard to make sure it has friends in high places in the federal government.
For example, Delaware North Chairman Jeremy Jacobs was a sponsor of a January 2017 fundraiser headlined by presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway at the Westin Hotel in Buffalo, owned by Delaware North, that was expected to raise $1 million for the Trump transition.
And his son Jerry Jacobs Jr., co-CEO of Delaware North, hosted a September 2014 fundraiser for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, at his East Aurora home.
The company's political action committee gave $78,000 to federal candidates during the 2014, 2016 and 2018 elections, with nearly 58% going to Democratic candidates, campaign finance records show.
The company hires the politically connected, including, for example, retaining former Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
Jack McNeill, the company's senior vice president of government and external affairs, is a former staffer on the presidential campaigns of Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2000.
Shannon Patch, the director of government affairs, is a former aide to Sen. Charles Schumer and recently won election to the Tonawanda Town Board. And William J. Hochul Jr., Delaware North's general counsel, is a former United States attorney whose wife, Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, held the congressional seat before Collins.
Delaware North employees have given $34,600 to Chris Jacobs' congressional campaign, compared to $11,100 to Collins in his last election cycle and none to McMurray for that 2018 race or now. That's according to Federal Elections Commission data compiled by Political Money Line and only reflects donations from people who identified their employer as Delaware North.
"We're family, and we support one another," Chris Jacobs said.
McMurray isn't the only one raising this as an issue. State Sen. Robert G. Ortt of North Tonawanda, the second choice of the Republican leaders who tapped Jacobs for the special election, pointed to Jacobs' ties to Delaware North and Reynolds, its lobbyist, as tilting the playing field in his favor.
Chris Jacobs said Reynolds has been a friend and mentor for years.
Loss of support
McMurray joined Delaware North as an assistant general counsel before becoming a vice president of business development several years ago.
He said it's a sales job that requires coordinating with the parties – unions, developers, restaurant operators, venue owner – involved in bringing, for example, a new restaurant to an airport where Delaware North has the concessions contract.
McMurray said he told his bosses from the beginning that he planned to seek public office and that they supported him in 2015, when he won election as Grand Island supervisor, and again in 2018 when he lost to Collins.
In 2018, when McMurray was serving as Grand Island supervisor, working for Delaware North and running for Congress across the sprawling 27th district, McMurray said the company did agree to reduce his duties during the campaign.
McMurray doesn't regularly work from Delaware North's offices and is not an hourly employee. He said his salary and bonus are contingent on meeting his business goals for the year. He said his job has periods of intense and lighter activity but that he met his goals during the campaign and his bosses did not express any concerns about his work output.
"They never said it was about my performance," McMurray said of the leave request.
In the days after McMurray took his leave – which runs through April 28 – he ramped up his attacks on Delaware North.
In one two-day stretch last week, McMurray fired off 10 tweets that criticized Chris Jacobs and the company's owners, their wealth and Delaware North's ownership of casinos.
"There's nothing more American than saying your boss is rich and you hate a sports team," McMurray said.
But it's inaccurate to say Chris Jacobs owns a casino or a sports team because, as Jacobs said, he has no direct financial connection to Delaware North.
Chris Jacobs' grandfather and great uncles started Delaware North in Buffalo more than 100 years ago, and his grandfather passed it down to his children, including Chris' father, Lawrence Jacobs.
But Jeremy Jacobs, who has run Delaware North for 50 years, bought out his siblings, including Lawrence, decades ago. Jeremy Jacobs and his sons – Jerry Jr., Lou and Charlie – oversee the company and the Bruins today. Forbes estimates Jeremy Jacobs and his family have a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Lawrence Jacobs, for his part, became a well-known neurologist and medical researcher who helped to develop a landmark multiple sclerosis drug. He died in 2001.
Chris Jacobs said he is proud of his family's record of philanthropy and community service, including significant donations to the University at Buffalo.
"I have great admiration for him," Jacobs said of his uncle, "and I'm proud to call them my family."
Will this work?
Political operatives recognize the tricky dynamics at play here.
McMurray met last month with members of the Erie County Democratic Committee to seek their backing in the special election. After he gave his pitch to the committee, Chairman Jeremy Zellner joked, "Before we get into this, how was work this week?"
In McMurray's eyes, Delaware North wants to get someone the company knows it can trust to protect its interests into this congressional seat. He said the fact he's willing to take on his employer proves his independence.
"How would it look, after fighting Chris Collins, to simply say, 'No, I'm going to sacrifice the seat because the company I work for wants someone related to the family to run?' " McMurray said.
To Chris Jacobs, it doesn't make sense that McMurray would work for a company for as long as he has and turn around and criticize what it stands for.
"I'm not worried about it. I frankly think it's quite hypocritical coming from the person who it's coming from, who has benefited directly from Delaware North," Jacobs said.
Is this an effective strategy for McMurray?
Former Rep. John LaFalce, a Town of Tonawanda Democrat, is close to the Jacobs family and once employed McMurray's older brother, Cort, in his office.
"I don't know whether it's going to be effective or not," LaFalce said. "The Jacobs family has a lot of friends in Western New York."
And, pragmatically, how does McMurray go back to Delaware North on April 29 if he loses the special election?
"I don't know. But I would think Nate might say, 'I'm so convinced I'm going to win, I'll burn whatever bridges are necessary in order to win,' " LaFalce said.
News Washington Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski contributed to this report.
