Rep. Senate Candidate Accuses Opponents of Vandalizing His Home

It's not exactly Watergate, but last night Republican Senate candidate Juan Reyes fired the first, slightly out of left field shot in his primary battle against Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich. In a press release entitled, "REYES HOME TARGETED BY CAMPAIGN VANDALS," Reyes says that on June 13, he returned to his Forest Hills home to find the "Welcome" mat stolen from the front of his house, and plastic forks dumped onto his lawn. Clearly, it must have been the work of political rivals, according to Reyes. "When I got into this race, I wasn't expecting the opposition to roll out the red carpet for me," said Reyes, an attorney and father of three who served as General Counsel to several city agencies during the Giuliani Administration, "But I never thought someone would come to my home in the dead of night and steal the 'Welcome' mat from my front door." In addition to the theft of the welcome mat, the intruder bizarrely emptied a box of plastic forks on the Reyes lawn. "Political campaigns should be about the important issues facing New York State, not about childish antics that belong in Animal House," continued Reyes, who is running in the Republican Primary in the new 15th Senate District. Reyes recently launched a primary campaign against Ulrich and the winner will take on Queens Democratic State Sen. Joe Addabbo. The Queens Republican Party, which has long been at odds with Ulrich, is backing Reyes, while the Senate Republicans prefer Ulrich. Though it's not explicitly stated, it certainly can be assumed that Reyes is implicitly accusing someone from Ulrich's camp ( the insurgent faction of the Queens Republicans that features Bart and John Haggerty) for the small-scale malfeasance. Gerry O'Brien, a veteran consultant working for Reyes' campaign, told me last night that he was sure Reyes was being targeted by political opponents - his children were too young to have friends that would do such a thing, and that only political insiders would have known Reyes would be out at the fundraiser. "In Queens political circles, there's a number of people who could have done this," O'Brien added. Reyes' campaign also helpfully provided the police report number for an account filed of the plastic fork-dumping/mat stealing affair. To read the full article at City & State [click here. ](http://www.cityandstateny.com/ulrich-challenger-accuses-unnamed-political-opponents-vandalizing-home/)