Who is Matt Doheny?

Matt Doheny

            Matt Doheny is a candidate for Congress to represent the 23^rd Congressional District of NY and is currently seeking the endorsements of the Republican, Conservative and Independence Party. So in this race, it looks like it will be a bitter primary battle between Dohney and Hoffman for certain since they are both going after the Republican Party endorsement. While we have seen Owens and Hoffman in the congressional spotlight before, it is going to be interesting to see if their experience will aide them in this year’s election. But who is Matt Doheny?

            According to his biography on his campaign website, Doheny is “not a career politician, but someone whose experience and track record have centered on his career path in the business world." It is discussed that he has the experience needed to “help turn around our nation’s bring much needed jobs to the region.” There is also a lot of controversy surrounding Doheny and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee describe him as an “out of touch Wall Street Insider who has proven only to be looking our for himself.” While that may be some harsh criticism from the DCCC, it is true that Doheny said Social Security needs to be cut and this plan would benefit stock markets. Also, Doheny claims that one of his focuses of his campaign is to “bring much needed jobs to the region,” but his Wall Street company invested in South America instead of the United States. Therefore the jobs he saved were not even in New York but offshore instead. Also, according to the Watertown Daily Times he helped a company that gave bonuses to their executives but fired five hundred workers.

            So is Matt Doheny’s business past going to aide his campaign or will it hinder his efforts? So far, in my opinion, it seems that while Doheny might know how to “bring a large company back from the brink of financial ruin” (according to his biography), he might sacrifice workers and jobs to do so. Therefore, the people of the 23^rd Congressional District of New York might get the exact opposite of what they were promised: “bringing much needed jobs to the region.”