Reporter, candidate clash

LOWVILLE — Village police were called Monday on a reporter from a conservative magazine who persistently questioned Republican congressional candidate Dierdre K. Scozzafava after a Lewis County GOP dinner.

Ronald P. McDougall, the candidate's husband, called dispatchers shortly before 9 p.m. from the Elks Lodge, Shady Avenue, to make a nuisance complaint against the reporter, John M. McCormack, deputy online editor of The Weekly Standard.

Ms. Scozzafava said Mr. McCormack "had a fervor to him and an aggressiveness that concerned me."

The state assemblywoman said she's received threatening letters and phone calls, usually over her support of abortion rights. The candidate said she became particularly concerned when Mr. McCormack asked her about taxpayer-funded abortions, noting he hadn't fully identified himself to her or given his affiliation.

Mr. McCormack disputes Ms. Scozzafava's recollection, saying he identified himself and his publication immediately upon approaching her. The reporter said he asked his first question about a labor bill, at which point Michael C. Backus, Ms. Scozzafava's campaign manager, stepped between him and the candidate.

"If the guy wanted to set up an interview, I would have gladly done that," Mr. Backus said Tuesday.

Mr. McCormack said Mr. Backus tried referring him to Matthew A. Burns, Ms. Scozzafava's campaign manager. But the reporter said Mr. Burns had ignored his requests for information after Mr. McCormack published a piece on the race a few days earlier.

"My job is to ask questions and get answers," the reporter said Tuesday. "There never was going to be a scheduled interview."

Mr. McCormack said he decided to wait outside for Ms. Scozzafava after his first attempt to question her inside had been blocked by Mr. Backus and others.

When the candidate emerged, Mr. McCormack said that's when he asked her about her position on abortion. The reporter said he asked nine questions in total, with Ms. Scozzafava giving partial answers to five.

"At no point did I yell," he said. "I never shouted. I never screamed. I never pushed anybody."

Mr. McCormack was questioned by Lowville village Officer Brandi Groman, but no charges were filed.

"I think he was just pressing," village Police Chief Eric F. Fredenburg said Tuesday about the reporter.

Ms. Scozzafava said Tuesday she did not think that Mr. McCormack "would have hurt me," although she considered his demeanor "erratic." The candidate also said she never suggested calling police.

"I'm not going to be physically intimidated or threatened," she said. "He has every right to ask questions, but he doesn't have a right to ask them in the manner that he did last night."

Mr. McCormack said Ms. Scozzafava's camp "could have told the truth: that the assemblywoman's husband called the police on me for asking questions. You don't do that in America. That's what the First Amendment is. They chose not to tell the truth, hoping that people will believe this ridiculous assertion."

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard's founder, stood by his reporter in a posting on the magazine's Web site Tuesday.

"Let me emphasize: I have full confidence in the truth of John's account," he wrote. "And I won't allow a desperate campaign to try to tarnish the fine reputation John has built as a fair and accurate reporter — and, for that matter, a very decent and mild-mannered young man."

Lewis County Republican Chairman Samuel F. Villanti said he didn't know about the incident until a reporter called about it Tuesday morning.

Mr. Villanti said a police officer came into the Elks Lodge after the event looking for a "Mr. McDonald," but "it never connected" with him that she was seeking Mr. McDougall, who is president of the Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Central Trades and Labor Council.

"I thought someone had played some sort of dumb joke," he said.

Ms. Scozzafava was the guest speaker at the dinner, but no questions were asked of her during the formal festivities, Mr. Villanti said.

The GOP chairman said his wife, Johanna, sat next to Mr. McCormack at dinner and was surprised that he was at the center of the incident, since he appeared to be a quiet, unassuming man.

State Sen. Joseph A. Griffo, R-Rome, and Republican state Supreme Court candidates James W. McCarthy and James C. Tormey III, the Fifth Judicial District's administrative judge, also spoke at the event.