Davis’ Comments Shock GOP Leaders

Congressional candidate Jack Davis shocked local Republican leaders in a recent interview when he suggested that Latino farmworkers be deported–and that African-Americans from the inner city be bused to farm country to pick the crops.

Several sources who were in the Feb. 20 endorsement interview with Davis confirmed his comments, which echo those he made to the Tonawanda News in 2008, when he said: “We have a huge unemployment problem with black youth in our cities. Put them on buses, take them out there [to the farms] and pay them a decent wage; they will work.”

When Davis repeated those sentiments in the recent interview, the Republican leaders–who later delivered the party endorsement for the vacant seat in the 26th Congressional District to Assemblywoman Jane L. Corwin of Clarence–said they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

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Davis spokesman W. Curtis Ellis acknowledged that Davis’ comments “may not be politically correct and . . . may not be racially correct.”

The revelations about Davis highlighted a busy Monday in the race to replace Rep. Chris Lee, an Amherst Republican who resigned last month after getting caught in an Internet flirtation with a woman who wasn’t his wife.

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Through his campaigns, Davis has struck a populist bent, raging against the impact free trade has had on local manufacturing and the effect illegal immigration has had on the country. Sources said he repeated those sentiments in the February meeting with GOP leaders.

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“It may not be politically correct and it may not be racially correct, but when you have African American people in Buffalo who do not have jobs and are out of work, why are you bringing people into this country illegally to take jobs?” Ellis asked.

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