"Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Jamaica) cannot hide from his votes in Congress," declared Grant Lally, the Republican candidate for Congress in the Fifth Congressional District. "Voting for the McKinney Act, as well as his huge funding votes for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has clearly placed the residents of the Fifth Congressional District in the crosshairs of his extremist ideology."

"Public housing and homeless assistance groups have inquired about the usage of Ft. Totten in the past," continued Lally. "The Department of Housing and Urban Development has acted as a real-estate broker for Ackerman, trying to place homeless men into Ft. Totten, as well as funding a housing project in East Northport, with the strong efforts of a public housing advocacy group. Ackerman is an strong advocate of both groups, pushing his liberal agenda onto the people he claims to represent in Congress."

Lally was referring to a newspaper article in the Times /Ledger, dated June 18, 1992, titled "Feds: Totten Still Available." The article and a July 16, 1992 article titled "Homeless at Totten Still Possible" in the Times / Ledger, cite at length the McKinney Act and the Department of Housing and Urban Development as being the catalysts for placing homeless men in Ft. Totten. Ackerman has voted for $779 billion dollars of funding to HUD in his time in Congress, as well as voting for the McKinney Act.

"Ackerman's relationship with HUD deepens in the eastern part of our district," Lally continued. "Ackerman and a liberal public housing organization called Housing Help have been strong-arming a 179 unit low-income public housing project into residential East Northport, where 80% of the residents own their own home. This is a $20 million dollar project, $12 million of it coming from the Ackerman-funded HUD. Ackerman tried to sucker the community into accepting something called 'limited equity' for the residents of this project, falsely calling it home ownership. 'Limited equity' is just a code word for 'public housing.' Ackerman and his public housing buddies have also ensured that 10% of the housing in this project be reserved for the homeless. And this is in the middle of a residential neighborhood."

"Ackerman does not even live in this district, he does not understand the integrity of our neighborhoods," Lally continued. "There are no military bases Jamaica or Lefrak City, Ackerman's real district. But it just shows how out of touch Ackerman is with us. He is too arrogant to live in our district, snubbing his nose at the thought of living here. That is why he has voted to destroy the integrity and character of our neighborhood."

"Gary Ackerman is not fit to represent Northeast Queens and the North Shore in Congress," Lally continued. "He does not live here. He does not vote our conscious. All he has been getting out of us is eighteen years of our tax dollars. And eighteen years of Gary Ackerman on our payroll is long enough."