Democratic Senate candidate Mike Amodeo is hitting Sen. Mark Grisanti for spending $82,000 on official legislative mail to constituents, a perk of incumbency that challengers frequently use to bash their opponents.

“Lawmakers’ mail and printing budgets have been bloated for too long and it’s time to put a cap on it,” Amodeo said. “Mark Grisanti spent $82,000 in six months to send mail to constituents using their own money. He could have been walking door to door, emailing or utilizing social media to get his message out. Frankly, this is a slap in the face to the taxpayers of his district. That money could have been spent on historic rehabilitation projects, waterfront development or supporting cancer research.”

Amodeo cites this Gannett story that found state lawmakers spent nearly $7 million over a six-month period on legislative mail.

There is a “black out” period for when lawmakers can send out official mail before Election Day.

Amodeo won a primary over Chuck Swanick earlier this month, but Swanick remains in the race on the Conservative Party line.

Amodeo said that as senator he would be “committed” to communicating with voters through email and social media in order to keep spending down.

Update: Senate Republican spokesman Scott Reif responds in a statement to say, “Mike Amodeo has a lot of nerve lecturing anyone about taxpayer money when he’s running to be part of the same New York City-based Senate Democrat team that raised taxes by $14 billion, increased spending by $14 billion, overspent the Senate budget by millions of dollars and ignored Western New York during their two disastrous years in the majority. The bottom line is a vote for Mark Grisanti is a vote for Western New York. Everything else is just noise.”

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