They were friends and colleagues. Then this NY politician's campaign tactics drove them apart
Larry Tanoury Jr. considered David Gordon a friend, someone who'd seek his counsel. They'd talk politics and strategy, what to use and how to use it.
Back in 2012 — seven years before Gordon's actions on the campaign trail would result in a defamation case he'd lose, along with the primary — they were young Democrats together in the Oneida County Legislature. Gordon was elected in 2011, a few years after Tanoury.
When Gordon ran for re-election, then for Congress, then for county clerk, Tanoury was part of his brain trust. Gordon even sought Tanoury's advice when Gordon changed parties to run in the 2019 Republican primary for Oneida County executive against Anthony Picente Jr.
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Tanoury's advice in early 2019 was clear: Picente had endorsed Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo. To win the Republican primary, Gordon should remind Republican voters of that simple fact, over and over. Do that, he told his friend, and "it's game over."Then came Feb. 8, 2019, when a police report detailing a domestic violence incident involving Gordon was leaked to Bill Keeler on WIBX. Gordon had been arrested after threatening his fiancée, but she had declined to pursue the case and the incident was sealed. But there was Keeler, talking about it on the radio.
Gordon wasn't happy; neither was Tanoury.
"Dave was a friend, and I thought that was dirty, whoever released it," Tanoury said in a recent interview. "It was nasty. I understood why Dave was so upset."
The following Monday, Gordon held a press conference to acknowledge the incident. But the pivot he took next cost him Tanoury's advice, his friendship, even a spot on Tanoury's cellphone after his former adviser blocked him.
"It was a tragic case, to be honest," Tanoury said. It was the case of Caitlin McCann, one that would go on to captivate Oneida County political circles and news outlets. Gordon planted the seed of the case at that press conference. Desperate to hit back after the Keeler report, he turned to a rumor he had heard, one without a shred of evidence.
"He wanted to go after the county executive being in some sort of affair with his assistant, Caitlin," Tanoury said. "And he had asked me about it and I said no. I said, of course there's rumors. I said everybody's heard rumors. Gosh, Jesus could become an elected official and they'll say he's having an affair. That's politics. But I said I have no proof whatsoever. I said I worked with them both and never saw anything. There was nothing to verify anything like that."
But Gordon, on the defensive, switched to the offense. He spread the rumor at the lectern, and it wouldn't be close to the last time.
"I guess I can't judge because I've never been attacked personally the way that Dave was," Tanoury said of his former friend's behavior. "It just became a bloodbath. The issues got kind of tossed aside."
Gordon held two press conferences. There were interviews and social media posts. It was too much for Tanoury.
"At one time we were both young Democrats that were getting into the (legislature) and trying to make changes, trying to take on the establishment. And this here showed me ... you're doing worse than anything I ever imagined them doing. At that point, our friendship ended," Tanoury said. "I said: 'I can't even associate with you, friend-wise, forget politically. It's gone off the rails.' It became a circus up here. Every day, every station, there were songs written about it, like parodies. It was just out of control."
Gordon doubled down and tripled down.
"He flat out came out and said that (Picente) had a child with her, and there's no proof of that," Tanoury said. "People start rumors. You don't go blaring those out as accusations to 200-plus thousand people. No one disagreed with (Picente) more politically than me when I was on the board, to be honest. But the guy was a dedicated public servant and a dedicated husband from all accounts, at least what I know."
Neither McCann nor Picente agreed to comment on Gordon's actions.
If you listen to rumors in politics, Tanoury said, it'll make you crazy. But Gordon listened to this rumor, because, he said, this rumor came from his friend, Larry Tanoury Jr.
When McCann sued Gordon for defamation — for saying she had had an affair with the married Picente, had become pregnant and given birth to the child in South Carolina — Tanoury was among the first names Gordon offered for "proof" of the affair.
On June 26, 2020, their friendship long over, Gordon called Tanoury as a witness in McCann's defamation case, McCann v. Gordon, via a Zoom call, amid the pandemic.
As Gordon — who was acting as his own attorney — questioned him, “I could tell Dave wasn't happy,” Tanoury said. “I almost felt bad for him. I'm like, 'I don't know what he wants me to say. Like, does he want me to lie?'"
When Tanoury was asked if had any direct knowledge of a Picente-McCann affair, of a McCann pregnancy, of McCann being sent to South Carolina — all of which Gordon had alleged, without proof — he replied, three times: “Absolutely not.”
Before he blocked Gordon from his phone, Tanoury said he had one last conversation with his soon-to-be former friend.
"I said 'I get the politics. I get that you were upset that they went after you and attacked you. But with all due respect to you, Dave, what they attacked you on, the way they got the information was dirty and all that, but they put out stuff that was true. You're putting out things that are not true and you got other people involved.
"This is a young girl, a professional in a small town, who's trying to probably build a career, I'm sure wants to build a family. You got Tony. His wife doesn't deserve that. And you have zero proof at all about it. You can't just go out there throwing that out there. I mean, it's damaging.'"
This article originally appeared on New York State Team: David Gordon lost votes, and a friend, in 2019 Oneida County race
