Anthony Constantino is criticizing a newspaper report that the congressional candidate once employed a man charged with murder.
The Times Union reports that in 2025, the campaign of Anthony Constantino hired Alec Flores. A year earlier, Flores was charged murder in the death of a Nevada resident, according to the newspaper. Flores told detectives it was self-defense.
Constantino, who is vying for the Republican nomination in New York’s 21st Congressional District, says the Times Union headline is misleading.
“Yeah I spoke to the Times Union about it and I said why did you put up such a dishonest headline because it makes it sound like it’s recent. The guy was hired to do a customer service job essentially. It didn’t work out. The guy worked for a week or so and was let go. They’re bringing it up now because I’m up by 51 points following the President’s endorsement. I wish people would focus on issues that matter to the voters.“
Times Union Editor-in-Chief Casey Seiler said Constantino raised no factual issues with the article.
“I kept asking him if he had any factual issues with the article and he just kept coming back to the headline. And the headline says Constantino campaign, past tense, hired man facing, present tense because he is, murder charge in Nevada. That headline is accurate. It is true. It is true today as it was true last July when apparently Mr. Flores was hired.”
Constantino’s primary opponent Robert Smullen, a New York assemblymember, has been endorsed by most of the Republican committees in the district.
An April poll from McLaughlin & Associates found Smullen ahead by 10 points. Meanwhile newzjunky, an aggregate news site that has received mixed ratings re: factual reporting, conducted a poll that found Constantino 50 points ahead.