Talk:Chris Collins (New York politician)

"Vision for Erie County"

I have deleted a large section of text describing Collins' "vision for Erie County." This section only served as a promotion for Collins and his views, without any verifiable statistics or facts. This is in violation of wikipedia's policy on advertising Wikipedia:NOTADVERTISING. Additionally the section ended with the following statement "Collins articulated six core values that formed the basis for decision making in Erie County: smaller government, personal accountability, local decision making, fiscal discipline, government that serves taxpayers, and respecting future generations." There is no way of verifying that these values were used in decision making, as the highly partisan and ideological basis of those decisions makes them a matter of personal opinion. Non-verifiable content such as this has no place in wikipedia.Wikipedia:Verifiability --Cjs56 (talk) 04:23, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Untitled

How to Address Censorship Without Engaging in an Edit War?

I'm afraid I'm rather new to editing Wikipedia, so I don't quite know how to address the problems that have arisen regarding this article. One user seems to have been guarding this page from edits that reflect poorly on Collins, including those summarizing a recent controversy that made national news. Each edit is accompanied by the summary, "Inappropriate and overly political," with slight variations of this toward his earlier editing history, regardless of the relevance or neutrality of the edits. My particular edit was fully referenced, written in a neutral tone, and included a statement defending Collins from the newspaper that published the now-famous interview. This user has reverted the edit several times. I and others have attempted to restore it, and have attempted to engage with them personally, but this all seems to be a futile endeavor. I do not wish to further pursue an "edit war," but I also wish to prevent what I believe to be censorship. Is there any solution? Thanks to anyone who can help. Sssppp888222 (talk) 22:03, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

New disambiguator needed

Since he's been elected to higher office, I think a page move is in order. I don't think it's controversial, but: any objections to a move to Chris Collins (United States politician)? —C.Fred (talk) 04:27, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

I'll take that as a no, since somebody's already moved the page. :) —C.Fred (talk) 00:03, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Committee assignments in 113th Congress

Representative-Elect Collins has been assigned to the Agriculture and Small Business Committees. Will someone add this? 74.69.11.229 (talk) 00:21, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

Where the source we can verify this against? —C.Fred (talk) 00:24, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

References

Several of the claims made about Collins' time as Erie County Executive, for example:

• Reduced overall county debt by over $120 million
• Created a cash surplus in excess of $100 million.
• Reduced county employment by over 1,200 employees (22%); saving $72 million a year
• Reopened every bridge, road, park and beach that had been closed under previous administration, including rebuilding the historic toboggan runs in Chestnut Ridge Park in Orchard Park
• Fully paid Erie County’s state imposed pension costs without borrowing (one of the few large counties in NYS to do so)
• Reverted the state imposed Fiscal Control Authority to advisory status in 18 months and received approval of a Four Year Financial Plan (2012-2015) that further reduced county debt by another $100 million

are supported only by the reference "2012 Erie County Budget & Four Year Financial Plan;", which does not meet WP:BURDEN.

In addition, the article in general often reads like an advert for Collins, simply listing achievements that he has made or has supposedly made. For example:

"As County Executive, Collins articulated the following vision for Erie County: Erie County will be a world-class community where people want to live, business want to locate and tourists want to visit. To achieve this vision, Collins and his administration developed an economic development plan called Erie County’s Road to a Bright Future."

Additionally, there is a massive list of external links in the middle of the article which clearly violates WP:EXT.

The article clearly needs a serious cleanup. Claims that are not supported by references should be removed, as should the endless external links, and the article should be written in a balanced and neutral way. Tiller54 (talk) 17:02, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I've removed the external links to his companies from the middle of the article. It looks like that runs afoul of WP:ELNO #13 and/or #19. —C.Fred (talk) 02:00, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

not on those committees

Collins is no longer listed on Small Business, Agriculture or Technology (which is good, b/c he has no interest or aptitude in any of these areas). He is listed on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. My source is the E&C Committee website and his House website. Someone want to change it and cite it? 66.67.32.161 (talk) 21:21, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

BE BOLD and do it yourself. Tiller54 (talk) 21:44, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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Sources for recent ethics story

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/rep-chris-collinss-advocacy-for-biotech-company-broke-rules-house-ethics-watchdog-finds/2017/10/12/594988fe-af74-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/12/politics/chris-collins-investigation-house-ethics-committee/index.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/12/ethics-investigators-suggest-rep-chris-collins-may-have-engaged-insider-trading/758304001/

I recently reverted some poorly sourced text on the ethics controversy. I'm busy to add these at the moment but I encouraged someone else to do a write-up. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 00:49, 13 October 2017 (UTC)

Innate Imunotherapudics

Hmm? https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/27/gop-rep-chris-collins-loses-17-million-after-pharma-stock-tanks-92-percent.html Wikipietime (talk) 11:30, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Innate Immunotherapeutics Wikipietime (talk) 11:35, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Edits by single-purpose account and IP number

Today, there have been unwise edits by a IP account and by a single-purpose account (the account has only edited this page - and done so for years).[1]. The text in one place cites a factual assertion by Collins about the state of New York: when it comes to factual assertions, it's preferable that the assertions be supported or put in context by reliable sources (both to verify the accuracy and notability of the assertions). The text in another place says in Wiki voice that the GOP tax bill will have X impact on Collins' district and cites a tweet by Chris Collins. That's unacceptable. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 14:16, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Edited this attributed claim to show that it was made by Collins himself in a Twitter post cited by Fox Business News.Joalkap (talk) 16:29, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Still unacceptable. Readers have no idea if it's true and there is nothing to suggest that the claim is notable. This is why we need RS coverage: reliable sources cover claims if they are notable and reliable sources offer the context needed to understand the claims. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 16:32, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

While I did not add the sentences under contention (I do not edit anonymously), they are suitably attributed to Collins himself, attempting to defend his position. If there is an appropriate quote refuting his assertions, then adding it would be fine by me, but I'm disinclined to shield a politician from his own claims, however self-serving and unsubstantiated they may be. Your call. Joalkap (talk) 16:54, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

"Investments" section title

Should this section not be called something more descriptive, such as "Ethical and Legal Controversy" or "Allegations of Insider Trading"? Brendotroy (talk) 14:07, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Surely the indictment belongs in the lede?

It's why most will have heard of him. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 16:17, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

I agree. He's "suspended his campaign" [2] and will likely be replaced on the ballot. power~enwiki (π, ν) 16:19, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Of course it belongs in the lead. That's why I undid the edit taking it out of the lead. See Bob Menendez for a highly relevant comparable situation. – Muboshgu (talk) 16:25, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Disagree,

1. This is a developing story, and Wiki is Not a Newspaper: a) Who knows that a judge won't throw out the charges in a week, b) He could decided restart his campaign and run, he hasn't been replaced on the ballot yet. C) This is why most people who have heard of him only in this week, but he was a rising profile before this week.

2. WP:Scope: A prominent story of the news cycle of this week shouldn't take up a third of the header.

3. Wp:Coatracking: a) This is an Election season, bad actors want the bio to focus on a current controversy instead of nominal subject and a full de-sensationalized overview. I believe the Menendez page is being politicized as well, and have similarly edited it (probably won't stick). Look at John Glenn's header (who currently is not an election year, or being effected by current news cycles, therefore a more impartial example) Reading it, no one would know he was a member of the Keating 5, it's mentioned, just not in the header. Bill Clinton's header has the Lewinsky scandal summed up in a sentence, and the context is to explain why he was impeached and doesn't go into detail. No Travelgate, or any other investigation are mentioned. John McCain's header only mentions the Keating 5 in half a sentence that uses it in the context of it being catalyst that inspired his turn to campaign finance reform. Neither mention any details of the investigations, yet Collins original header mentioned his son Cameron being charged, those details should be in a controversy section, as we need to be careful to not take too much away from the nominal subject. John D. Rockerduck (talk) 21:01, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

1) The allegations are really strong. There is basically zero likelihood the charges get thrown out. 2) I do agree with this point, but the answer is to expand the lead, not reduce it in size. The lead of this article is too short and should incorporate more biographically important detail. 3) The end of his political career (and possible incarceration) is not a COATRACK. COATRACKs are when something totally unrelated to the subject of an article takes over the article. His criminal charges are highly relevant to him. – Muboshgu (talk) 21:07, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

The lede looks fine: One sentence noting the indictment, with two more sentences on his decision to not run for re-election, his reversal and his ultimate victory. Snooganssnoogans (talk) 19:56, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

I agree, although I may try to tighten.Bellagio99 (talk) 22:10, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Neutrality tag

The whole section on his tenure as Erie County executive reads like it was written by his staff—albeit cleverly, without using any obvious peacock words. It's a long list of achievements; surely there must be some things he did that didn't work out so well (I used to live in the Buffalo area ... believe me, no one there ever works out that great). Daniel Case (talk) 21:57, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Daniel Case, I have edited the section. I think I have fixed the problem. Is it OK with you if I remove the tag? SunCrow (talk) 17:03, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

@SunCrow: It has been sufficiently improved, so I removed the tag. Daniel Case (talk) 19:16, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

Political positions: Law enforcement

I see this as a NPOV violation:

In February 2014, Collins introduced the Kids before Cons Act to prohibit the use of federal money to provide college education to convicted criminals in prison. An editorial in The New York Times said, "These ridiculous arguments are unmoored from both reason and reality." A 2013 RAND study of 30 years of research found that every dollar spent on inmate education saves $4 to $5 on re-incarceration.

This section is supposed to be about his positions. Posting an immediate rebuttal in the same paragraph is not neutral. Moreover, coupling his proposal with the RAND study seems to me like OR. Peter Chastain ^[¡hablá!] 22:32, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

For some reason, this bill is mentioned twice. Perhaps the two can be combined into one. The other mention seems better:

In response to a proposal by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo to provide state prison inmates with a publicly financed college education, Collins introduced the Kids Before Cons Act in February 2014. The bill would prohibit states from using federal funding for the purpose of providing a college degree to convicted criminals. Collins called the Governor's proposal an insult to law-abiding taxpayers who are struggling to put themselves or their children through college. Collins' bill would allow federal dollars to be used for GED and working training programs in prisons and correctional facilities. Cuomo later abandoned his proposal to use public money to fund his initiative.

--Pemilligan (talk) 22:18, 2 October 2019 (UTC)

References

"Chris Collins ( politician)" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Chris Collins ( politician). The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 June 7#Chris Collins ( politician) until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. 1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 21:31, 7 June 2020 (UTC)