Former Barack Obama aide and Congressional candidate John Plumb irresponsibly announced earlier this month that he has taken a position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement without having read the agreement.

The negations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement were only finalized Oct. 4 and the language of the agreement will not be available for review for weeks.

It is a shame that Mr. Plumb would follow the lead of his Washington handlers and Hillary Clinton taking a position on an agreement that he could not have possibly have read. Taking a position without understanding the issues to mislead voters and score cheap political points is a disappointing reflection on candidate Plumb’s priorities.

Either John Plumb doesn’t understand how these negotiations work or he thinks the people of the 23rd District can be deceived. Either way he is not fit to be making these type of serious decisions.

The people of the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes and Western New York deserve a representative who will take the time to listen to the voters and review legislation before deciding where they stand on the issues. Tom Reed has held hundreds of town hall meetings since taking office. He has heard the thoughts and concerns of constituents on both sides of the agreement and is doing the responsible thing – waiting to read and analyze the final agreement before deciding where he stands on this issue.

Joe Sempolinski is campaign manager for Tom Reed for Congress.