By: Times Telegram

LITTLE FALLS – Martin Babinec, Independence Party candidate for the 22nd Congressional District, announced Tuesday his campaign would not accept special interest Political Action Committee donations and seeded the effort with an initial $1 million loan.

“I’m running for Congress as an independent, to be a voice for all the people who are forgotten, and if elected I will beholden to no one but the voters,” Babinec said in a news release. “Too many of the PAC special interests are invested in the status quo, the crony capitalism, corporate giveaways and tax loopholes that are stymieing entrepreneurial activity and I won’t take their money.”

Babinec said he’s created jobs for his company, personally invested in dozens of new industry companies and built Upstate Venture Connect, a nonprofit that helps others create companies and jobs.

“We need real change and we need leaders who have the courage and the freedom to end the failing culture in Washington,” he said. “I’m looking forward to rolling out my plans as to how we can transform upstate by creating smart jobs.”

Babinec, a Little Falls native, is a successful entrepreneur. In 1988, he founded TriNet, a cloud-based human resource company. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the company has grown to more than $2 billion in annual sales and more than 2,500 employees. He still serves on the board of directors of the company, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.

Babinec is a graduate of Herkimer County Community College and Shippensburg University and began his career as a human resource manager with Navy Exchanges, where he served as a civilian.

In 1999, he returned home, moving his family back to Little Falls where he and his wife, Krista, raised their three children.