A video released Wednesday night by the Erie County Republican Party appears to show Congressional candidate Jack Davis and an unknown, unnamed volunteer each strike at a Republican operative asking Davis why he backed out of this morning’s debate on Channel 2-WGRZ.

A Davis spokesman, however, said the video is not what it seems.

In the video, recorded following a Davis campaign stop in Greece, a male holding a video camera can be heard hectoring Davis, asking “Jack, why did you back out of the debate?”

Davis responded by asking the person holding the camera, “Do you want punched out?”

He then appears to smack the camera, back away and laugh.

The interviewer asked again, “Why did you back out of the debate?”

The response this time was a second man appearing to strike the interviewer and the interviewer yelp in pain.

Erie County Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy condemned Davis for the video.

Langworthy confirmed Wednesday night that the video — which was immediately posted to YouTube and disseminated to reporters and voters via Twitter, Facebook and email — was shot by a Republican volunteer.

Langworthy declined to name the volunteer, saying, “I don’t know if he’s going to talk. The kid’s just a volunteer.”

“I know the kid. I just want to keep his name out of it for now,” Langworthy said.

“I’m just really surprised by Jack Davis’ unhinged behavior,” Langworthy said. “I think this really shows that Jack doesn’t have the temperament to serve in the U.S. Congress.”

Langworthy said the interviewer is not the same person that Davis had told to “shut up” in a previous encounter at a campaign event last week.

Davis spokesman Curtis Ellis says the video is not what it appears to be.

“There’s nothing going on in this video,” Ellis said.

“This is the ‘Blair Witch Project’ of tracker videos,” he said. “You don’t see nothing here, but they try to make it seem scary.”

“I see 15 seconds of shaky video of the guy squealing like a stuck pig and then shaking the camera as if he was hurt,” Ellis said.

The Davis spokesman said he was not at the event and had not talked to Davis about the incident, but doesn’t believe his candidate, nor his candidate’s aide, hit the videographer.

“These people have no respect for the truth. They lie about their own records. They’ve lied about Jack Davis’s record. And now they’re lying about what this video means,” Ellis said. “They will do anything to stop Jack Davis from getting to Washington.”

Ellis said he doesn’t know who the videographer, either, but added, “He’s a good actor.”

The exchange was prompted by a surprise announcement earlier in the day Wednesday, that Davis would not attend what is presently the only scheduled debate for unexpectedly heated contest for New York’s 26th House district.

Earlier in the day, Davis had issued a written statement announcing he would not participate in Channel 2’s debate.

“I will not lend my integrity and my reputation for honesty to a forum with two politicians who will say anything to get elected,” Davis said in the statement. “Jane Corwin and Kathy Hochul are professional politicians. They are lying about me and my record. ... Sadly, their behavior is considered politics as usual. I refuse to accept it.”

Jane Corwin, the Republican candidate, and Kathy Hochul, the Democratic candidate, were given their ballot spots by leaders of their party committees in the seven-county 26th District. After the Republican chairmen spurned his offer to run, Davis petitioned for an independent ballot line named the Tea Party.

In recent surveys of likely voters, Davis is running third of four candidates on the ballot, but he was running surprisingly strong for a candidate who does not have a major-party label to his credit.

In response, the GOP especially has gone after Davis’ history of running for 26th District as a Democrat, three times, in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Republican campaign ads have sought to link him with what they term a liberal, tax-and-spend agenda in Washington.

Davis, 78, is a nearly lifelong registered Republican. He quit the GOP in 2003, after a falling out with party leaders over federal policies on trade and manufacturing, signed up with the Democratic party to get its backing for his first congressional campaign in 2004, and rejoined the GOP last year. He said he did so after discussions with high-level officials including then-U.S. Rep Chris Lee and Langworthy.

Corwin and her supporters aren’t the only ones lying about him in the contentious campaign, Davis charged.

When the Hochul camp lumps him in with Corwin as favoring the so-called Ryan budget, which includes a proposal to privatize Medicare, she also is lying about him, he said.

Davis does not support the Ryan proposal, he said.

“I’ve been talking about saving jobs since 2003. If we all had good paying jobs, there wouldn’t be a deficit problem, there wouldn’t be a budget problem,” because he taxes paid on wages and corporate income would keep Medicare and Social Security solvent, he said.

Davis said he thought “long and hard” about whether to stay in the debate, which was announced by WGRZ-TV only a week ago.

The forum is an “alleged debate,” he added in his cancellation statement.

In lieu, Davis said, he will hold an “electronic town hall” May 21 in which residents can directly ask questions and he’ll answer them.

Hochul and Corwin both remained committed to the debate Wednesday night.

Fabien Levy, Hochul’s campaign manager, denied the Hochul camp has spoken a false word about Davis.

“The only thing we’ve ever said is words that came out of his own mouth,” Levy said, adding the Hochul campaign hasn’t said anything at all about Davis and the Ryan budget. Their exclusive target on that topic is Corwin, who has said repeatedly that she favors the proposal to privatize Medicare.

Corwin was still “very much” looking forward to the debate and talking over the issues regardless of Davis dropping out, her campaign spokesman Matt Harakal said late Wednesday.

He too denied the campaign had lied about Davis.

“The only person who’s lying here is Jack Davis. What we’ve done is simply talk about his past as a Democrat, about him spending $9 million of his own money to run as a Democrat ... . We’re just pointing out the facts.”

Reporter Joyce Miles contributed to this story.