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Area Democrats call on Collins to resign, call process of removing him from ballot 'corrupt'

By Howard B. Owens

Press release:

Democratic leaders called on Rep. Chris Collins (NY 27) to resign immediately, in the wake of his announcement that he was suspending his reelection campaign. They also decried the corrupt process of suddenly removing him from the ballot, long after the deadline for changing the ballot had come and gone.

Once again, the Republican establishment of NY 27 is making the interests of the voters play second fiddle to the desires of their own party to retain a stranglehold on power, no matter what. Jamie Romeo, Monroe County Democratic Chair, noted that "Chris Collins has been under an ethical cloud for over a year -- under a congressional ethics investigation -- but the Republican leaders thought it was just fine to have him on the ballot until a few days ago. It's only when they figured out that this seat was in jeopardy that they decided Chris Collins had to go."

Judith Hunter, the Livingston County Democratic chair, said "Republican bosses are absolutely taking the voters of NY 27 for granted again. The federal ballot is set; at least one county in the district has already printed them. But these arrogant power brokers think this seat is theirs to play with and have come up with a corrupt, legalistic sleight of hand without any input from the voters of NY 27. It's shameful."

Michael Plitt, the Genesee County Democratic chair, asked the obvious questions: "If Chris Collins' arrest is serious enough to make him suspend his campaign, why isn't it serious enough to make him resign? We're going to be saddled with a lame duck representative under criminal indictment who has been stripped of his committee assignment and any power in Congress, for what? His arrogant ego? It's a disgrace."

Michelle Schoeneman, of East Aurora, founder of Citizens Against Collins, says she is absolutely outraged: "The arrogance of Chris Collins insisting he is going to serve his term out is beyond belief. And the arrogance of the Republican bosses thinking they can just wave a magic wand and replace him on the ballot is equally outrageous."

"We Democrats are fortunate to have Nate McMurray as our candidate for NY 27," said Jeanne Crane, the Democratic chair of Orleans County. "We know he's going to put the interests of the voters first, whatever he does. He cares about the hard-working middle-class people of this district need, not what shady power brokers want."

Dave Olsen

They are all absolutely correct, In my humble opinion, it would be corrupt to manipulate around the law to replace Collins' name on the ballot. I'll change that to "will be corrupt" because we all know they're going to do it. The Republicans will no longer be able to claim that they are for law and order when they do this. And if they appoint him to a judgeship while he is under indictment from a federal grand jury, it will further show that respect for law, order, ethics and the right of the people to a fair trial all play second fiddle to politics. That's no surprise to me. This party has not given a hoot about people's rights and our Constitution for decades.
Sorry GOP, Collins was you alls' golden boy, you should do a better job of vetting, now you should live with the consequences.

Aug 12, 2018, 8:17am Permalink
Brian Graz

Another biased report here... pro-Democrat all the way.
I don't like Congressman Collins... I've never voted for him... and I'm glad to see him go and hopefully pay a substantial penalty for his illegal/unethical actions. BUT, not because the Democrats say so. They are no better... here in NYS I'm still waiting for their emperor to be brought up on ethics charges he so rightly deserves. It's high-time the people realize that the two party juggernaut is no longer 'by the people, for the people',.. and that we still can take back our government by supporting and electing good, Constitutional 3rd party candidates.

Aug 12, 2018, 7:34pm Permalink
John Roach

Dave, they can nominate him for a Judgeship. That gets him off the ballot and lets another person run. But, it does not put Collins on the bench. That's how they got Rick Lazio off the ballot for NY Governor in 2010. The other way is for Collins to move out of the district.

Aug 13, 2018, 6:20am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Brian, for 10 years we've published relevant political and elected-official press releases verbatim, giving all parties an equal opportunity to have their say as they see fit. You've never complained when it was from a Republican. Apparently, you think only your point of view should be heard, so who's the propagandist here?

Aug 13, 2018, 10:21am Permalink
Kyle Slocum

I'm actually a fan of the print them as issued approach. Often the writer's of these press releases are so buried in their bubbles that there are some pretty revealing things that are disclosed unwittingly in them.

Often reporters seem entirely too ready to clean the statements up for people they support, and highlight the gaffs of people they don't, when doing paraphrase reporting. It's better for us all if we just get the raw original. No actual or perceived bias to complain about and only what they actually said to argue about.

Aug 13, 2018, 2:36pm Permalink

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