8 Republicans in a Room

It seems that about once a week recently, whenever I look at this site, I see that a group of 8 Republican County Chairmen is getting together for a meeting.  Like they are the Justice League or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or the Gang of Seven from the US Senate a few years back.  We all know the reason for these meetings: to find a loophole or a way to manipulate election law to replace Representative Chris Collins on the ballot after the time has passed to do so.  It is uncomfortable and time-consuming I’m sure, but I also believe they discuss other political topics.  One, in particular, has to be the Governor’s race.  Their candidate is not doing very well in the polls and supposedly the Republicans want nothing less than the defeat of Andrew Cuomo.

We Libertarians constantly hear from Republicans that having our candidate in the race will take votes from their guy and ensure a Cuomo re-election.  I’m writing today to tell everyone why that’s a false argument.  We heard the same thing in 2014 and in 2010.  If the Libertarian vote totals were close to the margin of victory Andrew Cuomo won by, it would be true.  However in 2010 Cuomo received 2,910.876 votes, Republican Carl Paladino got 1,547,857.  In 2014 Cuomo got 2,069,480 and Republican Astorino – 1,536,879.  We did not have nearly the votes to make the difference either time.  The Republican vote total didn’t change very much, the Democrats lost over 800,000 votes and you still weren’t close, and those votes didn’t go to anyone else, far fewer voters voted.  Let’s face it, the Republican won’t win. Those are all the votes he will get.

Larry Sharpe, the Libertarian candidate cannot win by just getting Libertarians to vote for him. There are simply not enough of us.  He will need Republicans and Independents and unhappy Democrats voting for him to win.  Currently, Cuomo is polling at around 48 – 50% statewide, the Republican Mr. Molinaro is at around 25-28%.  These are close to the numbers at this point in the cycle from 2014.  I predict a similar ending again this year. Paladino was a bit higher, around 38 – 40% in 2006, probably because of his outsider and business background, which is why he got more votes too.  Larry Sharpe is also an outsider with an entrepreneurial background, while Molinaro is a lifelong career politician.  It’s hard to know where Larry is in the polls, because they won’t include him, but he is gaining recognition and momentum daily.  Is Molinaro?

Here’s what I propose the 8 Republican County Chairmen discuss when they next meet to address the debacle of running a Congressman for re-election knowing there was a chance he could be indicted, and now have to finagle a way to dump him.  They could avoid a loss again in November by collectively asking the certain loser Molinaro to suspend his campaign and asking the Republican Party Faithful to vote for Larry Sharpe.  Mr. Sharpe surely has a better chance of winning than does Molinaro.  It’s obvious.  These esteemed gentlemen are going to ask the same Republican Faithful to either accept an absurd process to replace Collins on the ballot or ask them to vote for him and trust that he will resign if he wins and then appoint someone whom they would have voted for.  That’s quite an assumption, in my humble opinion.

They could do something bold, something for the people of Western New York.  Change NY’s political landscape.  Lord knows it needs it.  Larry Sharpe can win, but he needs more exposure and better name recognition.  The cachet of 8 Republican County Chairmen’s endorsement would do that.  History will show them as having acted to save NY when we needed them.

Endorse Larry Sharpe.

Come On, Do It.

Dave Olsen, Libertarian, Basom, NY