Stlo7 at Rochesterturning did some citizen journalism and counted petition pages in LD-21. That's the district that the Smugtown Beacon reported about.
It turns out that 2/3 of the pages submitted were turned in by Republicans, most of whom work for the Monroe County Republican Party, or Republican officials. In his latest post, Aaron Wicks said the following about Republicans circulating petitions:
But this is not the stuff of political intrigue. It's people helping people -- motivated by a lot of different motives.
That's not how it looks today. Yet more evidence that merely signing your name to your blog doesn't make it more likely that you're credible.