Reed/Volk Dust-Up

Commenter "I Still Hate Politics" sent in this item from the Hornell Evening Tribune, which details the disagreement between Reed and Volk over Reed's purported role in getting Volk's petition signatures invalidated.

As for the Volk campaign claim that she'll run on a third party line, here's a little snippet from a Huffington Post story on New York's third party mess:

To survive and prosper, a third party in New York needs only one thing - a gubernatorial candidate that can draw at least 50,000 votes. Get that, and the party has an automatic right to dole out its ballot line for every other state and local election for the next four years.

I don't know if there's another way for a third party to get a New York ballot line, but the Tea Party certainly hasn't gotten 50,000 votes in the last gubernatorial election, so I don't know how Volk is going to do what she claims, which is to run on the Tea Party line this Fall.

Update: Via the comments, Volk is going to try to get an "Independent" line on the ballot, which takes 3,500 signatures. Mike Arcuri, the incumbent Democrat in NY-24, and Ernest Bell, a libertarian candidate in NY-24, are doing the same thing, according to this story, which says:

The independent lines Arcuri and Bell are seeking are not to be confused with the Independence Party line that Hanna currently holds. The Independence Party is an actual political party, and the independent lines would be separate lines not affiliated with the major parties.

Arcuri and Bell must obtain 3,500 signatures on their petitions by Aug. 17 in order to gain independent spots on the ballot. Hanna’s press secretary Renee Gamela would not say whether Hanna plans to seek an independent spot on the ballot.

So, Volk has until next Tuesday to gather roughly three times the number of valid signatures that she tried and failed to gather for the primary.

Comments

Hey Rottenchester,

To my understanding, Ms. Volk, need 3,500 signatures to get on a 3rd "Independent" Line. Since she has the backing of the National TEA Party Coalition, they are allowing her to name that line the TEA Party Line.

Thanks, that was a good steer.

Gathering these signatures should be significantly easier. You could basically stand in front of Wal-Mart and have everyone who walks by sign it. Also, like you could go door to door. The only requirement is to be a registered voter who did not sign a party-line petition.

I know this article is not directly related to the 29th, but it might be indicative of the consequences of our candidates' antics.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/11/primaries-democrats-republic...

I just hope the Volk folks indeed can get those signatures--CORRECTLY--by the deadline. You have to hand it to them...

I too hope that the Volk gets the signatures. At a minimum, she is making the local republican party draw its lines on what it really stands for. I think back to one of her earlier press releases when she brought up the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The act was designed to push slavery further west. It was introduced by a Democratic majority. I think the year was 1855. It was this act that spawned the creation of a republican party. Yes, the republican party was started to fight for the civil and human rights of slaves. In fact, it was started in Allegany County, New York.

It is amazing how far our politicians have gone to destroy the roots of this great nation.

If many Democratic voters understood that their party wanted to keep them enslaved, then maybe they would understand why it takes the actions it does today.

How I see it, the more poor people the betrer for the Dems. If they keep giving handouts then they will keep getting votes. Why not make more of us poor so we will depend on them?

This is only the beginning my friends.

In the interest of historic truthiness ...... Ripon, Wisconsin has the best claim to being the "birthplace" of the Republican Party in 1854. Jackson, Michigan has made a case for that also, although their claim isn't as strong. Allegany County NY? Where did THAT come from?

Here's a reprint of an article from 1929 giving you some background and where the dispute between Ripon and Allegany may have arisen.

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/InterestingStoriesFiles/R...

That was interesting, Anonymous ........ thanks for posting it. I just have never seen that claim mentioned anywhere else. It's also interesting that all three of those places were basically in the middle of nowhere.... especially in 1854.

Who knew?

Speaking of knowledge: Anyone have a sense of how the Volk signature-gathering is going? Surely by end-of-the-weekend there will be a sense of whether or not it's going to be successful?