Dear Fellow Conservatives:
Some of you may be confused by the recent articles in the newspaper and the rhetoric you may have heard regarding the upcoming election. For those of you in the first congressional district the race to beat Tim Bishop has taken a back seat to the infighting of the Republicans to decide who will in fact face Bishop in November.
As you know due to the lack of a Republican consensus the Conservative party stepped up to the plate and chose who we consider to be the best candidate to win the race against Tim Bishop. The County Conservative Committee voted 81 to 2 to pick Randy Altschuler as our candidate. If you have met Randy and taken the time to hear what he has to say, you understand why he was our choice.
The Republican party has chosen to have an open primary on September 14th where Randy Altschuler, Chris Cox and George Demos will be on the ballot to see who will win the Republican endorsement. As a Conservative you cannot vote in this primary, but I would ask that you talk to your Republican friends and urge them to vote for Randy.
Recently I sent you a letter advising you that individuals claiming to be Conservatives had been going door to door asking for signatures on a petition without even advising the signors that they were signing a petition to get Chris Cox onto a ballot to challenge the endorse candidate Randy Altschuler. Many of the signatures were immediately deemed invalid in that if a Conservative had already signed a petition for Randy, the Cox signature was voided. However, the balance of the signatures were challenged in court. The trial court ruled that most of the signatures were invalid due to the fact that the notaries who took the signatures failed to administer the required oath as per the election law.
Unfortunately, Cox appealed the trial court's decision and the appellate division overturned the lower court's ruling allowing Cox to receive a write in vote in a primary with Randy Altschuler. The Altschuler team has taken an appeal to the highest Court of the State which has agreed to hear the matter so that hopefully the primary challenge will be moot.
However, in the event that the Court of Appeals fails to rule in time there will be a need for every Conservative to go to the polls to vote on Primary day September 14th. If you hadn't planned on voting in the primary I urge you to do so for two reasons. First Rick Lazio is also being challenged by a Conservative named Ralph Lorigo for the Governor's race. Lorigo is not a serious candidate and has thrown his name into the mix to make a point to the leadership. These types of tactics hurt the process, so I would urge you to vote for Lazio to remain the endorsed Candidate of the Conservative Party.
Secondly, if the Cox challenge is not overturned we are in real danger of losing the first congressional district and having it remain in the hands of the Pelosi democrats. Chris Cox is not a viable candidate in this election. Neither Cox or Demos even live in the district. Neither Cox nor Demos knows what it is like to raise a family on Long Island or pay property taxes in this county. Randy Altshuler owns a home in St. James, He lives there with his family and is not a Manhattan resident like the other two who squat at relatives homes here in Suffolk in order to qualify to get their names on the ballot.
Randy Altschuler does not have a made up resume of his accomplishments nor does he have the backing of the politics as usual crowd. Randy is a self made business man who is not a career politician and does not come from a long line of career politicians.
I thank you for taking the time to read this email and apologize for its length, but I felt it was important for you as Conservatives to understand that our Party was attacked by outsiders to force us into a primary we the party leadership did not feel was necessary. Just because the Republicans were not capable of reaching a consensus on a candidate doesn't mean they should throw the Conservatives into the same pot of indecision. We don't need other parties to tell us who we want to represent us in November. We want Randy Altschuler and I would urge you to make that point clear on September 14th.
As always if you have any questions or comments or need any further clarification, please feel free to contact me.
Janine
From the Desk of Janine A. Barbera
Chairwoman of the Conservative Party of Smithtown
JBarbera@smithtownconservatives.org
http://www.smithtownconservatives.org/
http://smithtownconservatives.blogspot.com/
631-473-5100
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