More Independence Party drama
You’ve probably heard by now of the Jack Davis - Independence Party scandal that was broken by the Buffalo News (an interesting side note: a reporter at the D&C was also working on the story but editors spiked it for some reason). The Syracuse Post-Standard has a good article on Independence Party goings on in NY-25:
In June, the Independence Party directed Maffei’s and Sweetland’s campaigns to collect signatures on petitions to designate Independence Party vice chairman Thomas Connelly as the party’s endorsed candidate for the 25th District seat.
After thepetitions were filed, Connelly planned to decline the designation, and the Independence Party’s executive committee would then pick either Sweetland or Maffei to replace him on the ballot.
But Independence Party leaders feared whichever candidate they did not endorse might file a legal challenge, Connelly said.
So they endorsed Ciampoli - who can withdraw as the Independence Party’s candidate in September if he is nominated for a state Supreme Court justice post, as some expect to happen.
For those of you not familiar with how the Independence Party operates, what they do is this: make candidates of both parties carry petitions for the Independence Party (often for Independence Party candidates in other races), then give the Independence Party nomination to whichever of the two candidates they feel like giving it to, sometimes on the basis of how petitioning went, sometimes not. It’s also worth remembering that the entire existence of the party is based on new voters’ confusion about being an “independent” (which insiders usually call a “blank”, meaning no party registration) and a member of the Independence Party. In fact, there is no connection between “independents” (”blanks”) and the Independence Party.
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