04-19-2008, 02:26 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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| I love Derf!!
Join Date: Mar 12 2002 Location: Undisclosed Secure Location
Posts: 2,636
| Re: Dan Humiston Announces Run For U.S. Congress in 27th Congressional District
Quote: Conservatives play a key role
Bob McCarthy
Updated: 04/13/08 6:29 AM
More news and notes from the congressional campaign trail:
• As reported here last Sunday, local Conservatives can hardly contain themselves over the congressional candidacy of long time gun rights activist Budd Schroeder. Schroeder and Erie County Conservative Chairman Ralph Lorigo say the effort not only injects a true conservative voice into the contest — featuring Democratic incumbent Brian Higgins and Republican nominee Dan Humiston — but will also draw new members to the Conservative Party.
“We’ll say there are two big problems in the United States — Republicans and Democrats,” Schroeder said last week.
The tiny Conservative Party, fourth in line on the New York ballot, often can determine the outcome of a close election. George Pataki, for example, would never have become governor without the Conservative vote in his 1994 victory over Mario Cuomo.
And Lorigo’s radio ads extolling Conservative themes during several recent campaigns have produced results. Conservative vote totals surpassed the Independence Party — number three on the ballot — in some recent elections.
This time, Lorigo and company hope to distribute registration forms to everyone Schroeder meets on the campaign trail.
All of this has spoiled the hopes of Republicans, who hoped Humiston (a registered Independence member) would carry three lines into an uphill battle against Higgins. And it leads Erie County GOP Chairman Jim Domagalski to lay out his conspiracy theory about the whole affair.
“It just takes votes away [from Humiston] and helps a liberal,” the chairman said.
According to Domagalski, it’s all part of the Conservative plan. Higgins enjoyed a long relationship with Conservatives while in the Assembly, but lost their backing when state Chairman Mike Long refused to back him for Congress because he favors late term abortions — a litmus test issue for Long.
So, Domagalski says the Schroeder candidacy and its potential to draw right-leaning votes from Humiston is just the local party’s way of supporting their old pal Higgins. Interestingly, Lorigo does not outright deny the charges of his Republican counterpart. He says only that Schroeder will prove a top notch spokesman for Conservative values.
And it does leave open the potential for Erie County’s Conservatives to spread their gospel, while still helping an old friend.
A friend, by the way, who labeled the Conservatives a “party in decline” when he was denied their nod in 2006.
http://www.buffalonews.com/244/story/322141.html | ... |
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