Here & There Column 11-20-07

Do Candidates Support Independence Party Mission?

Candidates in the November 6 Sullivan County elections fought hard to get onto the Independence Party line.
In fact several of them even went into a court fight over a petition to get into a September 18 primary for the Independence Party Line.
We just looked at three races and found these unofficial figures very interesting.
In the race for Sullivan County Clerk incumbent Neil Gilberg received 6,827 votes on the Democratic line and 647 on the Working Families line. Republican challenger Dan Briggs received 7,105 votes on the Republican line and 833 votes on the Independence line, enough to move him over Gilberg's 7474......Briggs also received 860 votes on the Conservative line for a total of 8,798.
In the race for Sullivan County Judge and Surrogate incumbent Burton Ledina received 1,046 votes on the Independence line which edged out the total Conservative Party vote of 947.
In a township race for Supervisor in the Town of Liberty the Independence line almost proved to be the deciding factor in the election which saw John Schmidt defeat incumbent Frank DeMayo 947-940. DeMayo received 181 votes on the Independence line and this almost was the deciding factor in race for this office.
Frank M. MacKay, chairman of the New York State Independence Party in a letter to Independents visiting the party website points out that the Independence Party of New York State is "an ever-expanding political movement in New York State and our nation."
MacKay states that "the core belief of the Independence Party is to wrest control of our democracy from the almighty politicians and give it back to the people and we accomplish this by enacting electoral and voter reform initiative and referendum, campaign reform and same day voter registration."
The mission of the Independence Party of New York State as noted on their web page is "to elevate the voters of New York State to their rightful place as the sovereign rulers of the state, reducing the office holders to the servants of the people they were intended to be."
The mission statement goes on to state that "to create a statewide political party committed to the elimination of the electoral advantages of incumbency and the creation of a level playing field for the candidates of all political parties."
Another fairly strong section of the mission statement says, "to restore fiscally responsible government, where the state budgets to spend only what the voters are willing to pay in taxes."
It would be interesting to know if all candidates who received the endorsement of the Independence Party support the Party's mission?