"Everybody is focused on the petitions," said Bill Bongiorno, co-founder of the Northern Westchester Tea Party Patriots and the campaign manager for Steve Katz, a tea-party candidate for state Assembly. "We see what the Democrats are but we hoped the Republicans were different....They want to shut people out," he said.
It's hard work. Done in the hot weather in the already busy month of June, getting a candidate on the ballot is a difficult task for most challengers.
That means finding volunteers who can carry petitions, going door-to-door everyday, meeting with voters, getting signatures on those petitions -- and making certain those petitions survive multiple legal challenges ... from Republican Party leaders (depending on the county).
Yes ... The conservative tea party movement is civically engaged on campaigns -- with parts of New York's Republican establishment fighting them every step of the way.
One would thnk that the natural ally for tea party volunteers would have been the Republican Party -- but the State GOP rejected some of their favorite candidates and some county committees around the state rejected their Congressional and State Legislative candidates.
On a personal note, I found myself physically shook down by a county chair for speaking up for the Conservative Party and defending Congressional candidate Tony Mele (pictured to the right). In New York, the political lesson seems to be that you can find yourself threatened with a "Bronx beating" by one of the State GOP leaders if you don't follow lockstep like a good Nazi.
And this is happening all over New York State, not as much the physical violence but the willful machinations to ignore the consensus of the people.
It seems like Republicans are allowing repeats of last year's 23rd Congressional race, where Doug Hoffman was rebuffed by county GOP leaders in upstate New York.
Like Mr. Hoffman, Carl Paladino, the Buffalo businessman and gubernatorial candidate whose support is primarily in the conservative grass-roots, was also denied the Republican ballot. He, too, is in the process of mounting a petition battle to fight it out with former U.S. Rep. Rick
Lazio in the primary. Former Republican congressman Joe DioGuardi, who represented New York's 20th Congressional District, also failed to get GOP backing in his bid to topple Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. He's also trying to get on the Republican ballot through a petition.
Anthony Mele, a former Ramapo radio-show host and a leader of the Rockland County tea-party group, hoped to run against Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.) for the congressional district representing the Bronx, Westchester and Rockland counties, but was also rejected by the Republican leadership.
DioGuardi, Paladino, Mele and Katz are all pro-life conservative Republicans but what they have in common is an independent streak from the standard political establishment.
Though a former Congressman, DioGuardi was always regarded as a fiscal maverick in Congress 20 years ago -- first warning the nation about the escalating Federal debt before anyone was paying attention.
DoGuardi was disregarded at the State GOP convention but polls continue to show him overwhelmingly leading a three-way Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
Mele is a former U.S. Army veteran whose choice to run for Congress was counter to the designs of Rockland Republican County Chairman Vincent Reda, who is also the State GOP's First Vice Chair (and also the leader who threatened me with a "Bronx beating").
Mele is on track to raise as much money as the 11-term incumbent in the 17th Congressional District, Democrat Eliot Engel. More important, Mele as a tea party leader in lower New York State is drawing grass-roots support to wage three primaries in September.
Steve Katz is a veterinarian, the true outsider and non-politician.
Running for the 99th Assembly District, the Yorktown resident found himself in the cross-hairs of a deal by State Senate Republicans that handed the nomination to his primary opponent.
He responded by wiping himself off and preparing for what he originally expected would be the outcome -- Republican and Conservative primaries.
Katz has teamed closely with Assemblyman Greg Ball -- who is primarying the State Senate Republican's pick for the 40th S.D.
Ball has won two Republican primaries over the past two election cycles, so he thrives on this stuff.
Katz with Ball will rely on a local grass-roots operation in the mid-Hudson Valley that draws tremendously from tea party groups.
The truth is that the Katz campaign welcomes the challenge and the primary.
It's a part of the tea party mission that political parties haven't entirely grasped yet.
They welcome a good ol' fashioned patriotic rebellion.
And Paladino?
The Buffalo millionaire is the bull in the china shop -- but people in New York State are craving a Chris Christie type candidate.
Paladino's no-nonsense "coach potato with an attitude" approach is the wild card in this election.
So far, the Paladino fervor hasn't translated in the polls -- but the petition teams coming together statewide indicate a larger movement is brewing.
Typical of the message being driven by these candidates has been Paladino's grass-roots approach to drawing the support of volunteers both for a Republican line and the creation of a tea party line.
Debates still exist within tea party groups about endorsing candidates, so the jury is still out on the outsider movement.
Bil Bongiorno spoke optimistically for Katz campaign a few days ago
"We are close to having the minimum number in just five days of gathering signatures. The Westchester Independence Party has endorsed Katz. Our yard signs are out and money is flowing into the campaign. We are in great shape."
So perhaps the lesson to political parties would be to tap the tea party's enthusiasm.
Sadly, such lessons are not easily learned by political establishments.
As for these challenger's opponents, News Copy has chosen for just this post to omit their names -- as did the Wall Street Journal article for the most part.
The challengers deserve their day in the sun too, especially in a state where the political establishment frowns on the "status quo" being taken to task.
It appears that this year's petition season is going to change all that in New York.
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