NY gubernatorial candidate exposes corrupt backroom deals

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New York’s gubernatorial race is living up to the state’s reputation for political corruption and backroom deals by party insiders.  Republican hopeful Carl Paladino’s personal emails were made public to discredit him. Sitting Governor Paterson was hit by a series of scandals, all of which suddenly became public the week after he declared his intent to seek re-election. He subsequently withdrew.

The most blatant example of New York corruption in this year’s election season involves GOP political consultant and insider Roger Stone.  Roger Stone’s attempt to use backroom deals and intimidation were recently exposed by GOP insurgent and Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate Warren Redlich. The entire exchange can be read here.

Stone’s client Kristen Davis also sought the Libertarian nomination for governor. Stone points out in his correspondence that Davis, with her platform to legalize marijuana and prostitution, would draw more votes from the Democratic candidate, while Redlich’s platform of spending cuts would draw more votes from the Republican. The GOP would benefit if Davis received the nomination instead of Redlich.

Stone first attempted to circumvent the grassroots nomination process by attempting to cut a deal with Redlich.  When Stone failed to persuade Redlich to step aside in favor of Davis, he falsely represented himself as an agent for the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Carl Paladino.

When bribery and cronyism failed to convince Redlich to reach an “accommodation” regarding the Libertarian Party nominating convention on April 24, Stone turned to intimidation.  He threatened to petition on the Libertarian line in order to falsely represent his candidate as the Libertarian Party nominee.

Warren Redlich then publicly released the evidence of Stone’s backroom dealings.  In retaliation, Roger Stone threatened to sue Redlich for $25 million and launched misleading attacks against Redlich before and during the Libertarian Party nominating convention. Redlich received the nomination.

New York has a long history of determining political outcomes in smoke-filled backrooms.  Free & Equal believes that the people should choose their elected representatives in a fair and open process.  Deals made to fix conventions and reduce the number of choices available to voters harm the integrity of the electoral process.

Good government requires a true grassroots process that serves the people of New York, rather than a few political insiders.  Free & Equal encourages other New York political candidates to follow Redlich’s lead and reject cronyism in favor of free and open elections.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 7:45 am. It is filed under New York, Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.