Delay in making candidate switch angers GOP boss

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County Republican Chairman Roger Rascoe says Democrats and Legislator Tracey Bartels are behind an effort to block the GOP from making a last-minute candidate switch in Legislature District 16 race. He also says the effort could threaten local elections in the district’s communities.

Republicans and Conservatives had tapped Kathy Miller as their candidate in the district, and she won a the primary for the Independence Party line. Shortly afterward, however, Miller discovered her candidacy violated the federal Hatch Act and she filed paperwork with the county Board of Elections to decline the nominations. The GOP, Conservative and Independence parties then filed paperwork to replace her on the ballot with her husband, Jim Miller.

In a press release Wednesday, Rascoe also accused Bartels, the District 16 incumbent, and county Democratic Chairman Frank Cardinale of going after Kathy Miller’s livelihood, saying that if Republicans tried to force the ballot switch, “it would come out in court that Mrs. Miller had violated the Hatch Act and her job would be at risk.”

“To think that ... Bartels and the Democratic Party are willing to go after Kathy Miller’s livelihood is indicative of just how low they are willing to go in politics to win an election,” Rascoe stated.

Cardinale and Bartels, a non-enrolled voter who caucuses with Democrats, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Rascoe lashed out at Democrats over an impasse between the county’s Republican and Democratic elections commissioners over a last-minute effort by the GOP to put a new candidate on the ballot in District 16 race.

Republican Elections Commissioner Thomas Turco accepted both the declination filed by Kathy Miller and the substitution of her husband, but Democratic Commissioner Ashley Dittus rejected them, saying not only was the certificate of declination filed well after the deadline, but Kathy Miller should have filed a “certificate of disqualification.” Dittus said, though, that she doesn’t believe violating the Hatch Act is grounds to be disqualified as a candidate.

Kathy Miller is a carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, and Rascoe said earlier this month that she was informed by the Postal Service on Sept. 26 that her candidacy violated the act, which prohibits some federal employees from running for elected office.

“I am calling on the Democratic Party and Legislator Bartels to accept the declination of Mrs. Miller due to the conflict caused by the Hatch Act and to allow the substitution of Jim Miller so that this election will be decided by the people of the towns of Gardiner and Shawangunk and not in a lawyered-up Democratic headquarters,” Rascoe said in his press release.

He called the impasse “a delay tactic” and said the longer the issue languishes, the less time Jim Miller will have to campaign.

He also said that because the county Board of Elections is at an impasse over the switch, no ballots can be printed and “there is a chance that there will be no election in that district,” putting local elections in those towns at risk.

Dittus said Cardinale told her a lawsuit that would put the matter before the courts would likely be filed Thursday. She said that because the lawsuit would involve elections, she expects the court would act quickly and ballots will be prepared in time for the Nov. 7 election.