Chris Collins has become the unwanted guest Republicans just can’t get rid of.
The former Erie County executive has been running for his fourth term in Congress. But after he was hit with criminal charges related to allegations of securities fraud and insider trading, party leaders began trying to devise a way to get off the November general election ballot. They met repeatedly and combed through election law, looking for even the smallest loophole.
But Collins has apparently decided to put himself above party. The Buffalo News reported Monday that he’s decided he not to remove his name from the ballot. He’s acting on “the advice of his criminal attorneys who fear the potential complications of protracted election law challenges almost sure to be initiated by Democrats if he removed his name from the congressional ballot,” the News says.
The News cites four unnamed sources, although it also says an attorney for Collins confirmed that he will stay on the ballot.
Democrat Nate McMurray, the Grand Island town supervisor, is also running for the seat. The district includes part of Erie County and the Monroe County towns of Hamlin, Wheatland, Rush, and Mendon.
The district is heavily Republican, and McMurray has been considered the underdog in the race. Collins continues to maintain his innocence, but McMurray may decide it’s advantageous to raise the criminal charges. In a statement following Collins’ decision to keep running, McMurray said he and voters were talking about issues like health care, infrastructure, and agriculture. But, he said, “we’re still always talking about corruption.”
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2018.
Collins will only be an “unwanted guest” in the GOP if he loses on Election Day which, given the demographics of his district and the gullibility of Republicans, seems unlikely.
It all comes down to messaging. If the Democratic candidate doesn’t have the right platform of ideas and a way to convey those ideas as better then those of Chris Collins, he shouldn’t win. This is the era of Trump where the worst and most outrageous ideas and behavior prevail.
We can be thankful that in this error, I mean era, of Trump, “the worst and most outrageous ideas and behavior” have NOT prevailed as shown by Hillary garnering three million more votes than Herr Drumpf, by the fact that the Republicans have lost the vast majority of special elections held since 1/20/17 , and by the strong indications that the Democrats will at least take back the House in November. Of course the naive idea that Democrats must adhere to a higher standard than the GOP to win ignores the first rule of politics, namely that you can’t improve the system if you don’t first get elected.