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February 2, 2012

Democrats had decided not to challenge Republican caucus

BY JIM AUSTIN

THE COOPERSTOWN CRIER

Despite a recommendation to the contrary from the Otsego County Democratic Committee, the Cooperstown Democratic Committee decided it would not file a challenge to the Republican caucus that had been scheduled for Tuesday. The fact no caucus occurred makes the issue a moot point.

The Democrats said they believe a Republican caucus would have been invalid because the Republicans failed to give notice to the Board of Elections prior to the deadline and failed to publish or post notice of the caucus in a timely fashion, according to county committee Chairman Ed Lentz.

“The law is quite clear that written notice of the conduct of a caucus must be given to the village Clerk and to the County Board of Elections at least ten days prior to the date of the caucus and that public notice must be made by advertisement in a newspaper or by posting in public places within certain time constraints and the Republicans failed to meet both these requirements,” Lentz said in a media release issued Tuesday morning. “By law, the Republican caucus is invalid and any candidates nominated at such unlawful caucus are not entitled to run on the Republican Party line, just like Gingrich and Santorum are not entitled to run in the Virginia Republican primary.”

According to the release, the county committee recommended that the Cooperstown committee object to any nominations made at the caucus, but the Cooperstown committee decided not to challenge the Republican caucus.

“There’s too much acrimony between the parties already,” Cooperstown Democratic Committee Chairman Richie Abbate said in the release.

“I’ve been advised by our county committee and by attorneys specializing in election law that we could challenge nominations coming from the Republican Party caucus, but our village committee feels that we need to end squabbling between the parties and focus our attention on the important substantive issues facing our community. We don’t want to deprive voters in the village of the ability to vote for Republican candidates just because their party leaders committed technical errors even though we believe the errors are legally fatal.”

Otsego County Commissioner of Elections Hank Nicols, who is a member of the Otsego County Democratic Committee and the Village Democratic Committee, said that unless a formal objection is filed, the Board of Elections will not consider the errors.

“The board of elections is bound to accept nominations unless an objection is filed,” Nicols said in the release.

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