I AM BEING SUED: Democracy Is Not Given, It Has To Be Fought For Every Day: Bill Is Fighting Corruption
The Republican primary in New York’s 3rd district has turned into a selection, not an election.
First, some background: The Nassau County GOP intended to never have a primary in New York’s 3rd district. The leadership of the Nassau GOP strategically decided to coronate their establishment candidate to prevent the people of the 3rd district from deciding who their Republican nominee would be in an open, free, and transparent election. Before the ballot access period finished, the Nassau GOP endorsed their candidate to prevent the many other candidates from having a fair shot. This is a classic political machine tactic for which they are pretty famous. The Nassau GOP challenged the petitions of every candidate in the Republican primary except one—their candidate, Mike LiPetri. The establishment elite intend to destroy the primary and prevent voters from having a choice. Four of the five candidates are now being challenged by two proxies for the Nassau County GOP and the Mike LePetri campaign. It's an effort to create a veil of secrecy to create plausible deniability by the Nassau GOP leadership. The candidates who were challenged, including myself, are now uniting to take a stand against these undemocratic, opaque, and sleazy tactics of the republican establishment machine. Open the primary now. Today, we call on you, Mike LePetri, to stand against this blatant insider move to prevent voters from having a choice in the June Republican primary.
My campaign for Congress has gotten crazy fast.
Two “random” “unaffiliated” individuals have launched an effort to turn what should be a primary election for New York’s 3rd Congressional into a corrupt selection. Five Republican candidates filed the required number of signatures to qualify for the ballot, but these two “random” “unaffiliated” individuals have filed challenges to the signatures of four of the candidates, myself included.
The one candidate they did not challenge? Mike LiPetri, the establishment candidate who the Nassau County GOP has endorsed in this race.
These two “random” “unaffiliated” individuals mailed their 400-page stack of challenges to my door, and amazingly, both individuals challenged the exact same signatures, for the exact same reasons, using the exact same challenge form, notarized by the exact same notary on the exact same day.
These two “random” “unaffiliated” individuals did the exact same thing to the other three challenged candidates, filing two identical challenges against everyone in the race, except Mike LiPetri(fied of competition).
Are we supposed to believe that these two “random” “unaffiliated” individuals acting on their own miraculously identified an identical list of signatures to challenge, miraculously typed up identical challenge forms, miraculously happened to use the same exact notary on the same exact day?
I may be new to politics, but I was not born yesterday.
The far more plausible hypothesis is that the Nassau GOP Committee used its vast resources and two goon fall guys to sign off challenges to every candidate except Mike Lipetri(dish) in order to coronate Mike Lepetri(fied) through a selection rather than an election.
I understand my unique position, and if you couldn't tell, I don't back down from an honest fight. I was not just going to use this platform to fight for my own campaign but also for the other three candidates who were similarly being blocked from the ballot. I then formed a group chat with all of them to propose a joint press conference in front of the Nassau County GOP Committee.
Admittedly, as the youngest in the group chat by 20 years, it was hard to explain how exactly this was all going to work and how we were going to attract national attention to this. I just told them to sign this petition, and I would deliver the joint statement.
The plans with the other candidates did not exactly make it out of the group chat because one of them thought I was affiliated with George Santos; it is hard to explain to older people why Santos would purely endorse another candidate just for Twitter likes.
Jim Toes showed up, though. He's down for the cause of fighting for democracy. Still going to fight for all the candidates to be on the ballot.
So I spoke in front of the Nassau Republican Committee to show how I was not going to let the establishment bully well-meaning people off the ballot just because they have a ton of money and resources and don't want the people's voices heard. Bullies get bullied, and I don't mind the Twitter mob ratio'ing all of them and their cronies' tweets. They used their means to try to stop us, why can't we use the tools in our repertoire to stop them.
This speech was just the start of fighting against this corruption. When the terms "swamp," "establishment," "good ole boys club" were used by other candidates and the news, I always kind of thought it was a bit of a strawman, but I am seeing it right in front of my eyes. The thing is, this is a statistical problem.
New York has one of the lowest amounts of primaries where there is an ELECTION, not a SELECTION
% contested republican primaries by state
New York has some of the most onerous, restrictive ballot access laws in the nation. These laws were passed by the elected politicians, and the purpose is to prevent New York’s establishment candidates from actually having to earn votes to win elections.
To put this into perspective, in 2022, New York had 26 Congressional seats up for election. Only 8 seats had a more than one Republican candidate file for the primary, or just over 30%.
By contrast, New Jersey had 12 Congressional seats up, but had 10 seats with more than one Republican candidate in the Primary, or 83%. Illinois had 17 seats up, but had 11 seats with more than one Republican candidate, or 65%. Texas had 38 seats, with 28 having more than one Republican candidate, or 74%. Florida, 24 out of 28 seats, or 86%. And California, not exactly known for being a republican-friendly state, with its 52 seats, had 36 seats with more than one Republican candidate in the primary, or 69%(nice). (Source: Ballotpedia.)
As you can tell, something is obviously preventing New York from having competitive democratic primaries in which individuals' voices are heard when selecting their leaders.
This is an issue not only in New York's District 3 but across the state and the nation. Laws are being passed by officials who do not have the people's best interests in mind but ensure their institution remains in power rather than being the voice of the people.
We have discovered some unconstitutional aspects of ballot requirements and the power that non-government entities have to block people from the ballot.
Honestly, this race and candidacy have gone beyond just running to represent New York's District 3. I am currently still on the ballot and have to not only campaign for the constituents of New York's District 3 but also fight for their right to vote to select their leaders.
It's going to take a hell of a lot of resources, and I am going to have to start begging, but this fight is less about my campaign and more about an institutional issue in our country that may end up going to the Supreme Court.
You would think a Republican Committee would want to foster competition to put together the best candidate, hoping that the variety of candidates would bring new individuals to register and become part of their organization. I feel like I could at least get some young individuals who weren't registered into the voting population and benefit the committee. This is not the case; they want control of their candidate so that they can do their bidding, not the people's. Keep it small and take it all.
They don't even hide it.
Before the signature deadline was even over, Mike LiPetite declared himself the winner of the primary, which hadn't even happened. He knew they would block anyone off the ballot no matter their signature status.
Such a coach's son moves. Who knows if his dad is going to start him, no matter how bad he sucks. He's legit buying Twitter likes to stop the ratio'ing the stoolies are hitting him with.
The thing is, they may be running him to let Suozzi win the seat. Democrat money may be flowing to the Nassau GOP to prevent a good well, well-meaning candidate from beating their STOCK act violating Suozzi (almost as bad as Pelosi).
I hate to beg, but the legal defense is going to be expensive. Help in the fight to maintain democracy and stop blatant corruption. Help elect leaders now that prevent you from donating to avoidable tragedies later. We have Merch coming very soon that will contribute to the campaign, but anything counts.
UPDATE
I'M BEING SUED
Please Donate I need your help
Also, the Last episode of Last Chance Uganda airs tonight at 8 pm ET. In a weird way kinda spurned my political turn. I realized helping people just felt good, and fighting individuals who try to take advantage of positions of power really pissed me off. My tolerance for corruption got extremely low after this trip, and I want to make a difference.
It's going to be some awesome football. Highest scoring game on the African continent ever. Barstool really makes dreams; here I am, combining an update on my congressional run with probably the Last Football game of my life. Wild. Love you guys.