Thanks to the wonderful voters of Orleans County, I now have a third line, Reform NY, which was established by Gary Kent in 2007. I am honored Gary decided to support my candidacy. In order to get on the line I needed one hundred twenty five signatures from registered voters in the district and we secured one hundred fifty.

This means I will now appear on three lines, Democrat, Working Families and Reform NY. My effort to get the Conservative line was blocked and thus my opponent and his fellow Republicans somehow secured the Conservative and Independence lines, even those running unopposed. 

The process of gathering the signatures was enlightening. Unlike major party petitions, which can only be signed by voters registered to particular party, any registered voter in the district may sign Independent petitions. This meant that many persons who had never been able to sign a petition for county legislature in District 3 now were part of an early and important process in the election.  I had the chance to converse with some great people that otherwise would not have been part of this early process. Some offered prayers, others offered advice and many offered concerns. They all cared deeply about their community.

My next project will be to attempt to get a fair campaign pledge signed by all candidates at the county level. Those of you around last time will remember a nasty trick from the last campaign  when a series of reader ads appeared in the Lake Country Pennysaver the weekend before the election that were filled with false accusations and innuendo. None of them were attributed to a candidate or a party, which was a clear ethical violation. To this day, no one has come forward to claim authorship.

A fair campaign pledge will help stop dirty tricks and provide the voters with an opportunity to have candidates focus on the issues. Whoever wins the election will have a sense of what the voter wants and not get embroiled in a bitter campaign filled with sleaze ball tactics. I am committed to signing the pledge.