Congressional Candidate Steven Vasquez (R-21) defeated James Buhrmaster Wednesday, July 30, in Court. Buhrmaster had sued to knock Vasquez off the congressional ballot. The result of this win is that both candidates will face off in a September primary, according to a press release from Vasquez.
We went up against one of the best election lawyers in New York. Our campaign volunteers did such a good job in the petition process that it wasn’t even close, Vasquez said in a written statment.
The two sides appeared in Albany County Supreme Court Wednesday, July 30, for a hearing.
`Three Vasquez volunteers testified first about signatures they had gathered. Buhrmaster’s attorney, Tom Marcelle, then proceeded to go through the Buhrmaster objections one by one through a witness,` the statment reads.
At 6:15 p.m. there were 55 withdrawals. Vasquez needed to win 62 of the total 452 objections.
Marcelle then asked Judge Roger McDonough to rule on a group of nine outstanding objections and the Judge ruled in favor of Vasquez. This brought the total 64, keeping Vasques on the ballot.
Warren Redlich, Vasquez’s campaign manager, said Buhrmaster’s camp said they will not appeal.
`He’s supposed to be a Republican. But he filed a frivolous lawsuit, wasting both taxpayer money and his own campaign money, all in an effort to keep Republican voters from having a choice. Buhrmaster owes the voters an
apology,` Redlich said. `I think he has a lot to answer for.`
Burhmaster’s camp sees it differently.
`It wasn’t a frivolous lawsuit,` countered Josh Hills, a spokesman for Burhmaster. `Even by Mr. Redlich’s count about 350 [signatures] were knocked off. They only had a cushion of 50 signatures. We knew it would be close.`
He said, thought, after a grueling ten hours of litigation, they were forced to concede.
Hills responded to the allegations that Buhrmaster’s case was not the `Republican` thing to do.
`What they are doing is not the `Republican` thing to do,` Hills said.
He said this is the best chance for a Republican to win this district in a long time, and forcing a primary, and forcing Burhmaster to use more resources is not what is best for the Party.
He said that if Vasquez lived in the district, had more signatures and had held office before it would be different.
`What they are doing is helping the Democrats,` Hills said.
He did say, thought, that they will have the resources to compete in the general election in November.
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