On the ground

We’ve already introduced you to David Sager, the Republican-turned-Democrat who is challenging Senator John Bonacic for the 42nd Senate District seat.

The DCDC was the first committee to endorse David, back in April. He is such a great candidate that you wouldn’t think we’d have had any trouble at all getting the relevant county chairs to give the nod that would allow him to run as a Democrat.

In fact, he did have some trouble with that, precisely because he is such a terrific candidate.

Confused?

Let me step aside and allow Fritz Mayer of the River Reporter (Narrowsburg, NY) tell the tale (I’d just link to the story but it doesn’t seem to be archived anywhere on the River Reporter web site):

Now it seems likely that he will be the Democratic candidate, but that is not certain. Sager changed his party registration from Republican to Democrat last month and, because the change won’t officially take place until January 1, he needs a special authorization known as a Wilson Pakula from the county Democratic committees.

Even though the committees have voted for him, it is possible for two committee chairmen to block the nomination. Steve Wilkinson, chairman of the committee in Sullivan County, did not return an email asking if he would support Sager’s nomination.

Pressure to prevent the nomination has reportedly been strong over the past couple of weeks. According to multiple sources, various elected Democrats in the state have been contacted by Langdon Chapman, who works in Bonacic’s office and who is also a regional chairman of the Independence Party. Chapman has reportedly told the Democrats that if they support Sager’s candidacy or if he gains the nomination, the Democrats risk losing their place on the Independence Party line this fall.

In an email, Chapman did not directly deny the allegation but he did say this: “The type of rumor you are inquiring about, has been and is put out every single year—by candidates from both parties who think they will not receive the Independence Party endorsement, so they start rumors.” Independence Party endorsements come from the executive committee, which is made up of 22 people from across the state, including Chapman.

The only thing I’ll say about this setup — Chapman working for Bonacic, who allegedly uses the connection to attempt to dictate which candidate the Democrats field to challenge him — is that it is just about as slimy as what you’d expect from a 20 year veteran of Albany politics.

Delaware led the way (yay us!), but Sager won the approval of Ulster, his native Sullivan and, earlier this week, Orange. Assuming that none of those chairs will ignore the will of their respective committees, and given that the lone possible challenger withdrew, it looks like the 42nd SD Democratic candidate is ready to rock and roll.

In a couple of weeks, we will be carrying those Sager petitions. Taking bets on whether our buddy, Bonacic, will be spitting nails or chewing on them?