Dear John,
I am writing to you about what I believe our role is in the Republican Party as candidates for public office.
Over the last two weeks, both of our campaigns have been collecting signatures to get on the ballot. This annual ritual for political campaigns can be an arduous task, but it often presents a good opportunity reach out to Republican constituents and grow as candidates and leaders. As you know, many campaigns choose to “petition together” and carry a long sheet of paper with all of the Republican candidates and party officials that need to make the ballot in order to eliminate redundancy.
This year, The Brooklyn GOP, under the leadership of Chairman Ted Ghorra, facilitated the “petition together” plan by creating petitions with all of the Republican Party’s endorsed candidates along with the District Leaders and County Committee members. In the 43rd Council District, there are multiple versions of this petition circulating, one with my name on it and another with your name. This enables local volunteers to petition for whichever City Council candidate they prefer while still benefiting candidates like Vito Bruno who is running uncontested on the Republican Ballot Line for Borough President. You and I both came out publicly to support Ted Ghorra and his GOP petition effort. However, I was disappointed and saddened that you directed your campaign to collect several hundred “bullet petitions” that only have your name on them and do not benefit any other Republican candidates. Unfortunately for the other stakeholders, you did not inform them of this strategy so they continued to work hard collecting your signatures while not receiving a substantial number in return.
John, I think you can do better than this. I am calling on you to be a leader in the GOP and collect signatures for your local district leaders, county committee members, and candidates for public office. We are all on the same team with respect to having a strong local Republican Party. After years of infighting, we are finally united behind Chairman Ghorra who has done a tremendous job leading and growing our party and getting our message out. We need to give him the support he needs to succeed. You and I running against each other in a Republican Primary makes us competitors for City Council. However, this competition cannot prevent us from for standing side by side and acting in the best interest of the Party which is to elect a slate of candidates and party officials that share our ideology.
Over the last two weeks, I have directed my campaign staff to exclusively collect signatures that benefit the whole party. I have even collected several hundred signatures for district leaders that are actively supporting your candidacy. I have also collected signatures for Assemblywoman Malliotakis in her bid to become Mayor. This is because I am running for City Council not just to get myself elected, but to help our whole city for the better.
As a former Congressional Staffer, I have a great deal of admiration for your service to South Brooklyn through Senator Golden’s office. I am calling on your sense of service to others to make the right decision and join me in moving the Republican Party forward.
Sincerely,
Liam McCabe
Republican Candidate for City Council, 43rd District
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