Catskillkid
.450/400 Nitro Ex
Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been as active on the boards the past few months as I used to be. That's for several reasons including work and family related but also because of what I'm about to say next.
We're all frustrated with the way things are. I know many of us (myself included) have been increasingly dissatisfied with the way our state government is run. The laws that are being dictated to us by an elite are squeezing us dry both of our hard earned money and our precious freedom. We've gone to rallies, we've donated to Second Amendment and other organizations, and lobbied our representatives and quite literally nothing has changed, at least not for the better. Our founders told us that our options are the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. I'm going to give the option of the ballot box one last try.
Early in February, I was approached by the chairman of my Town's Republican Committee about running for public office here in my Town. I had been involved in community organizations for the past several years but had never thought about seeking public office. I wouldn't quite call it a "dream" but it has been an ambition of mine for some time, though, I didn't have the connections or the savvy or the money frankly to make it happen. That all changed when I got that phone call. After a lot of thought and hand wringing I decided that I would accept their nomination to run for the position of Town Justice.
No, I'm not a lawyer but that is not a requirement to be a Town Justice in NYS (if you get elected you get training). I seriously thought that I would not be able to do it but after speaking with a previous Town Justice (our Town's auto mechanic and a current Town Board member) he assured me that I would make a great candidate and the Party is behind me and has stated unequivocally that I am their man for this position. It's quite humbling really because at the end of the day I'm just another deploreable putz like the rest of us here.
The last few months have been a whirl-wind of knocking on doors after work to get petitions signed to appear on the ballot. Let me tell you that was a gigantic pain in the ass. I will be appearing on the Republican and Independence Party lines in November. I tried to get the Conservative Party nomination but they did not grant it to me. Not because of ideology but because of a personal beef one of that party's members has against me. It's a long story but it's mostly sour grapes on his part. Oh well, such is life.
This isn't a huge role politically speaking and I would only have jurisdiction in my Town. My understanding is that it's mostly traffic court, landlord-tenant disputes, small claims court, and some misdemeanor crimes (petty theft and domestic violence mostly). I guess I can marry people too. It's a small role in the scheme of things but maybe it's a start of something else. Maybe (though not likely) it's the start of turning the tide against all the bullshit that's been happening in this State.
Petitioning is done and I just got my letter form the County Board of Elections today that I will officially appear on the ballot. Next step, and this is a doozy, is to defeat my first opponent in the primary election in June. One of our local quack lawyers has garnered enough signatures on his own to primary me so I'm going to have to defeat him. This is the same knucklehead who got disbarred a few years ago and also thought he could defeat Maurice Hinchey at the height of his popularity and also tried to get on the ballot to run against Hillary Clinton when she was Senator. I've actually had many folks Town beg me to win because they don't want him in that position.
Since it's a Town-level position I know most (probably all) of you won't be able to support me at the polls but the moral encouragement (if you can offer that) would be appreciated. I'm not going to lie. I'm nervous as hell about this because if I win I don't want to mess things up. I want to be the best that I can at it and do my constituents, who are literally my neighbors, proud. This community has done right by me and I want to do right by it.
Perhaps this matters little in the scheme of regional, national and world events, but I wanted to post this here for you all to see. Since I've been a member of this board I've have and privilege of meeting several of you and even those who I have not met you feel like brothers to me. I definitely don't want to get into a debate about the merits of religion, but if you are the religious type, a prayer for me would be appreciated. I sure could use it.
To sum up, I'm probably going to be busy even more over the coming months going to Boy Scout fish fries and firehouse pancake breakfasts pressing flesh and doing the politician thing (kind of sceeves me out to be honest but it has to be done). With some luck maybe I have a shot of making my Town great again one more time before this thing called America comes crashing down. Maybe, as Reagan said, it'll give me the opportunity to help make this little community rise above this swamp of a state and make it, even if just for a moment, a shining city on a hill.
Yours in freedom,
Catskillkid
Candidate for Town Justice
We're all frustrated with the way things are. I know many of us (myself included) have been increasingly dissatisfied with the way our state government is run. The laws that are being dictated to us by an elite are squeezing us dry both of our hard earned money and our precious freedom. We've gone to rallies, we've donated to Second Amendment and other organizations, and lobbied our representatives and quite literally nothing has changed, at least not for the better. Our founders told us that our options are the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box. I'm going to give the option of the ballot box one last try.
Early in February, I was approached by the chairman of my Town's Republican Committee about running for public office here in my Town. I had been involved in community organizations for the past several years but had never thought about seeking public office. I wouldn't quite call it a "dream" but it has been an ambition of mine for some time, though, I didn't have the connections or the savvy or the money frankly to make it happen. That all changed when I got that phone call. After a lot of thought and hand wringing I decided that I would accept their nomination to run for the position of Town Justice.
No, I'm not a lawyer but that is not a requirement to be a Town Justice in NYS (if you get elected you get training). I seriously thought that I would not be able to do it but after speaking with a previous Town Justice (our Town's auto mechanic and a current Town Board member) he assured me that I would make a great candidate and the Party is behind me and has stated unequivocally that I am their man for this position. It's quite humbling really because at the end of the day I'm just another deploreable putz like the rest of us here.
The last few months have been a whirl-wind of knocking on doors after work to get petitions signed to appear on the ballot. Let me tell you that was a gigantic pain in the ass. I will be appearing on the Republican and Independence Party lines in November. I tried to get the Conservative Party nomination but they did not grant it to me. Not because of ideology but because of a personal beef one of that party's members has against me. It's a long story but it's mostly sour grapes on his part. Oh well, such is life.
This isn't a huge role politically speaking and I would only have jurisdiction in my Town. My understanding is that it's mostly traffic court, landlord-tenant disputes, small claims court, and some misdemeanor crimes (petty theft and domestic violence mostly). I guess I can marry people too. It's a small role in the scheme of things but maybe it's a start of something else. Maybe (though not likely) it's the start of turning the tide against all the bullshit that's been happening in this State.
Petitioning is done and I just got my letter form the County Board of Elections today that I will officially appear on the ballot. Next step, and this is a doozy, is to defeat my first opponent in the primary election in June. One of our local quack lawyers has garnered enough signatures on his own to primary me so I'm going to have to defeat him. This is the same knucklehead who got disbarred a few years ago and also thought he could defeat Maurice Hinchey at the height of his popularity and also tried to get on the ballot to run against Hillary Clinton when she was Senator. I've actually had many folks Town beg me to win because they don't want him in that position.
Since it's a Town-level position I know most (probably all) of you won't be able to support me at the polls but the moral encouragement (if you can offer that) would be appreciated. I'm not going to lie. I'm nervous as hell about this because if I win I don't want to mess things up. I want to be the best that I can at it and do my constituents, who are literally my neighbors, proud. This community has done right by me and I want to do right by it.
Perhaps this matters little in the scheme of regional, national and world events, but I wanted to post this here for you all to see. Since I've been a member of this board I've have and privilege of meeting several of you and even those who I have not met you feel like brothers to me. I definitely don't want to get into a debate about the merits of religion, but if you are the religious type, a prayer for me would be appreciated. I sure could use it.
To sum up, I'm probably going to be busy even more over the coming months going to Boy Scout fish fries and firehouse pancake breakfasts pressing flesh and doing the politician thing (kind of sceeves me out to be honest but it has to be done). With some luck maybe I have a shot of making my Town great again one more time before this thing called America comes crashing down. Maybe, as Reagan said, it'll give me the opportunity to help make this little community rise above this swamp of a state and make it, even if just for a moment, a shining city on a hill.
Yours in freedom,
Catskillkid
Candidate for Town Justice
