The Ithaca Journal reports that Tompkins County GOP Chair James Drader is trying a new way to try to get County Legislator Martha Robertson out of office: issuing a press release demanding that she step down, immediately.
Running for Congress, apparently, is a full-time job that can't possibly go with the part-time job of County Legislator. Drader seems deeply concerned about time management.
Drader is far from the only one in this conversation, though.
Voters get to decide in November whether they want to have a legislator here who is also running for Congress. The early stages of a Congressional race aren't the final constant travel stage that Drader seems to think begins immediately. Robertson's announcing now rather than in, say, December, gives the voters a much greater chance to see how this goes now and make up their minds about it.
If Drader is seriously concerned that Robertson shouldn't be running for Congress while sitting on the County Legislature, all he has to do is find a candidate to run against her in November and win. Perhaps he's hoping that grouchy press releases will make that happen?
(I would be happy to see a Republican challenger here. Uncontested races depress me. I'm reasonably certain that not only would the challenger's odd of success be low, anything increasing voter turnout on the west side of Dryden will help Democrats hold the town board. I suspect Drader is well aware of that last issue.)
Posted by simon at April 16, 2013 5:53 AM in