G.O.P. Voters Urged to Select Dead Assemblyman in New York Race
|
Version 0 of 1. Even in death, State Assemblyman Bill Nojay, a Republican from the Rochester area who fatally shot himself in a city cemetery last week, seems likely to win the primary election for his seat on Tuesday. Rarely has a candidate died so close to Election Day. And even as political insiders and Mr. Nojay’s friends dissect his final days, trying to unravel the circumstances surrounding his suicide, his continued presence on the ballot has turned what was supposed to be a simple race into an Albany aberration born of an odd, little-noticed portion of the electoral rule book. Voters are being urged to cast their ballots for a dead man. Three men in a room are preparing to pick his political heir. The funeral has yet to be held, but the struggle to replace him is already on. It bears repeating: This does not normally happen. “It certainly doesn’t,” said Lowell Conrad, the chairman of the Livingston County Republican Party, who had to consult his election commissioner to get up to speed on the procedure. “Hopefully it won’t again.” If Mr. Nojay wins, election law states, Republican party leaders in the three counties that fall partly or fully within the 133rd Assembly District — Livingston, Monroe and Steuben — will choose someone to run as the general-election Republican candidate in his place. They have until 10 days after his death to do so, or about a week after the primary on Tuesday. If he loses to his challenger, Rick Milne, the mayor of the village of Honeoye Falls, Mr. Milne will simply claim the nomination. That is all “assuming that it isn’t a tie, or some other strange thing,” as Mr. Conrad pointed out. The choice of a successor for Mr. Nojay lies with the chairmen of the Republican parties in each of the three counties, whose votes will be weighted according to the percentage of votes cast in each county the last time Mr. Nojay was elected. Given the district’s deep Republican bent, whoever ends up with the nomination will most likely go on to Albany next year to join the Republican minority in the Assembly. With the support of local party leaders, the advantage of incumbency and widespread name recognition as the host of a daily talk radio show, Mr. Nojay, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2012 and was a prominent cheerleader for Donald J. Trump, was supposed to have little trouble on Tuesday. He was, however, fending off at least one federal investigation related to his business interests outside the Legislature. On Friday morning, as police officers raced to Riverside Cemetery in Rochester to check on him, Mr. Nojay, who was 59, shot himself to death. Yet far from embracing Mr. Milne as the last Republican in the race, local Republican and Conservative Party leaders are telling voters to stick with Mr. Nojay. “Asking people to vote for Mr. Nojay, I don’t believe that’s truly being done to memorialize the person; I believe it’s because they want to get their own local person elected,” Mr. Milne said on Monday, adding that he did not think Mr. Nojay had spoken for his constituents’ interests. “It’s hard to be happy with the process. So I have to hope that we’ve done enough to win tomorrow’s primary and then be done with it.” If not, however, Mr. Milne is prepared to try to win over the only voters who will matter at that point: party elders like Mr. Conrad, who said he would look to replace Mr. Nojay with someone “as close to him as possible, philosophically.” Several candidates have already volunteered for the job. “I think it’s a good possibility that he’ll win tomorrow, even though he’s gone,” Mr. Conrad said of Mr. Nojay. “Many people know that there’s an opportunity to have two candidates, and the other one is unknown at this point, but that’s where they have to have some confidence in their county chairmen.” It was left to the Democrat in the race, Barbara Baer, a lawyer and social worker, to watch the proceedings with something between sadness and bemusement. Though victory remained a doubtful prospect even without an incumbent to overcome, Ms. Baer said she hoped the increased focus on the race would give her more chances to speak about issues like climate change and health care. “Maybe they’ll vote for Milne, or maybe they’ll vote to have somebody else choose the person, and I want to stay out of that, although I have my own opinions — but it’s up to them as to what they do,” she said. “It’s a real Greek tragedy, in a way,” she added. “It’s a really odd year.” |