Syracuse Post-Standard: Carl Paladino bullies NY GOP House members to back Donald Trump
Key takeaways:
- “Paladino [former NY GOP gubernatorial candidate] said he sent an email blast to 50,000 supporters on Tuesday after a series of unsuccessful phone calls to convince New York’s eight other Republican House members to support Trump. So far, Collins [Western New York House Republican] has stood alone in his endorsement.
- “Paladino told Syracuse.com that he will start targeting individual members of Congress with critical emails, starting in the next 24 hours with a note about freshman U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, who represents a large North Country district. […]He said he tried to convince Stefanik to endorse Trump in a recent phone call.
- “Paladino said he talked with Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, who replied that he couldn’t endorse Trump because some of his donors would be upset.
- “In a text message last week, Collins warned his New York House colleagues to follow suit or face consequences from Paladino.”
“The writing’s on the wall. Vulnerable New York House Republicans John Katko, Elise Stefanik, Tom Reed, Lee Zeldin and Dan Donovan can either denounce Trump’s reckless rhetoric and upset his Republican base support that they’ll need on Election Day, or stay silent and end up turning away just about everyone else,” said Bryan Lesswing at the DCCC. “Either way, Representatives Katko, Stefanik, Reed, Zeldin and Donovan will be inseparably tied to Trump as their party’s standard bearer.”
ICYMI – Carl Paladino bullies NY GOP House members to back Donald Trump
Syracuse.com
By Mark Weiner
March 8, 2016