BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR…

Did nominating Peter Knapp at the Democrat caucus mean that Kate Edinger will lose in November?

An old saying… To see the future, look to the past.

Four years ago Edinger won by a fluke. Back then, as now, Peter Knapp was cross endorsed by the Democrats and also got the Republican nomination. Tom Fox was the other Republican on the ticket. Therefore we had Knapp twice, Edinger and Fox. The voters could vote for any two. Knapp got a little over 200 on the Republican and a little over 100 on the Democrat side. That was the lowest numbers (per party) of any candidate that year. Knapp's vote total was a little over 300 which edged out Fox. Fox got more than Knapp on the Republican side but less than Edinger. Why? Usually any Republican will get an automatic 225 base votes and any Democrat will get an automatic 110 votes. These 'automatic' votes are from those that vote the party line and remains pretty constant. Knapp is not well liked and that is why he didn't even get the automatic vote. But why did Edinger get more than Fox? Four years ago the town was mad at Max Stoker for all the grief he and his wife caused. Nancy Dickerson, Democrat was running for Legislator against Stoker. We made a big push for Dickerson and Dickerson won Preble by 4 votes or so making Stoker a loser. (But Stoker got 12 more votes in Scott and carried the election.) The Dickerson win in Preble carried over to Edinger in what is known as coat tails. Edinger's vote count almost exactly matched Dickerson's. It would be truthful to say that it was our effort to get Dickerson elected that got Edinger elected! :-O

(For reference: Usually about 450 to 600 vote in these off-year elections.)

This year is different. While there is still the dislike for Peter Knapp for more reasons than Stoker and he will get a low vote count he 'may' get nominated on Monday. If that happens it will be a repeat of 4 years ago. It will be Knapp twice, Edinger and a Republican (who ever that turns out to be). BUT this time there is no Democrat running for Legislator therefore no coat tails. There will be a high negative vote for Knapp but the Republican also running will not have the negatives Knapp has. Also Edinger was part of the Water Protection fiasco and has done little to distinguish herself in the eyes of the voters. The remaining non-automatic votes will be divided between her and the Republican. She will lose.

Oddly the only chance Edinger has is if Knapp is NOT nominated on Monday. But the real kicker is who nominated Knapp at the Democrat caucus and who voted for him there. I won't tell you but I bet you can guess.

Ain't payback a bitch?

But what about the other town board positions open? These are for 2-year terms to finish the terms of two who resigned and are separate from the 4-year positions. They have the same name but that is all. You can't mix and match. Right now we have Grant and Morse on the Democrat side and Monday's Republican caucus will decide the two who will run against them.

I love this stuff, real life drama right before your eyes. Beats TV any day.

REFLECTIONS ON THE DEMOCRAT CAUCUS

I have, many times, stated my belief that Democrats should nominate Democrats and Republicans should nominate Republicans and then let the voters decide who they want in November. While there are 8 elected positions only five of them are for voting positions on the town board that can themselves vote for laws that affect us all. Peter Knapp has been a target of my criticism for many years and for good reason. He was the one who created problems for all of us with the Cell Tower, the illegal Song Mountain well and Flying J among others. All of these actions were illegal and cost the taxpayers of Preble tens of thousands of dollars. I am somewhat surprised that he gets any votes at all. At his last election four years ago he got the fewest votes of anybody, but because and only because he was cross endorsed he stole the office. He's doing it again this year along with his willing minions who voted for him Wednesday and another set who will likely vote for him Monday and thus accomplish two things. One: He will guarantee himself a seat on the board without a general election needed in November and Two: He will once again cheat his way to power. Now that he is on the ballot as a Democrat there is no need to put him there on the Republican side on Monday. He will have his chance in November and the voters can decide. I would ask you to go to the Republican caucus Monday and vote for anybody other than Knapp.

ALL OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE LAST 5 YEARS ARE BECAUSE OF PETER KNAPP!

If he is on the board again then you can be assured of three things. One: I will be writing about his misdeeds for the next four years. Two: He will be creating more problems for Preble. Those problems will cost YOU money in the form of increased taxes. They will likely benefit Knapp as it has in the past. Three: Town Board meetings will not be the quiet peaceful happy meetings they have been. Peter will have a LOT to answer for and I will be doing the questioning!

One day I hope to find out what magical hold Peter Knapp has on the fools who keep putting him in office. Have YOU ever benefited as he or his brother have? Does he tell you your turn will be next to get the goodies, and if so, why do you believe him? Why? What evidence do you have from any of his deeds in the past that anybody benefited but him. Are you that big a fool to believe him after all the proof out there? I guess some people can be led around like a dog on a leash and never know what is happening to them. One thing I do know about people like Peter Knapp is that they relish pulling the wool over the eyes of their fools. He treats you like a close friend but behind your back he thinks you are a fool and he gets off by conning you. The main reason he hates me is that he knows he can't fool me and he knows he can't stop me from writing about him. He's gotten clean away with it before but no more. I will never stop what I'm doing and if he gets in office again I will be going back over his past deeds as far back as time itself. He might try to hide what he is doing now but he can't hide what he did in the past.

Know this Peter… I will find out everything there is to find out about you. I will get the proof for the things I know about you and I will let the whole damn world know about it!

When you speak at a Town Board meeting there are perhaps 5 or 10 people that hear you. When I write about you here in cyberspace there are thousands that hear me. Over and over again they hear me. No one will ever remember what you said.


FOREVER

The information you see on this web site today will remain online forever! 10, 25, 50, 100 years from today your decedents will be able to look up your name and find EVERYTHING I have written about you. 2,240 hits from Google alone. Will they believe what they read without you being there to con them as you are conning your serfs now? No, likely not, and they will know what you are. I take solace in that. History will show you for what you are and I for what I am. You may steal another election today but in the annals of time you will be known for the loser you are. I will see to that, of that you can be sure!

Frank Hogg

WAS THE DEMOCRAT CAUCUS RIGGED?

There were instances at the Democrat caucus last night that have caused many to question if it was rigged. I have been contacted by several people today who were there. I was also there and took copious notes, made audio recordings and took pictures and videos of what went on. Today I have been looking into all of this and have concluded that the possibility existed for the caucus to have been rigged. Mind you, I am not saying that it was rigged it's just that there were opportunities for it to have happened. Much of the contention revolves around the first three votes for the town board. All were ties which were finally decided by just one vote! There was a lot of confusion during this process. There were many questions raised about how it was handled.

1. It was announced that the votes would be counted on the table so everyone could see. The votes were actually counted on the judges bench with their backs to the audience and no one could see. The claim was made that this was OK because they counted the votes twice.

2. There were two times when votes were "found" after the counting finished.

a. After the votes were counted Anne Henderson discovered that she had not voted and quickly filled out a slip and handed it to the counters.

b. After the votes were counted one of the tellers "found" a "missing" vote that she said was in her left hand by mistake along with some blank votes. When she was showing the audience how this happened I saw the vote slip and it was for Morse and was written with feminine handwriting. I went over to Anne (who I was sitting very near) and told her I thought she should run this one again as it did not look good. Obviously she did not take my advise.

This leaves open the possibility that someone could have slipped in a vote for a candidate and replaced it with another one. I'm not saying it did happen nor am I questioning the honesty or integrity of any of those involved. But, and this is a big BUT. But because of the way it was handled and because they were won by just a one vote margin it will be an open question IF it happened. It will be up to the democrats to decide if this should be investigated or what if anything should be done about it.

I have some more information about last night that I am sifting through and I may update this report at a later time. However, I would suggest that whoever is going to run the Republican caucus on Monday take heed and make sure that we don't have a repeat of last night.

NOTE TO DEMOCRATS - HERE IS THE ELECTION LAW LINK INFORMATION
New York Code Search - MegaLaw.com

17-102 is the law in question New York Code Search - MegaLaw.com 17-102

This is the Google page search results. The third item down is a pdf (12+ megabytes) of the election law Google Search: 17-102 election law ny

TIE! TIE! TIE! TIE! AT THE DEMOCRAT CAUCUS!

Boy if you ever thought your one vote didn't count then you had better rethink that! There were at least three tie votes at the Democrat Caucus on Wednesday night! The ties didn't start coming until the voting for the town board members started. First up was Republican Peter Knapp running against Democrat Joe Oliver. First vote was an 18 18 tie. Then a second vote was taken and again an 18 18 tie. Then Anne Henderson, chairman of the caucus called down to the BOE while everyone (it seemed) started calling on their cell phones to get more voters in to break the tie. The Peter Knapp crowd finally gets 2 more voters than the Oliver crowd and Knapp wins by one vote and is cross endorsed by the Democrats! I'll have much much more to say about this later. Next up was Deb Coolidge against Kate Edinger and another tie! More cell phone calls until Edinger pulls it out by one in the end. Next up is David Morse against Joe Oliver, again a tie but they lost one vote, misplaced it I guess. Then it is 'found' in the hand of the teller and Morse wins. Finally it is Donald Canne against Rich Grant. Grant wins but no numbers given. The Town Board lineup for the Democrats are:

Supervisor: Betty Pitman (Incumbent)
Town Board 4 year: Peter Knapp (Republican incumbent)
Town Board 4 year: Kate Edinger (Incumbent)
Town Board 2 year: David Morse
Town Board 2 year: Rich Grant

Other non-voting positions decided were:
Town Clerk: Jane Davenport (incumbent)
Town Justice: Lynn Webb
Highway Supervisor: Jeff Griswold (Republican incumbent)

Now it's on to the Republican caucus on Monday, 7:30 at the fire hall. Now you know how much your one vote is worth.

See you there.

PS I want to thank all the Democrats who made me, a lowly Republican, feel at home even though they made me sit in the corner. :-D

WHAT IS A CAUCUS?

A caucus is America at its best. At a caucus average everyday citizens get together to choose the candidates of their party to run in the election. Then the candidates from each party run in the general election and your friends and neighbors get to vote for their choice. It is what America is all about, freedom to choose who our leaders will be. No one can take that away from us.

Well, that's the dream anyway. Here in Preble it hasn't always worked out that way. You see we have some corrupt people that have a lust for power and they know how to rig an election so they can't lose. Sure it's not ethical nor is it fair and it is just barely legal to do it. It's what Peter Knapp did four years ago when he rigged the caucus's so he was nominated by both the Democrats and the Republicans and guaranteed he would get the most votes in the general election. You might have noticed that I didn't say he 'won' the election, because he didn't 'win'. He cheated and by so doing he stole the election. YOU can change that and make Preble part of the America you learned about in school and it's easy. Just go to the caucus of your party and vote for candidates FROM your party. DON'T vote for candidates from the other party. DON'T take away the rights of your neighbors and friends when it comes to the general election. If Peter runs again he should run as a Republican, same is true for any other candidate.

But IF your vote bumps a candidate from your own party and replaces it with a candidate from the other party, you take away the rights of others for free choice and YOU are doing something that leaves a bad taste.

Please, at the caucus, only vote for candidates from your own party?

The Democrat Caucus will be this Wednesday, September 10th, 8:00 PM at the Preble Town Hall

The Republican Caucus will be next Monday, September 15th, 7:30 PM at the Fire hall.

I'll see you there.