11th Commandmant Broken - “Thou Shall Not Speak Negatively Against The Party” - County Dems bounce Shultis - by HV1
Negative comments by a Democrat on social media about Democratic candidates for office? Tsk, tsk.
The ever-outspoken maverick Hurley highway superintendent Mike Shultis has been removed from the Ulster County Democratic Committee. At its convention on February 21, the committee decided that Shultis had “made multiple public statements on social media regarding candidates for public office in the Town of Hurley, including negative comments against the Democratic nominees and expressions of support for the Republican nominees running against them.”
Shultis had last November supported a ticket for town office headed by Democrat Mike Boms on the Republican line against the Democratic team headed by incumbent Democratic town supervisor Melinda McKnight. Boms won by a narrow margin.
As a result of being removed from the county Democratic committee, Shultis has automatically been removed from the local committee. Noted a March 1 Hurley town committee press release, “This kind of removal is very rare, which highlights the seriousness of the violation.”
A NOTE AND BACKGROUND BY HURLEY UP - Shultis is a Democrat as is Supervisor Mike Boms. Most know that last year’s election race in Hurley was very difficult for all, including its citizens who had to wade through alot of discord. It is also important to note about local party machinery and process - at the local level in elections there is no ‘primary’ in the sense of like national elections where candidates run in a party to face off (without ‘endorsements’ and money backing one candidate over another). The party machine (those most active and therefore often most strident in views) ‘picks’ their favored candidates as early as February (when primary is the end of June!) at a ‘convention’. This process effectively denies local citizens the right to have a real public debate during primaries, and true discussion amongst party members. Only hand-selected candidates by party activists and leaders get anointed and get to claim the party blessings.