GOP Rep. Chris Collins Reverses Course, Will Stay on the Ballot Despite Indictment
The race should be an easy Republican win. Instead, this is shaping up to be Roy Moore light.
Republican Representative Chris Collins announced Monday he will stay on the ballot for the upcoming election.
Collins suspended his campaign a month ago after he was indicted on allegations of insider trading.
From Market Watch:
New York law doesn’t make it easy to replace candidates on the ballot so close to an election. Collins insisted he gives his party the best chance to hold onto conservative-leaning congressional district in the far western part of the state.
“Because of the protracted and uncertain nature of any legal effort to replace Congressman Collins we do not see a path allowing Congressman Collins to be replaced on the ballot,” a lawyer for the representative said in a statement.
Collins won 67% of the vote in 2016 and 71% in 2014. He is noted for being the first member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump for president during his campaign two years ago.
The New York congressman is the second Republican who’s chosen to stay on the ballot this fall after being accused of wrongdoing. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California is also trying to retain his seat following federal charges that he used campaign money for personal use.
Lawmakers rarely remain on the ballot or win reelection after being indicted. The last congressman to do so was Floyd Flake in 1990. The Queens Democrat was accused of tax evasion and other charges, but he was easily reelected.
In August, Mary blogged about the specifics of the indictment:
The indictment says that “Innate’s primary business was the research and development of a drug called MIS416, which was intended to treat Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.” The company completed the drug trial in June 2017. The drug gave the company hopes of a massive profit since the market has “few or new alternative treatments” for the disease.
The drug failed the drug trial and Innate’s stock price dropped 92% after the public announcement.
…The three men had access to nonpublic information and allegedly used that to their advantage.
The indictment asserts that Collins received the tips as he attended the Congressional Picnic.
The indictment alleges that Rep. Collins then “took steps to prevent the public from learning that” his son sold quite a bit of his shares before the public announcement, including a statement “written in a manner designed to mislead the public into believing that” Cameron did not do it.
…Yeah, the indictment says Rep. Collins did not “trade shares himself, in part because he was already under investigation for his relationship with Innate by the Office of Congressional Ethics.” The late Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Collins in 2017. The committee’s report “did not punish Collins” nor did it “exonerate him.”
The race should be an easy Republican win. Instead, this is shaping up to be Roy Moore light.
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Yeah, well, we’re getting an object lesson on what was REALLY at stake with Roy Moore.
March of Cambreadth time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9v2SkiTxU
“How many of them can we make die?”
Best March of Cambreadth story ever: In the hotel lobby at OVFF in 1995
Milhouse … what a fun read. Thank you for the link.
Roy Moore, in what respect? Another warlock trial?
Lately it’s hard to believe the attacks coming from leftist fronts, and that sadly includes the FBI, DOJ, IRS and so on…
I do not see this hatred ending well. If the left is successful in pulling off a coup, the right will explode. If the “Blue Wave” is a puddle of nothing, the left will continue violence through the Soros funded programs of protest and it will get worse.
Is this what these people really want? I doubt they believe there will be a push back. During the lead up to the Civil War it was believed that a thousand or two lives might be lost. Those who predicted more were thought to be insane.
I fear for where things are going in this country. This indictment seems more like a leftist move to destroy a candidate where they can’t beat him otherwise. And indictments don’t always return with convictions.
I hope he prevails, and if he is innocent of the charges against him, that he seeks to turn the tables on those who brought them.
“I doubt they believe there will be a push back.”
I wouldn’t believe if I were them. Conservatives are pussies and they know it. Else, why would they bully us?
We’ve been shot and beaten in the streets. What did we do in response? Nothing.
The likes of Maxine Waters routinely calls for violence against us. What do we do in response? Nothing.
Administration officials are hounded out of shops and restaurants, stalked and followed home by rioters. What do we do in response? Nothing.
Bike Lock Thug ambushes our people with lethal force. 4 felony counts, dismissed. 3 years probation, not a day in jail. What do we do in response? Nothing.
Ford is going to be proven a liar (assuming she doesn’t stop Kavanaugh’s confirmation). She will suffer the same consequences as Hillary Clinton, Lois Lerner, Samantha Powers, Robert Mueller, et al… Nothing.
We are going to lose this Republic, not because of the Marxist left, but because we don’t care enough about Liberty to pick up a rifle.
The DOJ has been charging Republicans with crimes for 10 years now while ignoring far worse by Democrats. I am not speaking of innocence of those charged, of which I have little facts, but of the sheer corruption of the Justice Department. Clearly the DOJ/FBI are in a class of corruption never seen on a Federal level.
The GOPe just goe$ along to get along.
“The race should be an easy Republican win. Instead, this is shaping up to be Roy Moore light.”
Why, has he been unfairly accused by Democrats and the GOPe pretended to believe the accusations?
It’s New York. The Republicans are almost as corrupt as the Democrats here. They would be equally corrupt, if they were equally intelligent. Another reason to vote for the party of stupid over the party of evil, the stupid just can’t do as much of their desired evil.
“…..last congressman to do so was Floyd Flake in 1990.”
What about Charlie Rangel? I thought he was indicted?
Nope. He was never indicted.
“shaping up to be Roy Moore light.”? This is disgusting. Roy Moore was set up and destroyed by none other than the ‘Turtle’ – Bitch McConnell. As Clarence Thomas stated at his confirmation hearings – this is a high-tech lynching. The pushback against Moore was because he was not a McConnell asskisser and he had to go.
Roy Moore light? Maybe,maybe not. Voters don’t get nearly as upset about charges of insider trading as they do over accusations of unseemly sexual liaisons by old men.