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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