I had been planning to write about Jason West, the Green Party’s New York poster boy who in running for re-election as Mayor of New Paltz succeeded in knocking and independent opponent off the ballot. I was going to point out how hypocritical it was for a Ralph Nader supporter like West to do so considering how Nader’s followers always yap about ballot access and allowing more candidates to participate in elections.
But I didn’t get around to it and look what happened!
West was defeated for re-election and ironically it seems that he lost because he had only one opponent. Serves him right!
The 387 votes that West received on Tuesday amounted to 42 percent of the total votes cast in the mayoral race. In 2003, he received only 322 votes, which was just 37 percent of the total, but was elected because Nyquist split the remaining votes with a strong third candidate.