U.S. SENATE BALLOT CAMPAIGN IN NEW YORK

Diane Sare Counters Washington War Drive

by Marcia Merry Baker

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Joe Jennings

A campaign volunteer collecting signatures in Brooklyn to place Diane Sare on the ballot. May 18, 2022.

May 21—Diane Sare, LaRouche Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New York, is now a leading voice internationally against the Global NATO war drive aimed at Russia and China, in opposition to incumbent Sen. Chuck Schumer. Her efforts in New York now put her near victory over the attempt to prevent independent voices from speaking out and holding office in the United States.

The Sare for Senate campaign is now poised to do the impossible: filing 45,000 valid petition signatures, by the May 31 deadline, for ballot status in the general elections for Federal office November 8. To be sure of validity she plans to file significantly more signatures, all gathered since petitioning started April 19, and meeting the criteria of a specified number to come from each of thirteen of the twenty-six Congressional Districts (CDs) in the state.

Her success comes from her leadership qualities and widespread response to the programs she is promoting, based on the policies developed by economist and statesman Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (1922-2019). Brigades of volunteers have stepped up to the petitioning challenge, and are getting a spectacular response from around the state.

The Ballot Fight

Sare herself has been on the campaign trail from Buffalo to Long Island, in a situation of election rules chaos. To begin with, the petition signature requirements for Federal candidates were jacked up wildly by the New York legislature, attempting to deter any independent candidates. On top of that, the boundaries of many of the CDs are still unconfirmed, despite CD petition requirements and the May 31 filing deadline, and despite the fact that people are campaigning in these districts.

The chain of events behind this outrageous unclarity in the fourth most populous state in the U.S., with 19.3 million people, goes as follows: After the 2020 U.S. Census results, the shift in population residence patterns meant many states had to re-draw the boundaries of Congressional Districts, which the legislature did in New York, but in a distorted way. The new map of the state’s 26 CDs was then rejected when taken to state court. However, a higher court put a stay on that ruling, because the campaign period was underway, and said the original map boundaries could hold. Then on April 27—after petitioning and campaigning were underway in earnest, the highest court in the state ordered that a whole new map had to be drawn!

The court appointed a special master, Jonathan Cervas from Carnegie Mellon University, who on May 16 produced a new map, which, after a two-day comment period, was to be decided upon by the New York judge in charge. The judge ruled on May 20 to accept the new map presented to the judge. This is yet another outrageous change is the parameters of the election. Other elements of the election are still being challenged. All of this continues to create chaos, and reflects the underlying corruption of the electoral process in the state.

However, the petition filing deadline has not been moved back, in recognition of the burden of the chaos, but remains in effect for May 31, while the Democratic and Republican primary elections for Federal office have been moved back from June to August.

In the course of all this blatant election subversion, the response to the Sare petitioners has been electric, as they meet people on downtown streets, community events, shopping centers—wherever they can intersect a crowd. There is fury over price hikes for food, gas, heating oil, any and every basic of life. Truckers face diesel shortages and sky-high prices. Floods hit New Yorkers, drowning people in their apartments. The state’s remaining dairymen can’t afford to keep their herds. Industry has been contracting, even according to the Federal Reserve District’s official statistics for the multi-state economic region called the Empire District. Sare addressed the crisis at a Union Square rally in Manhattan on May 8th, focusing on the world food situation. The next week, she was in New York farm country, petitioning in the town of Holland, near Buffalo.

The Sare for Senate petitioners, hit by rage in the public turmoil, and under pressure from the filing deadline, have been buoyed up by a remarkable program of daily briefings on the world situation and poems and music for beauty and fortification. Their morale has gained, not waned.

Tell Washington: ‘No War!’

Sare has been campaigning tirelessly with public events, a weekly on-line symposium, media, and in other ways, about what must be done to deal with the economic and strategic crisis. In particular, she calls on people to give orders to Washington, to stop the march to war. She urges people to contact their Congressional offices and make it clear, they must stop backing NATO expansion, and stop arming Nazis in Ukraine for open-ended combat with Russia, with no negotiations towards resolution. What’s at stake is nuclear war.

She spelled this out clearly on May 9, in a video address, commemorating Victory Day in Europe, 1945. Wearing a St. Georges ribbon, to signify fascism must be defeated, she warned that today, we have “politicians who have lost their minds.” She singled out Sen. Lindsay Graham (S.C.), quoting his remarks to Fox News that there can be “no off ramp” for Russia over Ukraine. He said, Russia must be defeated. In other words, there can be no negotiations, nothing except confrontation and, inevitably, war. She warned, “Don’t allow the media to stampede us into a situation from which there is no return.”

Unfortunately, within days, a violent event in Buffalo became the occasion for another warning. On May 14, ten people were senselessly slaughtered by a crazed teenager, who sported one of the symbols made popular by the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine, which is backed, and being trained by the U.S., Canadian, and British governments.

The Nazi Mass Shooting in Buffalo

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Sare for Senate

Diane Sare in Buffalo, N.Y. on May 15. She issued a sharp statement on the Nazi outlook of the teenage shooter who had just killed ten people at a supermarket in Buffalo.

On May 15, Sare issued the following sharp comments on that slaughter. She said in her video statement:

“You can see I’m here in Buffalo. I was in Holland, New York yesterday at the Tulip Festival when I got word of the horrific mass shooting at a Tops [supermarket] in Buffalo. The shooter, who has been identified as Payton Gendron, was wearing the “black sun” insignia, which is shared by the Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine. I think this is extremely significant.

“First of all, let me express my deepest condolences and sympathy to the families and loved ones of the ten people who were killed in yesterday’s rampage, which never should have occurred. But I have to issue strong words about the situation.

“When you have a government which refuses to condemn Nazi atrocities committed by the Azov Battalion in Ukraine, but not only refuses to condemn them, but funnels them $40 billion worth of aid and weapons; when you have leaders of our elected government—that is, members of the House and Senate like Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell, going over to meet with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and supporting the narrative which is full of lies; when it is the Nazis committing the war crimes and the atrocities, not the Russians—but we are provoking a nuclear war with Russia. When you have Colonel Vindman saying that we should send Ukraine—Nazi elements in Ukraine—advanced weapons which can shoot missile strikes deep into Russia’s territory, then you have a government which has gone mad. And when the government has gone mad, it should not be a surprise when American citizens go mad.

“I’m running for U.S. Senate against Chuck Schumer to put an end to this murderous madness. The only way this crisis can be solved is through negotiation. The relationships among nations must be governed by the commonality of the universal interests of mankind as a whole. Only then can we resolve these crises; only then will we see an end to the kind of horrific violence which was perpetrated in this city yesterday. So please, contact your Congressman; tell them to stop logistical and military support of a Nazi, racist agenda that will lead to World War III. No more weapons to Ukraine; no more support of the Nazi Azov Battalion; no more support of ISIS terrorists. The American people want the truth. We want to live in peace and dignity as part of a concert among civilized nations on this planet.”