Local Conservative Party backs Jacobs, but not Hawley or Ortt

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 23 February 2022 at 7:57 am

The Orleans County Conservative Party is backing Chris Jacobs for the newly drawn 24th Congressional District which shifts east to the other side of Rochester and includes 13 counties.

The local Conservatives, however, aren’t giving their endorsement to Assemblyman Steve Hawley or State Sen. Rob Ortt, even though they have among the most conservative voting records in the State Legislature.

Hawley has been in office for nearly 16 years since winning a special election on Feb. 28, 2006. Paul Lauricella, the Conservative Party in Orleans, said Hawley is a bona fide conservative but has been in office beyond the 12-year cutoff sent by the party.

Lauricella said the Conservatives believe in term limits, and want to see a politician, even a popular one, not stay in office after 12 years.

“The politicians talk of term limits but are not serious,” Lauricella writes in a letter to the editor on the Orleans Hub. “We are.”

Ortt may bring a strong conservative voice to the Legislature as the Republican Leader in the State Senate, but Lauricella said Ortt backed a budget from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo that funded the SAFE Act. Ortt also doesn’t reach out to the local Conservative Party leaders, Lauricella said.

He acknowledged the two local state legislators – Hawley and Ortt – will likely get the Conservative line in the election from the state committee.

With Jacobs, Lauricella said the congressman stands up for Donald Trump, opposes vaccine mandates and fights the “reckless spending of the Biden Administration.”