Contact:
Anthony D’Orazio
1st Vice Chair
Libertarian Party of New York
tdorazio@lpny.org
866-336-3120

The post Libertarian Party of New York To Hold Nominating Convention In Albany County on Saturday, February 19, 2022 appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

While appearing on Kennedy Nation, Libertarian Larry Sharpe officially announced his second run for Governor of New York. In an unprecedented move, he revealed that he anticipates the backing of three political groups: The Libertarian Party of New York, Andrew Yang’s Forward Party which includes many of his left-leaning supporters, and Unite NY which includes many former Republicans.

A recent Zogby poll showed that compared to a two-way race between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin, the addition of Larry Sharpe in a three-way race resulted in 4 points pulled from the Republican, 1 point pulled from the Democrat, and 1 point pulled from undecided voters.

With two additional lines, Sharpe intends to take a rarely-seen approach to campaigning by modeling cross-party cooperation. It is with this strategy that Sharpe expects to reach voters of all persuasions. Sharpe is leading with his “BRO” platform for: Ballot Access, Ranked Choice Voting, and Open Primaries. His platform also includes his “SUS” program, or Step-Up Stipend inspired by the concept of a negative income tax.

He previously earned automatic ballot access for the Libertarian Party when he attained almost 100,000 votes in the 2018 election. This was subsequently revoked as a line item in Governor Cuomo’s 2020 budget. Expecting that Kathy Hochul would continue Cuomo’s legacy, Sharpe garnered the support of Unite NY and the Forward Party to compete with the major political parties for voters in New York State.

Unite NY is an organization intended to bring all political ideologies together to seek common-sense, non-partisan solutions to fixing government, the economy, and democracy.

Andrew Yang’s Forward Party uses a human-centered approach that is «Not Left, Not Right. Forward.”

Larry Sharpe is a native New Yorker, Marine Corps veteran, husband, and father. He is a seasoned businessman, executive coach, management consultant, and a strategic consultant for thought leaders in government, finance, law, technology, media, and healthcare. Larry has taught at Yale and Columbia and has been active in grassroots campaigning since 2018.

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Press Contact:
Name: Resa Willis and Gabrielle Cordova
Phone: 201-222-1001
Email: press@larrysharpe.com

Download Press Release

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Quiter’s 2020 campaign gained nationwide traction within the Libertarian Party, which he believes is part of the reason why leadership reached out, urging him to run for higher office.

“I intend to capitalize upon my success in 2020, carry a message that resonates with everyone, and remind the people that their government belongs in their hands only. They are the power, and they are the solution”, says Quiter.

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Thomas Daniel Quiter is a 2022 candidate for office. He ran for New York State Senate in 2020 within District 52, claiming nearly 13%, garnering almost 14,000 votes.

The post FORMER NEW YORK STATE SENATE CANDIDATE INTENDS TO SEEK LIBERTARIAN PARTY NOMINATION FOR STATEWIDE RACE appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

Albany, NY, June 29, 2021 – Abysmal voter turnout in last week’s primary elections clearly demonstrates the need for election reform and Unite NY has been joined by entrepreneur and 2018 Libertarian candidate for Governor Larry Sharpe in calling on both the Democratic and Republican parties to open their primary processes to give more New Yorkers a greater say at the ballot box.

Last week the four largest cities across Upstate New York held contested democratic primaries for mayor and voter turnout was extremely low, with only 13 to 26 percent of registered democrats turning out to decide who will lead their cities. In Albany, Kathy Sheehan garnered a measly 3,600 votes in a city of nearly 100,000 people. The current leader in the Syracuse race attracted just over 2,700 votes, while total Democratic Party primary turnout in Rochester and Buffalo was 20 and 26 percent, respectively.

Given that these cities heavily favor Democrats, the primary often serves as the de facto election, meaning in a city like Buffalo where there is no general election opposition, only 7 percent of eligible voters will have cast a ballot for the likely incoming mayor.

Unite NY Founder Martin Babinec said, “Voter engagement is a vital part of giving people a voice and breaking the grip our current two-party system has by being tilted towards party bosses with restrictions that shut out competition in the electoral process. The fact of the matter is that people aren’t turning out to vote because they don’t feel like they have a choice or a voice in our current electoral process. That is precisely why we need reforms like open primaries, ranked choice voting, and initiative and referendum so that we can put the power of government back where it belongs, in the hands of the people.”

2018 Libertarian candidate for Governor Larry Sharpe said, “Closed primaries are the number one reason why New Yorkers feel trapped, feel powerless and then check-out. This is proven by the embarrassingly low primary voter turnout this year, after record voter turnout last year. The system is allowing the status quo to facilitate our statewide decay.”

Unite NY is the new political home for independent and moderate voters in New York and is strongly supporting a host of electoral reforms that will take power away from party bosses and put it back in the hands of the people. One of those reforms, Ranked Choice Voting was used in New York City and was extremely successful, driving more than 135,000 more New Yorkers to the polls than at the last open mayoral primary in 2013. That increase in voter participation is larger than the entire population of the Cities of Utica and Schenectady COMBINED.

New York is one of only 9 states that still uses a completely closed primary system, effectively disenfranchising more than three and half million voters in the state who are not enrolled in any political party. The need is even more dire since last year. Under the auspices of a COVID relief bill, five of New York’s seven minor parties lost ballot status, leaving half a million people without a party.

The action Unite NY is calling for does not require legislation, rather, both parties could simply change their rules to allow more New Yorkers to participate in the electoral process.

About Unite NY

Unite NY is a new political home in New York State for Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, independents, and others to come together to seek common sense solutions. This new movement offers a home to more than 3.5 million New York voters not currently enrolled in a major party. Focused on a non-partisan approach to fixing real problems in our government, democracy, and economy, Unite NY supports candidates who understand working together is the only way we can succeed. Further, in 2022, Unite NY seeks to establish a ballot line by running a candidate for Governor to help fill the void created by our loss of 5 of the 7 minor parties previously holding statewide ballot access now eliminated from voter choice as the result of 2020 legislation which tripled the qualification hurdles needed to qualify as a minor party. More information is available at: UniteNY.org

Contact

Andrew Rush
PC Public Affairs
Tel. 518.441.2118
EMail: andrew@pcpublicaffairs.com

The post Unite NY Calls for Open Primaries in New York State appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

The Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) rejects this scheme, and sees several insidious issues related to this policy.

“This new emotion-based policy may be popular among the vaccinated – who, ironically, should have the least to fear – but accomplishes little other than removing personal choice and proclaiming the righteousness of having been vaccinated.” Cody Anderson, Chair of the LPNY, stated. “This policy allows people who have made the choice not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to be shamed and segregated, in public, based upon their vaccine status. Further, anyone wishing to attend a public sporting event will be forced to publicly disclose private health information, as the population density of their respective seating sections will be apparent from a distance. The class structure that Governor Cuomo has created around peoples’ vaccination status creates a de facto regime of vaccine mandates – do as you are told, or remain separate from everyone else. Let us be clear: this is not optional participation. This is an invasion of medical privacy and a forcible vaccine mandate.”

For more information about the Libertarian Party of New York, please visit lpny.org. You may also visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/LPNYOfficial, Twitter @LPNYOfficial, or Instagram @LPNYOfficial.

Contact: 
Anthony D’Orazio 
Public Engagement Director 
Libertarian Party of New York
866-336-3120

The post Libertarian Party of New York Condemns Governor Cuomo’s Segregation by Vaccine Status appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

Comedy club owner Dani Zoldan filed suit against the Cuomo Administration for unfair treatment. With help from Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor and host of The Sharpe Way, he retained Constitutional Attorney James Mermigis to reopen Stand Up NY following New York restaurant and bar guidelines.

Venues in New York have been shuttered since the pandemic began, while restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, pool halls and movie theaters have been able to operate. Venue owners have received no guidance as to when they can reopen. Many New York institutions have already closed permanently including Dangerfield’s—the legendary comedy club which opened in 1969.

Sharpe convinced Zoldan to sue the Cuomo Administration after seeing Zoldan’s efforts to revitalize the comedy industry by holding pop up shows in parks, rooftops, houses of worship and train stations. Elon Musk’s January 13th “legalize comedy” tweet fortified his confidence to move forward.

“When I heard that Stand Up NY, a wonderful venue that my campaign used often in 2018, fell victim to Governor Cuomo’s stranglehold on small business, I knew that I had to help.”

Larry Sharpe

The Sharpe Way team worked with Stand Up NY to retain Attorney James Mermigis of the Mermigis Law Group, P.C., who has a history of success against Cuomo in court. Known as the “Anti-Shutdown Lawyer,” he has filed over half-a-dozen lawsuits against the state, Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on behalf of small businesses in New York including theaters, pool halls, family entertainment centers, restaurants, and gyms. Mermigis filed a class action on behalf of 1,500 gyms in August. His lawsuit was instrumental in opening gyms throughout the State of New York, as Governor Cuomo issued guidance just days before oral arguments. Mermigis defeated Cuomo and his 17 pool hall clients were granted an injunction when a State Supreme Court Judge in Syracuse, NY found no rational basis for distinguishing between billiards halls, on the one hand, and bowling alleys, casinos, large stores, restaurants and airports, on the other hand. This victory was the only case to defeat Governor Cuomo on a “rational basis” theory in the State.

“In New York now, Saturday Night Live is doing live shows every week, Jimmy Fallon is doing live shows, Jazz Supper Clubs are open and restaurants with incidental live music are open but Stand Up NY is still shut down. The State’s refusal to open Stand Up NY amounts to an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech. The State has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter or its content.”

James Mermigis

The trio announced the lawsuit on The Sharpe Way show online, on Monday March  1, 2021. In addition to the lawsuit, they are asking people to support the reopening of Stand Up NY and to sign the petition at LegalizeComedy.NYC.

About Stand Up NY: A Manhattan landmark, Stand Up NY opened in 1986. Comics like Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and Louis CK are regulars in what New York Magazine calls the “incubator of stand-up nobility.” Tucked into a residential block of 78th Street on the Upper West Side, it features superstars as well as the brightest young talent in the business.

About The Sharpe Way: The Sharpe Way show was founded by Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of New York  to help heal the nation’s political divide between liberals and conservatives.

PRESS CONTACT
media@standupny.com
(646) 229-1650 (voice/text)
Dani Zoldan

The post Stand Up NY Shutdown Lawsuit vs. Cuomo is No Laughing Matter appeared first on Larry Sharpe, Libertarian.

New York, New York, February 22, 2021: In the wake of the Texas Winter Storm disaster, many are asking, “Is New York next?”

«Texas is a warning for New York. Let’s heed it and change before it’s too late.»

Larry Sharpe

Larry Sharpe, the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Governor and host of The Sharpe Way, calls on Andrew Cuomo and his administration to take accountability for the New York Power grid. If the state doesn’t act soon, New York could face a disaster bigger than the deadly Northeast Blackout of 2003 that cost 11 lives and $6 billion while 50 million people were without power for two days. In the wake of the Nursing Home Scandal, Larry Sharpe questions Governor Cuomo’s commitment to the people of the city and state of New York.

«Currently, New York lacks accountability, just like Texas. Swap ERCOT for NYISO and you have the same recipe for imminent catastrophic failure.»

Larry Sharpe

Under Governor Cuomo, serious harm has been done to electricity infrastructure for New England and the state of New York.

New York is vulnerable in several key areas:

• No plan for increased demand
  This is the most impactful issue in New York. As demand increases, supply must also increase or people will suffer and lives will be put at risk.
  Governor Cuomo has actively thwarted plans to increase the natural gas supply for New York. He has banned new pipelines and hydraulic fracking. FERC has projected rolling blackouts to start during winter months as early as 2024 due to increased demand. This is an unacceptable failure of the Cuomo administration.
• Immobility of power
  When the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant shuts down, the lack of a replacement will make New York City especially vulnerable, despite being integrated into the larger Eastern power grid.
• Natural Gas Freeze-offs
  During cold weather, gas wells can freeze and go offline. New York is dependent on Pennsylvanian wells which are susceptible to freeze off.
• Renewables go offline during cold weather
  Windmills can freeze and solar farms don’t work when covered by snow.

«New York needs more entry point substations to bring in energy from Pennsylvania, New England and Canada and sponsor them to remove taxpayer burden.  In addition, New York must be open to Gen IV Nuclear energy in North County. We should be exporting, not importing energy!»

Larry Sharpe

Texas is recovering from their worst and largest power failure in history. Their grid was vulnerable because of neglect and a lack of accountability. New York has many of the same problems. Not only is nothing being done, the current administration is undermining efforts to take proactive action and putting lives at risk.

We need more transparency and accountability at the highest level in order to avoid a repeat of a preventable power disaster.

PRESS CONTACT

Georgia Walker / Dennis Consorte
The Sharpe Way
Phone: 201-222-1001
Email: pr@sharpeway.com

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