Ladies and gentlemen, the news is in from the State Supreme Court: David DiPietro's name has been reinstated on an independent Tea Party line for the November election, bringing the number of Republican candidates back up to three. DiPietro, the Tea Party candidate; former Erie County Republican boss Jim Domagalski on the Independence and Conservative Party lines; and Patrick Gallivan as the Republican nominee.
Meanwhile the sole Democrat in the race, Cynthia Appleton, has been endorsed by Democracy for America in her quest to replace the retiring Dale Volker.
I don't have to tell you all that in a district where the Democrat lost to a unified Republican opposition by just 13,000 votes last cycle, a three way split is very significant.
You also need to trust me when I say that this could still easily go the wrong way. With Paladino motivating what's expected to be massive turnout out of Erie County, we need to get the word out and give Democrats a reason to come to the polls in November.
I've flogged this race here before, but this is now officially crunch time. Money is needed right now for direct mail, for radio ads, and for TV ads.
This district is our best chance of picking up a seat in western New York, and arguably one of our best chances in the entire state. To do that, we need tens of thousands of dollars at the least. Pull out your wallet, fire up every donor you know, send this out to all your connections. Because none of us want to wake up on November 3rd thinking that we could have changed things if we'd just done a little bit more.
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