In this episode of the Paladino letters, Carl excoriates “RINO” Republican State Senator Mike Ranzenhofer

     VS.

“Life in the Big City”

To: Mike Ranzenhofer, Buffalo lawyer and GOP state senator

From: Carl Paladino, Buffalo businessman and 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate

Date: March 14, 2013

Mike,
It’s time to lead, follow or get out of the way. For you it’s the latter.

I gave you a fair opportunity to get on the bus. Obviously you don’t have the intestinal fortitude, spine or sense of responsibility to your constituency or the people of Western and Upstate New York to do the right thing.

You have become complicit with the Albany RINO establishment and have learned to play the illusion game.

I asked you to step out and help bring the RINO Senate leader Dean Skelos down. He is bad for the party statewide and could care less for the people of Upstate New York.

Skelos has had the leverage and bully pulpit to give more than lip service and push the Fracking issue, but the lobbyists like Lynch and D’Amato haven’t vacuumed up enough money yet from the industry to satisfy the Albany establishment, so he lets upstate suffer without what would otherwise have been an economic boom. Skelos takes fees from his personal injury law firm and in turn holds up legislation on Tort, Malpractice and Scaffold Law reform that would save New Yorkers Billions in premiums. He has let us down in so many other ways.  He is clearly conflicted, the bribery through his law firm is criminal and you sanction him.

Your current actions and those of the past indicate that you are pledged to Skelos and he owns you. Yes, you voted against the Safe Act but don’t expect a pat on the back. You did one thing of the many challenges that you have been paid for. It’s what you didn’t do that bothers the rank and file. You let the Senate leader allow the Safe Act to go to the floor when he could have held it up. He even voted for the bill with a bunch of brain dead Long Island RINO Republicans.  To put frosting on the cake you then threw a party for him right here in Western New York. You endorsed and raised money for the heathen. What is the matter with you?

I called you last week to follow up on our meeting when I asked you to join the 4 Senators from Long Island to ask Skelos to resign or you would form an Independent Republican Caucus with them. You haven’t had the courtesy to call back.

Don’t bother calling me now. I know where you sit. You’re a weak, parasitic, political hack more interested in job preservation than effectively representing your constituency. You are not qualified to represent the people of our area. You have allowed our community to fail for far too long now. We want representatives with a backbone and with values.

FYI, I intend to support a primary candidate against you next year unless of course you resign now and let the people put a good man in the office. By copy of this memo I’m asking Mike Long to deny you the conservative endorsement if you choose to try to stay in office.

I gave you a fair chance to man up and you didn’t take it. You didn’t even listen to the strategy. I told you to call the guys from Long Island, not O’Mara. Unless you have a solid 6, O’Mara is not going to jump, especially for you. He’s too smart for that. And you want a judgeship? You can’t even do the job you have now. I don’t think so.

To effectively rebuild the sick and lame State Republican Party controlled by downstate RINO Republican County chairs and a RINO legislative leadership in the Senate and Assembly, we must clean up our own house first and we’ll start right here in Western New York and rid ourselves of our own complicit delegation of sellout wannabe legislators.

This memo will go out to 50,000 people today.

  paladino, ranzenhofer