To the editor:

This is in response to William A. Brenner’s Letter to the Editor published on July 2.

I am sorry sir, but you are misinformed. Mr. Scagnelli did not send in a letter of intent seeking the Conservative Party Endorsement or contact myself, Edward A. Magilton, Sullivan County Conservative Party Chairman. Therefore he could not have been told by myself that he was too late.

The Conservative Party ran multiple ads in Sullivan County’s hometown paper, The Sullivan County Democrat, this past January into February. The ads were seeking candidates who were interested in running on the Conservative line, and also instructing them to send the letters of intent to myself. These letters were to be received by February 12, 2021.

The Conservative Party then held the interviews for the endorsements in White Lake on March 2, 2021. The Conservative Party Committee Members then interviewed over 60 candidates that night, I guess you call that QUIET. The decisions on who received the endorsements were made by the committee members representing their respective towns.

Keri-Ann Poley, a registered CONSERVATIVE, was the only candidate who submitted a letter from the Town of Neversink, was interviewed and received the endorsement.

Unfortunately, due to the regulations sent down by Albany last year, the petition process for designating candidates has been pushed up to March. The first day to start to get signatures for candidates was March 2, 2021 this year.

We, the Conservative Party, do not make back room deals. We have set up a fair and impartial process of selecting our candidates. It seems anymore that if someone outside of the Conservative Party does not approve of a candidate of our choosing that something fishy is going on. We, the Conservative Party, make our own decisions and we do not follow anyone’s lead.