NEW YORK – Larry Sharpe, Libertarian candidate for New York Governor, acknowledges his campaign is making state history whether he finishes first, second or third.
In an exclusive telephone interview with WNYNewsNow Monday evening, Sharpe said that his campaign is scaring the Republicans and worrying the status quo.
“Clearly the Republicans are afraid I’m going to come in second, otherwise they wouldn’t have attacked me as much as they have, they’ve been all over me which is a great thing. There is no conspiracy theory against Miner or Hawkins only against me. They don’t know what to do,” Sharpe said. “I’m the nobody who is going to get 2 percent or I’m the guy who is ruining the election or I’m the guy who is working for Cuomo or I’m the guy who can’t raise any money. They have no idea who I am.”
Sharpe said the GOP base says to themselves “I have a crappy candidate and I can’t say anything good about that candidate so I’ll say something bad about Larry Sharpe.”
The campaign has already won, no matter the numbers, Sharpe said.
“This is going to be so good. The reality is this campaign has already won because we have a bunch of people who are finally saying I don’t have to vote red or blue, that’s critical, a bunch of people who are saying there’s a chance for change. That’s critical that has not been true for 16 years,” he said. “There’s a bunch of people who are saying I care about politics. This is a big deal this has changed how New Yorkers look at politics, but something else, a lot of people want a red wave or a blue wave whether they are Republican or Democrat but they also say ‘I can do that with a gold surfer on top.'”
Sharpe explained that a third-party Governor could be a neutral referee between the two parties, allowing progress to actually take place.
“If you have that gold surfer on top, that’s the referee. They (voters) are starting to understand that if you have a third-party on top, all of a sudden that person is a referee. that person is neutral. That person can make sure Democrats are actually about civil liberties, they’re not, they’re supposed to be. and that Republicans are actually about small government and lower taxes. They’re not, they’re supposed to be. We can actually make better parties if we have a third-party.”
Sharpe also battled Facebook, when they site shut down his paid advertising Monday for a few hours.
“They got mad at us but I guess they’re not mad anymore. So that’s good,” Sharpe said, adding he was not surprised. “I always expect these things to happen. I always knew the establishment was against me. My assumption is the Republicans did things like decided they were mad, so they flagged a bunch of content and Facebook got mad and said “Oh I’m scared’ and they stopped everything. That’s my assumption.”
Sharpe remains confident of a strong showing but said it is hard to read how many votes he will get because of polling tendencies.
“If you look, all of the indicators are people who can’t be polled, meaning everybody I meet is someone who saw me on Joe Rogan or someone who saw me on Dave Rubin or someone who doesn’t have a land line and is over 65 years old, this is who gets polled,” he said. “There’s a huge underground of people who I don’t know. I don’t know how many people those are. We have a lot of people who are registered to vote, we have a lot of new voters this year. I don’t know how many are mine.”
He went on to say he can win the race because he has enough issue-related content to sway anyone who is undecided or wants change.
“If people care to look, I am a viable alternative,” he said.
Asked what message he wants to send to the voters in the Chautauqua County region, Sharpe said to listen to what he is offering.
“Look, I am the only candidate that is talking about letting counties be counties. I am the only candidate talking about one city should not run this entire state. I’m the only candidate saying that we should be able to bring as much as we can and get as much as we can from local counties. This matters. We are a big, vast, diverse state and that’s a good think. Western New York is not Long Island and Jamestown is not Albany, that’s a good thing. We should accept that as a good thing.”
He advised voters to vote for Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Republican Marc Molinaro if they are happy with the status quo.
“If you actually are happy with what Cuomo is doing, you should vote for either Cuomo or Molinaro. That’s great because either way you will get Cuomo,” he said. “If you don’t like that and you want change, the only person to change anything is Larry Sharpe. If you vote Libertarian and make that change one of two things will happen. I’ll win and I’ll start governing. If I come in second there will be a microphone in my face every day.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and candidates Howie Hawkins and Stephanie Miner did not reply to WNYNewsNow requests for interviews.
