February 19th, 2010

HAMBURG (wned) – State Assembly Republican Leader Brian Kolb brought his push for a state Constitutional Convention to Hamburg last night.

The goal is to pass legislation this year, elect delegates next year and hold the convention in 2012.

Some speakers at Union-Pleasant Elementary School were skeptical of the plan. Tea Party Coalition activist Allen Coniglio wondered “how we can trust any of you and how we can trust the process.”

He argued that a state convention would be run by “party insiders” who would enact “change for their own benefit.”

Kolb said the key to making a convention work is to restrict who can serve in it, barring lobbyists, elected officials and party officials.

Richard Speth said he returned to New York after living 33 years in California where voter initiatives “took the government out of the hands of the legislature, the senate and the executive branch.”

According to Speth, such actions required 100,000 signatures to appear on the ballot and, if passed, “would supercede the articles of the constitution.”

The last Constitutional Convention was in 1967, though there have been several unsuccessful attempts to stage others.

“There is a real opportunity here for a grass roots effort that is actually growing,” offered speaker Michael Madigan.

“Whether it’s Democrat, Independent or Republican, everybody. Look at what happened in Massachusetts (the surprise election Senator Scott Brown), if Republicans think they are safe, they are sadly mistaken.”