Hamburg Republicans submitted designating petitions to the Board of Elections on Thursday, and to the surprise of no one, embattled Comptroller, aspiring Supervisor, and career grifter Stefan Mychajliw collected zero signatures to qualify himself and his running mates for November’s ballot.
NYS Election Law requires Hamburg candidates to collect a minimum of 150 signatures to qualify as a candidate in this year’s election. Rather than pitch in himself, the perennial candidate relied on patronage staff from the Comptroller’s office to collect signatures for him. It is the first time in recent memory that a Hamburg Supervisor candidate did not collect signatures. This comes as no surprise to anyone familiar with Mychajliw’s work ethic. Earlier this year Channel 7’s investigative reporting revealed that the divisive Comptroller, even pre-pandemic, has been showing up to his $80,000 a year position an average of 5 weekdays per month.
“This isn’t surprising”, said Hamburg Democratic Committee Chair, Terry MacKinnon. “Stefan doesn’t show up to work. Why would he show up to help out with the Republican Committee signature collection effort?”
Mychajliw in recent years has filled the Comptroller’s Office with a number of political operatives, failed politicians, and unqualified campaign staff, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, who collected signatures in his absence.
Mychajliw, who moved to Hamburg less than 4 years ago, is running for his 3rd different office in the last 4 years. The divisive Comptroller finished last in a three-way Republican Primary for Congress last year and was rejected by Hamburg Republicans by a 2-1 margin.
The endorsed Hamburg Democrats’ slate submitted nearly 3 times the number of signatures required, which were circulated by 56 volunteers, candidates, and community activists.
“I’ve never seen so much support for a slate of candidates this early in a campaign”, continued MacKinnon. “Our team of dedicated committee members, candidates, and volunteers have sprung into action to organize the increased interest in our endorsed slate. Now that our candidates have filed their petitions we are ready to harness this momentum and move Hamburg forward.”
