It is Turner who is threatening to split the Conservative/Republican votes. The Conservative Party has endorsed Wendy Long. In a head to head with Turner she received 93% of the convention vote. Long is an excellent campaigner. Turner, who I supported in his successful Congressional race, entered the race so late he is playing the role of spoiler who can not win.
No, as usual, Michael Long hand-picked someone to be the CPNY nominee instead of letting voters decide in a primary, and then said “if Republican primary voters don’t pick my preferred candidate, it is they who are causing the conservative vote to be split.” Why does he insist on picking someone so early in the process, before even the redistricting plan was announced? These strong-arm tactics bit him in the a$$ two years ago when he endorsed Lazio well before the GOP primary and Lazio went on to lose the GOP primary to a more conservative candidate (Lazio had to accept a nomination for a judicial election in order for him to be dropped from the ballot).
Bob Turner is more conservative than 90% of the candidates that the CPNY has endorsed through the years; so is Wendy Long, of course. We’re not talking about a contest between a RINO and a conservative, but between two conservatives, such as in all those primaries with Sherry Boehlert, so there was no need to endorse someone prematurely. IIf Bob Turner wins the GOP primary, Michael Long and his attempts at blackmailing the GOP will be the one who caused the split.