Legislators Monday amended their legislative manual to give Amo the same rights as any other political party and allows him to be the caucus leader for his caucus of one, but does not allow him to collect the stipend that the other two party leaders receive. Among the concerns of those opposed to Amo as a party of one is that the legislature’s rules call for the caucus leader to form caucus positions and secure all necessary information to do that. Some lawmakers said they don’t have the same individual access because they must rely on their caucus leader.
Noting there are 10,000 registered Independence Party members in Orange County, giving him the same rights and access to information is a matter of fairness, Amo told his colleagues. “New York State will recognize a party if it has more than 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election,” he said. “The Independence Party has done that to the point that it has the third most votes behind the Democrats and Republicans. This is not a fringe party. This is a party that represents a lot of people in the State of New York, a lot of people in Orange County. All we are asking for is to have that kind of information that every other party has. ”Before the rule change, parties in the Orange County Legislature were recognized if they had three members or more.
Michael H. Drucker
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