Manuela Mihailescu is defying a directive from the county's GOP chair, Mario Catalano, to drop her plan to challenge the fusion ticket for the legislative seat vacated in District 1 by the retirement of Sue Cummings. Ulster County's District 1 comprises the towns of Wawarsing, Rochester, and Marbletown.

Mihailescu believes that her expertise — she holds an MBA, majoring in marketing and advertising, and an MA in Theater and Film Critique — would benefit Ulster County's tourism efforts.

The ticket, an agreement between the Republican, Democratic, and Independence party chairs, collectively endorsed the district's three incumbent Democrats and Terry Bernardo (R-I-Kerhonkson), who previously ran for a legislature seat and lost two years ago. Bernardo's husband, Len, chairs Ulster County's Independence Party Committee, and was himself endorsed by the Republican Party for last year's failed bid for county executive.

Electoral Fusion's Origins and Effects In the 19th century, cross-endorsement, or electoral fusion, was practiced throughout much of the United States, allowing smaller, independent third-parties that allied themselves with the Democratic Party to claim victories against the much more powerful Republican Party. Towards the end of the 1800s, however, as electoral fusion began affording more and more power to those independent parties, such as the People's Party, the practice started to inspire more opposition, namely in the form of state legislatures controlled by Republicans. Quoted in Micah L. Sifry's 2003 book, Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America, one Minnesota state legislator said of the Republican Party's moves to end electoral fusion, "We don't propose to allow the Democrats to make allies of the Populists, Prohibitionists, or any other party, and get up combination tickets against us. We can whip them single-handed, but don't intend to fight all creation." In practical terms, electoral fusion allows parties such as the Working Families Party or the Conservative Party to obtain greater exposure and commitments for their causes from major-party candidates who are endorsed by them. One example is Chuck Schumer's 2004 senate run, where he was endorsed by both the Democrats and the Working Families Party, a move that gained him an extra line on the voting ballot, and committed him to the WFP's causes. However, in cases such as the Republican-Democrat cross endorsement, third parties lose out, since candidates have no incentive to seek their endorsement. "The smaller of the major parties will say it's a greater freedom and that you have more choices; however that only occurs if those parties put up their own candidates," said Tom Turco, Commissioner of the Ulster County Board of Elections. "If it just becomes a numbers game, where in order to defeat my opponent, I want my name on the ballot three times compared to his or her two, then it could be counterproductive."

Aside from being "rudely" told to step aside by Catalano — she said he told her that he would do anything to defeat her — the issue, for Mihailescu, is the practice of cross-endorsement, also known as electoral fusion.

New York State's election law allows cross-endorsement, ostensibly to give voice to minor parties. Cross-endorsement, fusion tickets, and open ballot voting are all terms used to describe the practice of multiple political parties nominating the same candidate for the same office.

As detailed in an October, 2006 Brennan Center for Justice Publication, "More Choices, More Voices: A Primer on Fusion," cross-endorsement is legal in seven states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont. Some states prohibit the major parties from fusing with each other, while permitting minor party fusion.

According to Gerald Benjamin, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at SUNY New Paltz and associate vice president and regional engagement director of the Center for the New York State and Local Government Studies, fusion tickets in New York are "near unique."

"Multi-party efforts for a single candidate are rare elsewhere," he said, emphasizing that "many states have anti-raiding statutes — prohibitions against cross endorsement."

Benjamin believes that as "a result of bargains that deny competition," fusion tickets "undermine the democratic process."

Electoral fusion suffered a setback in 1997, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided, by a 6-3 vote in Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party, that cross-endorsement is not a constitutionally protected civil right.

Mihailescu feels the sting of the fusion ticket, having been told to withdraw her bid for the county legislative seat. As a result, she said she's running as a matter of principle now. She needs five percent of the district's registered Republicans, or 157 voters, to sign her petition challenging the fusion ticket. She maintains that conceptually, "elect means to choose," and she believes that if she can "get a spot on the Republican line as a result of the primary, the voters in District 1 will have a choice."

Contesting Catalano's claim that he "didn't see how he could say 'no'" to the cross-endorsement, Mihailescu contends that the GOP chair was "obviously unaware" of the inability of Ulster's Democratic Committee to run a fourth candidate.

Her colleague and town board running mate, Councilmember Tavi Cilenti, agrees with Mihailescu, and contends that, "Catalano made a mistake in dismissing the Town of Rochester." He said that while adhering to party lines is more important on the national level, he believes, that as a matter of principle, cross-endorsement is an unacceptable practice.

"The state of our political system is as it exists today because the concept of [prioritizing] the win over the principles has eroded politicians' moral character," Cilenti said. "I do not believe it is worth winning the legislature if we do not have true Republicans in the seats, but only those who can win by making deals."

However, Republican Town Supervisor Carl Chipman respectfully disagrees with his colleagues. While he feels strongly that a viable candidate should never be told that he or she shouldn't run, he said that he understands the reasoning behind Catalano's decision to cross-endorse. He argues that the demographics in Democratic-leaning Wawarsing make it near impossible to field a successful Republican candidate. The cross-endorsed Terry Bernardo is, for Catalano, a guaranteed Republican seat on the Ulster County Legislature.

Chipman also said that on the town level, cross-endorsement works well for the most part. He argues that in small towns like Rochester, the four major parties are not all that different, and that the people simply want to know what you, as an individual, can do for their town. Regarding the hard-line stances taken by both sides of the contentious argument for District 1, he said, "What I hear is a lot of egos spouting off; what I don't hear is anyone saying what he or she is going to do for the people."

Using as example, the Town of Rochester's current board, which comprises two Democrats and three Republicans, Chipman maintains that, "a little diversity does a lot of good.

"It'll probably cost me my re-election, but I plan to cross-endorse [Democrat council members] Lynn Archer and Tony Spano," Chipman said, adding, "and I plan to ask the Democratic Committee for cross-endorsement, as well."