Even before candidacy, Ritchie facing criticism

Republican Patricia A. Ritchie isn't a declared candidate for the 48th Senate District. But the St. Lawrence County clerk is already the target of an anonymously penned blog and a YouTube video denouncing her run.

"RINO Patty Ritchie is NOT a real Republican," the author of Oswego Tea Party writes. "The Party Chair may support Patty, but the TEA movement does not. If Patty wants the common, rank-and-file conservative support, she must be prepared to pledge to cut ALL taxes, cut the money train to school districts and teachers unions who waste our money and demand property tax hikes, pledge to be anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and vote against the Long Island slicks who run the Republican Party (at least they think they do...for now). I don't think she can do it, not when she's agreed to take their money and was offered the Independence Party line on a silver platter."

The video provides an unflattering comparison between Mrs. Ritchie and Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, the Republican candidate in last fall's special election in the 23rd Congressional District. Despite being picked by the GOP, Ms. Scozzafava's candidacy was upended by a more conservative challenger: Douglas L. Hoffman. The Lake Placid accountant won the backing of local TEA partiers, but did not win election.

The author provides little, if any, substantiation for his or her claims about Mrs. Ritchie or her record. And the YouTube video had just 45 views, despite being up for six days. The blog appears to have just one author, so it's impossible to determine if these views are shared by a majority of Oswego County conservatives.

I direct it to you not to give it credence, but to note that Mrs. Ritchie may have considerable work to do to win over these hard-line social and fiscal conservatives. Oswego County is a place she must carry by a substantial margin if she wants to unseat state Sen. Darrel J. Aubertine, D-Cape Vincent.

The author has no love for Mr. Aubertine, despite his anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage stance, saying: "Nobody wants to boot Aubertine and the downstate Dems from the senate majority more than me, but is this lady the one to do it? My friends certainly don't think too highly of her."

In fact, the author only seems to like Mr. Hoffman and has nothing nice to say about the accountant's potential challengers in the Republican primary, Matthew A. Doheny and William A. Barclay.

I wasn't here when Mrs. Ritchie ran against Mr. Aubertine in 2002, so I admittedly don't know a lot about her positions. But in a Sept. 8, 2002 Watertown Daily Times story, she explained her support for abortion rights.

"I'm personally against abortion but do not believe it should be a legislative item," she said. "Something like that should be a woman's decision. I'm against partial-birth abortion. At that point there's definitely a child."

In that article, she also voiced support for the death penalty, tax incentives for businesses, the "rooftop highway," and campaign finance reform, and opposition to gun control laws, school vouchers and incarcerating drug users who are convicted of non-violent crimes.