A primary challenger who lost his GOP contest Tuesday to Assemblyman Bill Nojay, who died by suicide last Friday, but remained on the ballot. now says that he is immediately withdrawing his name from consideration.
Rick Milne is also the Honeoye Falls Mayor, and he faced Nojay for the Republican Primary in the 133rd Assembly District which includes parts of Monroe, Livingston and Steuben Counties.
Nojay was elected posthumously in Tuesday's voting, and because of that, the three Republican Chairmen from the three counties will be meeting Wednesday night. They have the right to pick the party's nominee to run in November.
Milne issued a statement saying that he believes there were some unethical practices going on in how the process is being handled, and he says even if he was offered the appointment, which he doesn't expect to happen, he would not accept it.
Monroe County Republican Chairman Bill Reilich says that he was not trying to influence people to vote for Nojay so that he could have more of a say in selecting a candidate.
"I spoke to a number of people in the press as you might imagine from the London Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Post to the local press. Never once did I ever advocate for people to vote for Nojay; what I always said was that I'm leaving it up to the voters to vote for whomever they choose; now others may have done that, I did not partake in that," Reilich told WXXI News.
