PLATTSBURGH — Lev Parnas, who a federal court in 2021 convicted of six counts related to arranging illegal contributions to President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, will make a campaign sweep in the 21st Congressional District with Democratic candidate Paula Collins, including a stop in Plattsburgh.
Parnas, a former associate of Trump lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, once was a Trump supporter, but now has become a critic, claiming that he was deceived by Trump’s cult-like personality.
Collins, who is challenging five-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Schuylerville), said the tour later this fall fits with her main campaign strategy of tying Stefanik with Trump.
“A vote for Stefanik is a proxy vote for Donald Trump,” Collins said, in a post on the Substack platform recently, announcing the tour and a separate event with Parnas and others in New York City on Sept. 25.
Stefanik has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s presidential campaign, and reportedly she had been on Trump’s short list for consideration as a vice-presidential running mate.
CANNABIS LAWYER
Collins, a cannabis lawyer, moved from New York City to Canton shortly before launching her challenge of Stefanik
Collins said in a telephone interview that specific dates, venues and times are still being worked out, but the tour will include stops at Plattsburgh, Queensbury, Rome, and, “if we can finagle it,” Canton and Potsdam.
The tour will be sometime before the Oct. 26 start of early voting and after the Sept. 25 event in New York City.
Parnas, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, former Melania Trump advisor Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, and former White House spokesman Anthony Scaramucci will appear with Collins at a bar and restaurant in New York City which the Collins campaign has rented for the evening.
All are now Trump critics.
“We might be adding a few more people to it,” Collins said.
The initial event is being held in New York City because that is where many of the national political reporters are based, she said.
The event is not a fundraiser, but national coverage is expected to generate an uptick in on line contributions, Collins said.
“I’m a nobody, and I need to get media attention for my campaign,” she said.
Collins had $19,202 in her campaign fund, as of June 30, and Stefanik $6.61 million, according to the most recent quarterly reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
STEFANIK CAMPAIGN
The Stefanik campaign, contacted to comment for this report, said that Stefanik is poised for a decisive victory.
“The desperate sick New York Democrats are so deranged and unethical that they imported the radical cannabis New York City Democrat attorney Paula Collins, who has never voted in upstate New York to run against Elise Stefanik,” said Alex DeGrasse, a Stefanik senior advisor, in a statement, without mentioning Parnas.
Collins has said that, actually, she voted in the congressional district in New York’s presidential primary.
DeGrasse reiterated criticism that Collins, at a campaign event earlier this year, called for “reeducation camps” for Trump supporters.
Collins has said her phrasing was a poor choice of words, caused by a hectic campaign schedule.
“Paula Collins is going to be crushed at the ballot box just like every other NYC Democrat candidate they have desperately imported to upstate,” DeGrasse predicted.
Parnas was involved in attempting to uncover evidence that President Biden and son Hunter Biden were engaged in corrupt dealings with Ukraine.
Parnas has disputed Trump’s claims that he did not know Parnas.
Parnas’ testimony was a key element of the 2020 House impeachment investigation of Trump.
Parnas’ support of Trump and later disenchantment is chronicled in a new Rachel Maddow-produced documentary, “From Russia with Lev,” set to premier at 9 p.m. Sept. 20 on the MSNBC network.
CAMPAIGNING
Collins said she contacted Parnas through her connections as a lawyer, and he agreed to arrange the New York City event.
She then asked, and he agreed, to campaign with her in the district.
“I said, ‘I need to get votes, not just publicity,” she said.
The 21st congressional district encompasses all or parts of 15 counties, stretching from Washington north to Clinton counties, west into a portion of Jefferson County, and south to Herkimer and Schoharie counties.
The district has a heavy Republican enrollment advantage.
Trump carried the district by a 16-percentage-point margin in 2020.
Collins said she is convinced there is a sizable number of voters in the district who have become disenchanted with Trump since 2020.
She said in a Sept. 8 Substack post that defeating Stefanik is not the only goal of her campaign.
“That’s a long shot. But it might happen,” she wrote.
Another goal is to demonstrate that the district can be competitive in future elections.
“We also win by turning this bright-red district a little more purple,” she wrote.