Is Christopher St. Lawrence surrounded?

With the assistance of the community action group Preserve Ramapo, Democratic Supervisor is facing a primary challenge on Sept 15, but not only on the Democratic line. He's also got opponents on the Republican and Independence lines.

While it's not uncommon for a candidate to run on more than one party line in New York (by virtue of Wilson Pakula), its rarely used by a sitting incumbent to stave off potentially tight primary battles. It appears that St. Lawrence's appearance on the Republican line, at least, is the Town Supervisor's hedge against losing the Democratic Primary to challenger Bruce Levine.

Earlier this summer, Rockland Republican Chair Vincent Reda pushed through a committee endorsement of St. Lawrence to the chagrin of many committee members and rank and file Republicans. In previous elections, the Republican committee has offered little support to their own candidates, basically insuring a victory for St. Lawrence's campaigns. It is widely believed that this was part of a power-sharing bargain between the Republicans and the Rockland County Democratic Committee leaders, although there is no evidence to support this assumption.

Some committee members unhappy with the County Chair's blessing of the Town Supervisor returned St. Lawrence petitions ripped or shredded in protest. Another group of Republicans circulated designating petitions for an alternative Republican slate headed by outspoken conservative Robert Romanowski.

St. Lawrence, as in the past, is also running on the Independence Party ticket. And those party members, not to be undone by the larger parties, have also brought a challenge against him. The party collected a sufficient number of petitions for Robert Lieberman to run against St. Lawrence.

The Levine challenge on the Democratic line is for real and St. Lawrence knows it. He wouldn't have come running to the Republican Party if he didn't feel threatened by this primary. There is a small chance that St. Lawrence may lose each of these primaries, but it is much more likely that he will lose the support of his own party. If that were to happen, would St. Lawrence continue to be a Wilson Pakula Republican, or would he join ranks with them?