The Smithtown Elks Lodge was "Carl Country" Wednesday night as the lodge held a rally in support of the tea party backed Republican candidate for New York State governor, Carl Paladino.
"I'm Carl Paladino and I'm looking to serve you for four years," the candidate began.
Paladino spoke to the room packed wall-to-wall with his devoted followers for more than 30 minutes, providing them a verbal resume and describing who he is as a leader.
"I'm an outsider, I'm not a politician, I'm just a builder from Buffalo, New York," he said. "I'm not pretentious, I'm not driven my money, I'm not driven by power, I don't need praise and I don't need motivation. I'm not politically correct and I'm very happy about that."
Paladino's speech was preceded by speeches from numerous political affiliates, which included Smithtown Republican Committee Chairman Bill Ellis, Organizer of the Conservative Society for Action Stephen Flannigan, Republican nominee for Assembly Mike Fitzpatrick, Suffolk County Republican Party Chairperson John Jay LaValle,.
"We are taking back America," Ellis said. "We cannot allow the New York City liberal Democrats run this state."
Ellis also urged the constituents to help Republican senate candidate Lee Zeldin and congressional candidate John Gomez see their way to office.
"We as Republicans this time, and I promise you, we are going to do the things we say we're going to do," LaValle said. "We're going to act like Republicans, we're going to act like conservatives and we're going to deliver the government that the people deserve."
A popular topic spoken at the rally was the current economic state of New York and fiscal responsibility.
"My personal motivation to get involved with this whole movement all along is I've got six kids, I've got a friend of mine who has three kids, and he's on an airplane flying around the country every weekend to visit his children because they can't afford to live here," Flannigan said. "That's not what we want on Long Island and we have the political power right now to change that."
"The fiscal difficulties we face in New York are more serious than people realize and it will take someone like Carl Paladino to go to Albany and to break the current business model and re-craft it to one that works for all of us as tax payers, that works for our families, and creates a future that we can all look forward too," Fitzpatrick said.
Fiscal concerns of the political figures were also concerns of the constituents in attendance Wednesday night.
"I think the most important thing here is that we're in a fiscal downturn in New York State and we have to have a candidate that was able to connect with the electorate so we could get back to fiscal sovereignty," Paladino supporter Elaine Kahl said after the rally.
Other constituents were drawn to Paladino's straightforward ways of communication.
"He's a straight talker, it's very simple," said Paladino supporter John Piazza after the rally. "No fuzz, no gray, no fluff, he tells it like it is. If you ask this man a question he looks you in the eye and gives you a straight answer."
