Greg Fischer: The man who won’t stop running for office

It’s September and Calverton resident Greg Fischer is breaking out the campaign signs again.

He used some of them during his unsuccessful run for Riverhead Town supervisor in 2012. A small section of the signs showing the office he ran for then have been cut away. 

They’re the same signs he used in campaigns for town tax assessor in 2013 and the Riverhead school board this year. And they’re the same ones he’ll now use to run for New York State comptroller on the Rent is 2 Damn High party line.

Mr. Fischer’s running mate is two-time gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan, the YouTube sensation from New York City who wears black gloves and famously debated Andrew Cuomo in 2010 by answering questions with the response, “The rent is too damn high.”

It’s a race Mr. Fischer fully admits he is destined to lose.

“If you don’t have a major party endorsement, you’re not getting elected,” he told the Riverhead News-Review. “It’s mathematically impossible … I cannot possibly win.”

That won’t stop him. In fact, Mr. Fischer says he’ll never stop running for office. “I’m going to run at least once a year forever,” he vowed.

The goal, he says, is to eventually prove that someone who “refuses to play the game” with political parties can win the public’s vote.

“I’m playing by the real rules,” he said. “[The parties] are not playing by the real rules. They’re playing by some corrupt, under-enforced, secret government game.”

Mr. Fischer is actually surprised he’s made it this far into his most recent campaign. Some of his previous electoral runs were derailed by allegations of improper petition signatures and court decisions against him.

Mr. McMillan, his running mate, said Mr. Fischer was a “breath of fresh air,” though he took issue with Mr. Fischer’s assertion that he could not win.

Mr. Fischer, he said, “needs to understand my issues are not games or jokes.”

According to a biography on his campaign website, Mr. Fischer founded Micro Perfect, a strategy and software consulting firm that has “thousands of clients worldwide,” though he said the company’s website is now defunct and that he operates his company through “word of mouth.”

“I’ve got a backlog that could last me years and years,” he said.

He also ran The Political Patriot, a free newspaper that printed briefly in 2009, though he said he intends to restart the venture soon.

“Most of my days are filled with politics and being a single dad,” Mr. Fischer said.

The Political Patriot still maintains an active Facebook profile, posting politically themed Internet memes and, recently, a 9/11 conspiracy video.

Mr. Fischer is also in charge of a Facebook group called Errors and Omissions of the Riverhead Press, which criticizes local news media, including the News-Review.

He says his business experience, specifically with software contracting, has given him the funds needed to run for office. The experience also makes him qualified for any position dealing with planning, he said.

“My strongest skill-set is business and economics,” he said. “It’s my background. Whether I apply it to a school board where a school system is mismanaged or whether I’m applying it to a state, it’s still the same skill-set.”

Mr. Fischer’s crusade for office began in 2007, in a Democratic Town Council primary. He was ultimately crushed by Amy Csorny and George Bartunek, taking in 16 percent of the vote in a three-way race, while his opponents each carried more than 40 percent.

Mr. Fischer blames the poor result on what he claims was the abduction of his two children the day before the primary, saying that police officials and the town supervisor at the time conspired against him and refused to take missing children reports. Both then-supervisor Phil Cardinale and Police Chief David Hegermiller have repeatedly denied the allegations.

Mr. Fischer didn’t make it past the primary that year, but his “absolute” mission had begun, he said.

In 2008, he attempted to take on state Senator Kenneth LaValle but was thrown off the ballot by a Supreme Court judge over invalid signatures. Two years later, a similar petition to get on the ballot was thrown out because of a late mailing.

In 2010, he lost a bid to gain a Democratic county committee seat in Riverhead. Out of 78 votes cast, he earned 15.

The next year, Mr. Fischer tried for the Democratic Riverhead town supervisor nomination, losing in a primary to Mr. Cardinale, who was attempting to get back in office after a 2009 loss to current Supervisor Sean Walter. Mr. Fischer took in 19 percent of the vote in the primary against Mr. Cardinale.

Still, he pressed on. Mr. Fischer and his running mate, Ruth Pollack, formed the Riverhead First party to get onto the ballot. In the general election, he was trounced, earning just under 3 percent of the overall vote against Mr. Cardinale and Mr. Walter.

But in 2012, Mr. Fischer finally tasted some success. He won a county Democratic committee seat in a 27-vote election over three other candidates. He received 10 votes, according to county records.

The next year, Mr. Fischer garnered 35.8 percent of the vote for tax assessor on the Democratic and Independence lines, losing again. He then finished dead-last in a five-way race for the Riverhead school board this spring, and a run for governor failed after he didn’t round up enough petition signatures to get on the ballot as an Equal Parenting party candidate.

In between runs for office, Mr. Fischer set his sights on the Long Island Power Authority, calling the organization an “illegal monopoly.” He tried — and failed — to get on to the LIPA Board of Trustees, and a lawsuit against LIPA was later tossed out of court.

Despite his past election history, Mr. Fischer believes political leaders’ opinions of him may be turning in his favor. He cites his tax assessor run on the Democratic line as proof.

“[The Democrats] were playing political games, and now they’re behind me,” he exclaimed. “Now what the committee is doing is following my lead.”

Democratic committee chairperson Marjorie Acevedo declined to comment on Mr. Fischer’s remark. The town’s Democratic committee has endorsed incumbent and Democrat Thomas DiNapoli for state comptroller.

Mr. Fischer said his latest run for state comptroller will give him a platform to talk about the issues that matter to him: political transparency, tariff reform and fiscal responsibility.

Even if he doesn’t get elected this time, or ever, he’ll relish the soapbox.

“Somebody has to be ringing the bell,” Mr. Fischer said. “Somebody has to be blowing the whistle.”