Democrat facing felony charge quits House race
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A Democratic candidate facing a felony charge of grand larceny has bowed out of the race to challenge Rep. John Faso, R-N.Y.
Steven Brisee, 27, was arrested on Sept. 11 and accused of shoplifting almost $1,500 in merchandise from a Kohl's department store in Newburgh. He was arraigned and remanded to custody in lieu of $500 bail.
According to the Times Herald-Record newspaper, Brisee also spent eight days in the Ulster County Jail last month after being charged with a misdemeanor count of trespassing. State troopers told the paper that a homeowner in the town of Kerhonksen called police Sept. 9 after finding a stranger's clothes and a wallet containing some of Brisee's campaign cards. The candidate was eventually bailed out of jail.
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Brisee claimed to live in the 19th District of New York, which he sought to represent. But the Times Herald-Record reported that the address he declared to be his "doesn't appear to exist."
In an email to the Daily Freeman newspaper this week, Brisee said he had "raised rougly $850 and spent roughly $18,000" in his ill-fated campaign.
Brisee did not mention the charges in a statement he tweeted Tuesday. He said that he was on the autism spectrum and explained that "social skills, needed to connect with people, to raise money, and deliver a message, are skills which can’t be learned mechanically.
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"I can do and learn a lot of things but sadly sociability will never be one of them," Brisee concluded. "So that's enough politics for me."