John W. Conklin, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said the only way for Collins to leave the ballot at this late date on the political calendar would be for party leaders to arrange for another GOP candidate for another office to decline his or her nomination. Then, he said, party leaders could substitute Collins for some lower office such as town justice or coroner.
It is also possible they could insert him into one of the district’s few Democratic enclaves where he could run as a sacrificial lamb.
“A person can decline the first office in order to accept the second office,” Conklin said. “Just speculating here, if he somehow managed the nomination for a second office after he accepted, that could open the congressional line."
But Conklin noted such a scenario appears “unlikely,” because of the late date and further complications.
Erie County Republican Elections Commissioner Ralph M. Mohr added that for that scenario to work, the first officeholder must be a lawyer who could accept a nomination for State Supreme Court in September.
“Where you find a lawyer to do that, I don’t know,” he said.