Anthony Constantino, one of the men seeking to be the next Republican congressman for the North Country, was removed from a meeting of the St. Lawrence County Republican Committee on Thursday night.

According to committee chair Nancy Martin, Assemblyman Robert Smullen, R-Meco, and audio of the event that Constantino recorded and published on social media himself, Constantino repeatedly asked Smullen why he was “lying” about him and his business during a forum for the county committee’s members, interrupting normal order and prompting the St. Lawrence County sheriff to lead him out of the room.

Constantino and Smullen were at the meeting at a hotel in Canton to get an endorsement from the county committee, a regular part of seeking office that they have both done in a handful of other counties across the district already.

Constantino spoke first, according to video he recorded and also shared on social media, where he gave his life story and cast some criticisms toward Smullen.

Smullen then spoke, but most of his presentation was not published online. Constantino appears to have recorded the event himself, and on Friday morning shared audio of the end of Smullen’s presentation. Smullen opens the floor to questions, saying that he will take any question at any time, “because I know where I’m at.”

Constantino chimed in immediately.

“Why do you lie so much?” Constantino says. Smullen can be heard in the background clarifying that he will take questions from any committee members in the room.

“The guy lied about my company, he’s smeared and trashed my company, it’s disgusting behavior,” Constantino continued.

Martin can then be heard, attempting to regain control of the forum and asking Constantino to stop talking. Constantino continues, accusing Smullen of lying and failing to be a true Republican.

Multiple voices can then be heard warning Constantino that he’s out of order. One indiscernible voice says the committee is “not used to this…”

“Well I’m not used to politicians lying about me, I’m a private citizen that built a successful company,” Constantino said.

It appears from the audio that this is where Constantino was removed from the room, as he talks with a voice that appears to be that of St. Lawrence County Sheriff Patrick R. Engle. The committee meeting can he heard continuing in the background, with applause as Constantino is removed, and laughter. Constantino’s audio includes part of a conversation, again apparently with Engle, where the sheriff advises him to speak only about himself and to stop addressing his opponent.

Engle is a member of the Republican Party and was attending the meeting as a party member. He could not be reached for comment by the Watertown Daily Times on Friday.

People in attendance said that the sheriff was not wearing his uniform, but did have his badge visible.

Martin said that Constantino was escorted out of the meeting by the sheriff for being “disruptive and extremely argumentative” and she said his performance on Thursday night raised real questions about his ability to conduct himself if he were elected to Congress.

“He repeatedly ignored the structure of the meeting,” Martin said. “This was not a debate; it was a meeting to introduce Republican candidates to the membership of the St. Lawrence Republican county committee. Mr. Constantino was not respectful. His behavior would not be tolerated on the floor of Congress, and if he attempted what he attempted here, he would be removed. Not because he was fighting for the people, but because of his lack of respect for the process. The committee did not appreciate his approach; the people of the 21st Congressional District deserve better.”

Constantino’s campaign did not directly respond to questions from the Watertown Daily Times. Constantino took to social media where he accused this reporter, Martin and Smullen of lying, while also sharing the audio file of him being removed.

In his post, Constantino said he believed that Smullen was being a “coward” for failing to answer questions from Constantino in the forum.

“The truth is, I was invited to ask a question, asked an important one,” Constantino said. “‘Why do you lie so much?’ He refused to answer it, and his allies, including Chairwoman Martin, went nuts to cover up his dishonesty.”

In an interview Friday morning, Smullen said he was primarily focused on the fact that the county committee had voted to endorse him.

“The St. Lawrence County GOP, Republican committee overwhelmingly endorsed my candidacy for Congress in New York 21, and that is a very important endorsement, because it shows that over half of the Republican committees now have endorsed me, with over 60% of the population, they are in support of me and they want me to be their nominee for Congress,” he said.

Smullen noted that he’d left time open for the committee members to question him. It’s not considered normal practice for a candidate in this forum to begin questioning his opponent if they are in the same room. And he said Constantino’s questions, and attitude, were inappropriate too.

“Almost immediately, my opponent called me a liar, asked me why I was lying about all sorts of things, and then the committee chairwoman attempted to keep order in the meeting, first by verbally telling him to stop and then subsequently using the gavel she runs the meeting with. He refused to, and kept being disruptive, and at that point the sheriff of St. Lawrence County did the same thing and then took him from the room,” Smullen said.

He also noted that it’s not considered appropriate to record committee meetings the way Constantino did. Constantino posted a video of his speech to the committee on social media, and subsequently shared a snippet of Smullen’s presentation.

“It’s absolutely inappropriate,” he said. “It’s not allowed in committee meetings. It’s typically the choice of the committee as to what they do, and certainly I did not consent to be recorded by Anthony Constantino.”

State laws only require that one individual involved in a conversation consent to record the meeting, essentially permitting Constantino to record these meetings if not expressly asked not to.

Constantino, who has been campaigning for over a year now and is self-funding his bid with more than $7 million, has sought to align himself with President Donald J. Trump and has taken a considerably confrontational approach to working with local Republicans. He has repeatedly called for regional GOP leaders to step down and has picked a fight with the state Conservative Party and its state chairman. Just on Thursday Constantino was calling for the chair of the Montgomery County GOP committee to step down because a member of the executive committee there was critical of a campaign event he hosted.

The two men are likely to fight it out in a primary that will be decided in June. Smullen has gotten the Conservative Party’s nomination and a guaranteed ballot line in the November race, and it’s not clear if he would resign it should he lose the Republican primary to Constantino. While Smullen carries all of the party endorsements, Constantino continues to commission polls that show he has more name recognition among voters across NY-21.

On Thursday, he shared the results of a recently done GrayHouse poll. GrayHouse is a Republican-aligned firm that does internal data and polling for Republican candidates at their request, usually for a fee.

According to the details Constantino has released from that poll, 43% of Republicans said they’d vote for Constantino if the primary election were held the day they were asked, 41% said they didn’t know who they’d pick and 16% said they’d vote for Smullen.

The poll ran from Feb. 11 to 12, reaching 500 people. Constantino did not share the margin of error, crosstabs or any other data from the GrayHouse poll to indicate who it reached, how it reached them or how responses were weighted.