Congressional candidate Donald Hassig of Colton might have lost the support of the Green Party leadership, but he is still the Green Party candidate and his name will be on the ballot Tuesday on the Green Party line.

He lost the support of the party when, at a candidate forum in Wanakena Thursday, Oct. 18, Hassig said that immigrants working on North Country dairy farms should be rounded up and deported.

"I would like to see them get their asses kicked out of here," Hassig said, as reported by North Country Public Radio. They quoted Hassig as saying migrant and seasonal workers were "Mexicans" who don't speak English.

The leadership of the Green Party in New York blasted Hassig’s statements the next day.

State party co-chair Gloria Mattera said his statements about non-American workers were "disturbing and reprehensible," and denounced him, withdrawing whatever support the party was giving him in his run against incumbent Democrat Bill Owens of Plattsburgh and Republican challenger Matt Doheny of Watertown in the race for the 21st Congressional District.

But Hassig is undeterred, saying that he did not get the party nomination from the state leadership but by his own work and the work of volunteers in his behalf.

“The Green Party of New York State did not give me the Green Party ballot line,” Hassig said in an email this week.

“I obtained that ballot line by doing the work of circulating a designating petition way back in April. The Green Party of New York State cannot take away something that it did not give.

“I am the Green Party candidate in NY-21,” Hassig said.

Hassig, an environmental and health activist who is the founder of Cancer Action NY, is continuing to campaign hoping to improve on the six percent of voters who said they supported him in a poll by the Siena Research Institute in September.