A group of politically powerful Columbus statue supporters have ramped up their fight against Mayor Ben Walsh, who last year announced he will remove the Christopher Columbus statue from downtown Syracuse. The Columbus Monument Corporation sent letters to leaders of every permanent political party in Syracuse in recent weeks. Those letters outlined the group’s disgust with Walsh’s decision and came with a message.

“We want you to know that this is a very important issue to our group of supporters, and we plan to fight Walsh’s plan,” the letter said. “We are well organized, well-funded, and highly motivated.” The letters are the latest escalation in the group’s fight against Walsh. In recent months, they’ve blasted the mayor frequently on social media, organized letter writing efforts to the newspaper and dedicated a page on their website to Walsh.