It’s been 12 days since Congressman Chris Collins was indicted on insider trading charges.

Collins announced shortly thereafter that he was out of the race, suspending his campaign after his indictment on federal charges and accusations of insider trading.

Last week Erie County GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said 15 people had expressed interest in replacing Collins on the ballot. Now, that field is at nine. Iraq War veteran David Bellavia announced Tuesday morning he is out of the running.

They were all interviewed by the eight county GOP chairs from the 27th District.

Those candidates are state senators Chris Jacobs, Mike Ranzenhofer and Rob Ortt, Assemblymen Steve Hawley and Ray Walter, Erie County Legislators Lynne Dixon and Ed Rath, Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw and former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.

Each of them made a 10-minute presentation before they were questioned by the GOP chairs.

Langworthy says they will wait until after the September 13th state primary to officially move forward with their candidate, but could name him or before then.

“Many changes need to occur after the state primary, and we’re gonna wait and see how some of those events go on,” he said. “We can’t file any paperwork until after the state primary so we’re gonna continue our deliberations on this and discussions with candidates, but also with party structure in each of the counties.”

Langworthy continues to say he believes there is a mechanism to remove Collins’ name from the ballot to facilitate the change.

And while there are nine candidates, when if one of them will be their nominee, Langworthy simply said “everything is on the table.”