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As the candidates in the District 30 special election to replace Dennis Gallagher compete for financing, signatures and community support, a looming question hangs in the balance: will the winner have what it takes to win a second election just a few months later?
According to city charter rules, the special election — likely to be held as soon as early June — will not be held to replace Gallagher for the remainder of his term, which would have expired on Dec. 31, 2009.
Rather, whomever wins this June will only hold the seat temporarily — being forced to run again to fill the remainder of the term, in both a September primary and a general election in November.
A third election will be held in November 2009 for the next term, which begins in January 2010.
With an election structure that requires the winner to resume campaigning almost immediately after election, some candidates have questioned the sensibility of the charter.
“The way the city charter is written makes it difficult to effectively take on your role as a city councilperson,” said Democratic candidate Michael Mascetti, who dropped out of the race on Wednesday. “As soon as you win the special election race, you have to immediately start campaigning for November.”
Democrat Elizabeth Crowley agreed “without a doubt” that the way the election was set up posed a potential problem for good governance. “It’s the law. It is what it is,” she said. But she expressed confidence that a solid win in June would make the following November a lot easier.
Additionally, she felt that the rounds of debates and forums were good for the process. “I think these types of races bring out the best in candidates,” she said.
Republican Thomas Ognibene, who has already served 10 years on the City Council, presented himself as the candidate with the necessary experience to run in back-to-back elections. “That’s what motivated me to get in the race, because I know how difficult it is to run,” he said.
“I’m probably the only one in this race who doesn’t have a learning curve at the City Council,” he added, citing the difficulties of learning the job while campaigning. “So this doesn’t disturb me at all.”
At a meeting of the Middle Village Property Owners/Residents Association on Monday, five of the six candidates came to present themselves at a candidates night — the second such event, following the one hosted by the Glendale Property Owners Association earlier this month. At the meeting, Ognibene announced that he had no intention of running in the 2009 election. He also said in a later interview that he may run for the Republican mayoral ticket that year.
Republican Anthony Como similarly counted himself among those with the requisite experience, citing his time in public life, as a former Queens assistant district attorney, and as Board of Elections commissioner. “I don’t have to learn,” he said. “I’ve done it, I’ve been doing it. I know the area.”
One casualty of the special election structure in his mind concerned Ognibene’s announcement that he would run only to fill the rest of Gallagher’s term. Specifically, he pointed out that whomever wins in 2009 would would have the unique opportunity of automatically being the most senior member of the City Council because of the extra year-and-a-half of experience.
“That’s upsetting, as a person who lives in the area,” he said of Ognibene’s announcement. “Why would I want to elect someone who only wants to do the job for a year?”
Republican Joseph Suraci, a private practice lawyer and among the most outspoken of the candidates thus far, did not mince words about the charter rules, which he called “a joke.
“If that’s the rule, that’s the rule and you have to abide by the rule,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a good rule, because I think that function should be to fill out the unexpired term. ... It would seem to make more sense.”
Democrat Charles Ober, a civic group leader for the last seven years and a private business executive, raised the point that, despite the system’s flaws, the extra electoral cycles forced politicians to do what they should be doing.
“The essential thing with campaigning is reaching out and talking to people and asking what their concerns are,” he said. “You need to do that anyway.”
Another popular misconception concerns the number of signatures needed by a candidate to enter this election. Board of Elections rules require 2,700 signatures or 5 percent of the number who voted in the district for the last gubernatorial election, whichever is lower.
In this case the 2,700 figure, being bandied about by many, is the higher figure, meaning that the actual number needed is less than 1,000.
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