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The City Council District 30 special election got a little bit stickier this week, as lawyers filed objections with the city’s Board of lections in attempts to get the names of some Republican candidates taken off the ballot.
Earlier news reports cited three general objections filed with the BOE: two against Tom Ognibene, a Republican from Middle Village, and one against Joseph Suraci, a Republican, also of Middle Village.
After filing general objections, lawyers had until midnight on Monday to file specific objections, detailing the exact reasons why a candidate’s petitions should overturned by the BOE. According to the BOE, however, only two specific objections were filed in the end: one, by Anthony Gucciardo, was filed against Ognibene; the other was filed by Dennis Melts against Joseph Suraci. The third general objection, filed by Gucciardo against Suraci, was dropped.
Gucciardo filed on behalf of Anthony Como, a Republican candidate from Middle Village.
Ognibene, who said his petition was being challenged on the legibility and legality of some of his signatures, called the move by Como an “act of desperation,” and the lawyer’s bases for objection “ridiculous and nonsensical.”
Specifically, Ognibene cited challenges to the legality of his signatures, which contend that signature gatherers need to be district residents, whereas some of his signature gatherers, or witnesses, were from outside the district. He asserted that such requirements were not in the city’s Independent Nominating Petition Rules for 2008, adopted while Como was president of the BOE.
“(I used) the exact language that Como said you’re supposed to use in the petition and now he’s using it against me,” Ognibene said.
But Como cited language in the New York State Election Law (section 6-132) that states that a witnesses must be “a duly qualified voter of the state and ... who is also a resident of the political subdivision in which the office or position is to be voted for.”
“There’s actually New York State case law that verifies that is true,” Como said.
The second objection, filed against Suraci, was submitted on behalf of Ognibene, who cited prima facie issues — namely that Suraci had not gathered enough signatures. BOE rules for the special election state that nearly 1,000 signatures were needed for a candidate to appear on the ballot.
Citing a general rule which gives candidates six weeks to collect signatures, Suraci alleged that the 12 days given to candidates in the special election was “insufficient,” violated the first and fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution, and prevented challengers without strong party backing to collect the necessary number of signatures.
The purpose of the signature process, he said, was to demonstrate a “modicum of support” for a given candidate. “I think that the requirement under the circumstances is too onerous, especially for a non-organization candidate,” he said. “The requirement is too much of a burden and it’s not justified by legitimate state interest.”
On Tuesday, the BOE set a hearing date of Tuesday, May 20 for determining whether the objections are strong enough to strip the candidates from the ballot.
According to the BOE, should either candidate be removed from the ballot, he would have three days to file a “validating order” with the courts. A validating order sets a hearing date on which any BOE decision to remove a candidate’s name can be challenged in court.
Ognibene confirmed he had already filed a validating order in advance of objections to his petition, which gives him more time to pursue legal recourse. Otherwise, he explained, a campaign only has three days to file for an order, get it signed, and serve witnesses, who can sometimes be known to disappear around the time of the hearing.
“I know all the tricks that people use, so I did it in advance to insulate me from any last minute shenanigans,” he said.
Notably, no objections were filed by Elizabeth Crowley, of Glendale, or Charles Ober, of Ridgewood, in the Democratic camp, despite a bevy of public statements and press activity presupposing as much.
Specifically, Ober had accused the Queens County Democratic Party, which has endorsed Crowley, of threatening him with preemptory challenges to his petition before he filed it.
“I was ... informed that if I did go forward with my bid for the City Council seat, the county was going to take me to court to challenge my petitions to make sure that I did not make it on the ballot,” Ober said in a statement.
By the time the deadline expired, however, no objections to Ober’s petition had been filed.
The Juniper Park Civic Association will host the next candidate debate at 7:30 p.m. on May 20, at the Our Lady of Hope school auditorium, located at 61-21 71 St., in Middle Village.
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