Petitioning's Sign of Times - Scramble's on for Ballot Spot by Lisa L. Colangelo - NY Daily News

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GATHERING signatures on petitions is the first, and sometimes toughest, task for political candidates.

They have less than six weeks to knock on doors, visit train stations and scour shopping centers to fill petitions to secure a place on the September primary ballot.

Petitions must be submitted to the Board of Elections by July 15, but the endurance test doesn't stop there.

Insurgent candidates without party backing must fight off inevitable court challenges to the validity of signatures - a method favored by incumbents and party leaders to avoid primary battles.

"You have to get at least four times the amount of signatures required," said Lynn Nunes, a Democrat running against state Sen. Shirley Huntley in the 10th District primary. "Anything less and you leave yourself vulnerable."

Election law requires Assembly candidates to gather 500 signatures and state Senate candidates to collect 1,000 between June 8 and July 15.

Bob Friedrich, who wants to run against Assemblyman David Weprin in the Democratic primary, said he is targeting registered Democrats in the 24th District.

Assembly candidate Steve Behar, a Democrat and one of six candidates vying for the 26th District seat being vacated by Ann Margaret Carrozza, said he believes the whole petitioning process should be reformed.

"There should be some system where over a year or so you collect a smaller number of signatures and it's audited by the Board of Elections," said Behar, a lawyer from Bayside.

Carrozza's decision not to seek reelection has Republicans and Democrats scrambling. Queens Democrats have endorsed Ed Braunstein, a legislative assistant to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Queens Republicans tapped lawyer Vince Tabone, who is also executive vice president of the Queens GOP.

The crowded field also includes former Assemblyman John Duane and lawyer Elio Forcina on the Democratic line and a second GOP candidate, retired city Police Officer Rob Speranza.

Assemblyman Michael Gianaris' bid for state Senate opens his western Queens seat in the 36th District. Aravella Simotas, Jeremiah Frei-Pearson and John Ciafone - all lawyers - are planning to run in the Democratic primary.

State Sen. Jose Peralta's former Assembly seat in the 39th District is also up for grabs, sparking a possible primary battle between disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate and Francisco Moya, a community leader backed by the Queens Democratic Party.

In Assembly District 38, Democratic incumbent Mike Miller is expected to face off with education advocate Nick Comaianni.

Anthony Miranda, executive chairman of the National Latino Officers Association, plans to run against Democratic Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry in the 35th District.

Two Democrats are looking to oust state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky in the 16th District. Retired scientist and lottery winner Isaac Sasson has promised to use his own deep pockets to counter any petition challenge. Lawyer and businessman John Messer is also eying the seat.

Education Reform Costs...Integrity Loss - Albany Citizen One

Note: Actually, Steve Behar is running for an open seat in the 26th NYS Assembly District, Assemblywomen Carrozza is retiring. His main opponent in the Democratic Primary is Ed Braunstein, an aide to Assembly Speaker Silver.

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On May 28th of this session (this is how I think…in session…not in session) the Senate voted to lift the cap on the Charter Schools in New York which will lift the cap for Wall Street to continue to make money from our citizens in the name of “school reform.” With all the issues concerning Charter Schools, with the City of Albany taxed beyond its limit to sustain two school systems, one open and accountable the other secretive, sparsely populated, ethically challenged with a questionable mission.

Now, sure, the Guv still needed to sign the bill, and the Assembly, which I had thought was on lock down with Shelly Silver hanging tight with the unions, still needed to vote on the bill. But, still, when the cantankerous folks in the upper chamber voted to lift the cap on Charters, I got a little worried about the future. My worries were warranted.

The other day I heard about a guy named Steve Behar. Seems that Steve was running for the Assembly down in Queens against Assemblywoman Carrozza…he was anti-charter school expansion. (Seems they have many of the same issues in the city that we have in Albany!! Can you imagine?) When Steve was gaining on Carrozza he got a call from a couple of Charter “bundlers.” What’s a bundler? Why, I’m so glad you asked.

A bundler is, essentially, a lobbyist who can deliver funds to candidates which are not easily tracked back to the donors and are not easily attached to the candidate. Interesting news, I hear there is a new database which will track “bundling” though it’s not yet searchable.

So, back to Behar. Seems he gets these calls and the bundlers offered to “bundle” $100,000 to $200,000 for him if he changed his stance on Charter School expansion and joined the Wall Street savvy pushing for lifting the cap in development of more Charters. Of course, he turned them down but didn’t provide the names of the bundlers for fear of scaring off future donors to his campaign.

So, I got to thinking about the recent vote in the Senate which brought me such disappointment in my favorite of chambers. So, I pulled the list of those who support charter schools and I researched donations provided to our electeds (and opponents) from known supporters of Charter School Expansion. Contributors researched include: Democrats for Education Reform, Whitney Tilson, Anthony Davis, Boykin Curry, Coalition for Public Charter Schools, the Waltons (Walmart, Walton Family Foundation…biggest funder of Brighter Choice), Brian Meara, Joel Greenblatt and a little bit of Lynch…of course.

Those Senators who consistently voted in support of charter school expansion is listed here along with the contributions they accepted (besides the ever popular but untraceable bundling) here.

I also extracted much of the history of “contributions” to our legislators, potential legislators and our governor. See those contributions here. Wanna know how much it costs (on the books…wink, wink) to buy the Senate? Here ya go…$302,600. The largest pricetags for their support belong to Craig “Mr. Honest” Johnson… $52,400, Kevin Parker….$26,800, Jeff “Pay to Play” Klein…$28,950, freshman Senator Daniel “fast learner” Squadron…$34,000 and our fearless leader Malcolm Smith’s pricetag this time…$35,000. Perhaps Eric “show me the money” Adams should get some pointers from his cohorts he only got $5000 for his vote.

Now, I didn’t even take a glance at what money changed hands with these “supporters” over in the Assembly but you can if you just look up your favorites right here. Now, we all know that this expansion wouldn’t fly through without the support of the governor, right? I mean, he’s the man with the “plan” down at the cap, right? Wanna know his pricetag for just this one little lifting of the charter school cap? Remember, this is just the money he’s accepted “on the books” from these Charter School supporters over the years…(not counting the funds his Lt. Guv campaign)…$169,400.

We don’t need more Education Reform (read that with sarcasm: Charter Schools) we need government reform…we need the Citizens to regain their voice in this State.

Steve Behar Claims Bundlers Offered $200k To Assembly Race To Switch Charters Position by Chris Bragg - City Hall News

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Steve Behar, an attorney mounting a race in Queens for the seat of retiring Assembly Member Ann-Margaret Carrozza, claims that two pro-charter school bundlers have enough faith in his candidacy to have offered to raise him up to $200,000 in exchange for him changing his position on charter schools to support their expansion.

Many in what was a wide field of Democrats cleared out of the race at the end of last month, after Ed Braunstein, a staffer for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, received the support of the Queens County Democratic organization. Among those who did not is Behar, who lost a primary battle for the Council seat eventually won by Dan Halloran, and has remained in the race.

Braunstein is likely to be backed by the generally charter-cool teachers unions, given that he has the support of Silver, an ally of the unions. But in a letter written to the website Queens Teacher, Behar claimed that he was being courted to come out in favor of the charters.

“In the last few weeks two separate ‘political fundraisers’ promised to raise between $100K and $200K for my campaign if I changed my position to favor charter schools,” Behar wrote. “Since I’m running against a well-funded inexperienced and unqualified candidate (Ed Braunstein) who works for the Albany leadership and is in the pocket of the lobbyists and the special interests, that money would have really helped my campaign. However, keeping to my core beliefs, I refused to change my position and thus refused the money.”

In an interview, Behar said he turned the bundlers down on principle. He declined, however, to give the names of the two bundlers, citing concerns about scaring away future potential fundraisers and donors to his campaign.

All Behar would say is that one of the people he claims was involved approached him three weeks ago at the New York State Young Democrats convention, and the other approached him at a political event a week ago. When asked which event, though, Behar said he could not recall.

When told about the letter, Braunstein’s campaign blasted Behar for not disclosing who the bundlers were, and said he should report such incidents to the police, if they in fact occurred.

“If you’re running for a position of trust, you make a promise to uphold the law. If anyone ever approached Ed Braunstein and offered him something like that, he would pick up the phone and report that individual. They ought to be prosecuted and locked up,” said campaign spokesman Michael McKeon. “We need integrity in Albany, not someone who just wants to put out a press release.”

Behar fired back, pointing out that Braunstein’s uncle, Brian Meara, is a lobbyist well-known for his connections to Silver and Assembly Democrats.

Behar said it was absurd to expect that he report the bundlers to the authorities.

“I realize this kid just got out of law school, but if that’s true, then his uncle should be going to jail because he’s a lobbyist,” Behar said. “Isn’t that what lobbyists do: offer you support so you change your position?”

Also running in the Democratic primary are former Assembly Member John Duane and Whitestone lawyer Elio Forcina. Queens Republican Party executive vice president Vince Tabone and Rob Speranza are running in the Republican primary.

The $200,000 supposedly in play here would have increased the size of Behar's war many times over: according to Behar’s ActBlue fundraising page, he has, as of Thursday night, raised online only $1,015 from 13 supporters for the race. Behar, though, cautioned that he had raised far more than that in personal checks, though he declined to cite a figure before he makes a campaign finance disclosure in July.