Brace Yourselves: The Petition Brawls Are Underway - Celeste Katz - The Daily Politics - NY Daily News

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The sun is shining, the birds are singing and lawyers and candidates are slapping each other silly trying to get their rivals knocked off the ballot.

Another election-year summer, another petition objection season here in good old New York.

Here in the city, Congressional hopeful Kevin Powell spent much of his day in Brooklyn court, battling an effort to knock down the primary petitions he filed in his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Rep. Ed Towns.

Powell (who has an entire piece of his own here on HuffPo) says he's learned a lot since his last run in 2008 and is running a smart, frugal campaign, but still feels Towns' challenge to his signatures is spurious and undemocratic. He even says his supporters are being bullied and questioned in the middle of the night.

Powell said his case was moved over to the Board of Elections, where they're going through the paperwork line by line (he's personally out campaigning now), and they'll be back in court tomorrow.

"It's very obvious that we have [more] than enough signatures," Powell said.
"It's very obvious to us that they're afraid."

That brought quite a stinging response from Towns spokesman Hank Sheinkopf:

"Unfortunately for him, Mr. Powell is not as good at filing petitions as he is at mistreating women and losing elections. There were so many serious problems with his petitions that our campaign believed we needed to protect the voters from being victims of this possible fraud. If indeed Mr. Powell followed the law, than he has nothing to worry about and will be free to lose again.

Community Characters - David M. Quintana by Michael Lanza - Queens Tribune, September 25th Issue

David M. Quintana
Ozone Park
South Queens Blogger, Preservationist and Political Activist

“Most people are very apathetic at best, but somebody’s gotta get out there and speak up. I’m not afraid to speak up.”

When David M. Quintana started his blog a year and a half ago, it was just a simple way for him to replace an e-mail list he used to distribute information in his neighborhood. But more than 80,000 hits later, he’s become one of the most recognizable faces of South Queens. His blog, Lost in the Ozone, is one of the most prolific in the borough and a hot destination for South Queens community advocates.

Community Character:

Quintana has focused much of his energy on raising awareness about the preservation of Ridgewood Reservoir, Jamaica Bay and other parks around the borough.

“At one point in the city budget, parks was 1.5 percent of the total city budget,” Quintana said. “Now it’s under one percent.”

Quintana isn’t shy about criticizing officials responsible for the parks either. He said efforts to preserve and maintain natural havens in the borough over the last few years have been inadequate.

He pointed to a community forum held where he said that although 90 percent of the attendees opposed changes at Ridgewood Reservoir, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation went ahead with proposals to change the historic park anyway.

“It seems as though the parks department has trouble with letting people know the truth,” he said. “I think they had a pre conceived agenda going in and they hoped that the public would conform to that with some suggestions. They saw that the public wasn’t but went ahead with their plan anyway.”

As a member of Community Board 10 and South Queens’ unofficial blogger, he’s no stranger to confronting authorities when he sees conflict with the community’s interests.

The stalwart progressive has set his sites on State Sen. Serphin Maltese (R- Glendale), who he said no longer represents the community, but the political interests of the senate’s Republican majority.

He’s also confronting Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s development and education agendas.

“Overdevelopment has been terrible,” he said. “The public is being spun by the City Hall. These people aren’t telling the truth.”

Analysis: Addabbo Seeks to Topple Maltese by Austin Shafran - Queens Courier

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The anticipated fall match-up, which may determine control of the State Senate, just got a little more complicated. Call it addition by subtraction.

Albert Baldeo, who in 2006, came within approximately 800 votes of unseating incumbent Senator Serphin Maltese, dropped out of the race and threw his support behind the Democratic establishment candidate, City Councilmember Joseph Addabbo.

Two years ago, when Baldeo ran an insurgent campaign without any assistance from the State Democratic Party, he nearly toppled the seemingly impenetrable Republican State Senator, providing an early wake-up call to Democrats eager to find a way to win control of the State Senate.

Baldeo had announced plans to run again this year, and again, he would not be receiving the support of the State or Queens County Democratic Party who have endorsed Addabbo. Fearing that having Baldeo on the ballot as a possible third-party candidate might detract from Addabbo’s chances of defeating Maltese in the fall. Rumors swirled of deals to get Baldeo out of the race, but he would not budge until this past week when Baldeo announced that he was dropping out of the race and throwing his full support behind Addabbo.

Baldeo cannot officially withdraw from the Democratic Primary since it is too late to remove his name from the primary ballot.

After learning that Baldeo had opted not to run and would be supporting Addabbo, Queens County Republican Party Chair, Phil Ragusa, immediately responded with a statement claiming, “Mr. Baldeo’s own web site calls City Councilmember Joe Addabbo a law-breaking, tax-increasing, animal rights-abusing puppet who denigrates and harasses minorities. With this in mind, Addabbo should come clean with voters about what promises were made and what deals were cut that led to this miraculous conversion.”

Regardless of what may or may not have occurred preceding Baldeo’s decision to withdraw from the race, his absence is one less obstacle Addabbo will have to hurdle.

Addabbo received a second shot of good news when he was endorsed by DC 37 Retirees, which represents more than 50,000 retired municipal workers. Maltese still figures to be very tough to beat, even without Baldeo in the race because of the wide-ranging support he has garnered from public safety sector union workers who comprise a significant voting block within his district.

To combat that strong support, Addabbo will likely court the new immigrant and minority community vote - now that Baldeo is out of the race.

Campaign Ca$h by Pete Davis and Victor G. Mimoni - Queens Courier

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While the economy may be on the decline, political fundraising is soaring in Queens.

A Courier analysis of City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) filings found that 45 candidates from Queens filed with the CFB for a Queens Council seat or citywide office raising more than $3.9 million during the past six months and whopping total of $16.47 million to date, all for a primary that is still more than a year away.

“There’s no question everything started earlier, and there’s a competition for funds,” said Queens City Councilmember David Weprin, who is running in a crowded field of established candidates for City Comptroller. Weprin raised more than $334,000 during the last filing period and nearly $1.9 million overall.

Although Weprin’s $1.9 million total is impressive, Melinda Katz, another Queens Councilmember also vying for the Comptroller’s seat, has raised more than $2.1 million, but she has also spent more than $400,000 more than Weprin thus far.

While those two Queens representatives are in the top five in raising money overall as well as during the last six months, Congressmember Anthony Weiner, who is likely gearing up for a mayoral run, tops the Queens list with more than $5 million overall and roughly $1.4 million between the January and July filings.

In addition, City Councilmember John Liu took in nearly $825,000 from more than 1,000 donors during the past six months and has raised more than $3 million overall for a yet-to-be-determined citywide run in 2009. However, he termed his fundraising efforts thus far only a warm-up of what is likely to come during the next year.

“Once this year’s elections are finished and people start to focus on the 2009 elections, I will make an announcement and then the fundraising will really begin,” Liu said.

However, some candidates mentioned the struggling economy as well as the immediacy of the 2008 presidential and statewide elections as deterrents to raising money now.

“I think the presidential campaigns had a lot to do with it,” said Assemblymember Audrey Pheffer, who is running for Queens Borough President. “Some people had said, ‘I can’t now - call me in six months.’”

Pheffer, who raised roughly $110,000 during the last six months and $338,000 overall, said that since she returned to Queens after this year’s legislative session, her fundraising has picked up, but adjusting to the different city CFB rules that apply to the campaign has been challenging.

“The last time I campaigned for a new office was eight years ago,” Pheffer said. “It’s a completely different ballgame.”

Frank Gulluscio, District Manager for Community Board 6, has declared his candidacy for the 32nd City Council District - a seat currently held by Councilmember Joseph Addabbo. Gulluscio reported raising roughly $28,000 during the last filing period, which was nearly seven times the amount he raised during the previous filing.

“It’s important for me at least to raise funds early, because if Addabbo wins his Senate race, there will be an election for his seat almost immediately,” Gulluscio said. “You have to be prepared.”

Others like Dale Nussbaum, who currently works at Queens College’s Office of Institutional Advancement, reported to the CFB for the first time in July, and she had raised more than $60,000. However, Nussbaum said she is still just exploring the possibility of running and does not have a date where she would make a decision one way or another.

Although 19 of the 45 Queens people who filed in July reported raising more than $20,000 during the last six months, five candidates who had filed previously with the CFB reported raising no additional money during the most recent period.

With more than a year before 2009 primaries, some candidates may decide not to run, while other candidates who have not signed up with the CFB are likely to do so before the next filing deadline in January.

“I don’t know if this year or this election cycle has distinguished itself,” said Liu, who referenced the 2001 city elections, as a comparison for the last time this many open seats were up for grabs.