Make that two candidates now that former Spring Valley judge and Democratic Rockland County Executive candidate David Fried has gotten tossed from the ballot due to signature challenges.
Fried challenged some 3,337 of 4,435 opponent and Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte’s ballot signatures. A Fried signature challenge also knocked Vladimir Leon off the Democratic primary ballot.
Preserve Ramapo Chairman Robert Rhodes called into question Kristen Stavisky’s dual role as both the chair of the Rockland Democratic Party and as the county Democratic Party Election Commissioner, which gives her ultimate authority over county candidates.
The county Board of Elections ruled on Fried’s challenge Thursday night, with the board accepting 1926 of Lacorte’s 4435 signatures, leaving him only 74 signatures short of the 2,000 necessary to qualify on the ballot. Some of the on signatures were disallowed on technical grounds such as voter change of residence within the same senior housing development while others the campaign believes can be easily corrected over the weekend.
With the board’s ruling, Ilan S. Schoenberger and Fried are the last two remaining Democratic candidates in the September primary race at this time.
Lacorte called the Board of Elections’ Thursday night ballot bump a pathetic and wrong attempt. “My opponent David Fried and the Rockland Democratic party boss disenfranchised hundreds of Rockland Democrats by manipulating the election laws to throw me off the primary election ballot and deny the voters of our community a choice in the primary.”
Lacorte said that the same “political insiders who destroyed Rockland’s finances with their pay raises and patronage will do whatever they can to . . . cling to power. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. They just won’t let go!”
Lacorte said that his campaign has hired top New York election lawyer Jerry Goldfeder to fight the Board of Elections’ decision in state court and felt strongly that the enough petition signatures would be restored for him to easily qualify for the September primary ballot.
“I am 100% confident the courts will validate at least an additional 74 signatures, overrule this baseless decision and restore my name to the ballot,” Lacorte said.
Republican County Executive candidate Ed Day also joined the petition fray when he announced Wednesday that he would challenge Ilan Schoenberger’s Independence and Conservative Party nominating petitions.
“Legislator Schoenberger’s petitions appear to have substantial irregularities, from what seem to be signatures of non-Independence Party voters even up to potentially forged signatures,” said Day in his challenge statement.
Meanwhile, Fried’s ballot petition tactics have narrowed the Democratic September primary field to just Fried and Schoenberger. Although the ballot challenge was an age-old method of undermining an opponent’s campaign, it also smacks loudly of a certain kind of Rockland partisanship. Fried’s support throughout the county was not considered deep and wide enough to win the Democratic primary or general election. Just Monday morning, NY State Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland and Westchester) gave a strong endorsement for candidate Lacorte. Sen. Carlucci cited several reasons for his support of Lacorte, including the Suffern Mayor’s “independent leadership” and his effort to “restore financial responsibility to county government and protect taxpayers.”
Lacorte saw Fried’s ballot petition challenge as a larger effort by the Rockland Democratic machine to disenfranchise his candidacy. “Almost immediately after announcing my candidacy, Stavisky has consistently and repeatedly tried to torpedo it,” Lacorte said. Democratic County Election Commissioner Kristen Stavisky also serves as Chairwoman of the Rockland County Democratic Party.
“Dagan LaCorte may or may not have the required number of valid signatures on his petition, but his charge that ‘almost immediately after announcing my candidacy, Stavisky has consistently and repeatedly tried to torpedo it’ demonstrates the serious conflict of interest that Stavisky’s dual roles have created,” Rhodes wrote. Preserve Ramapo has endorsed Republican Ed Day in the county executive race.
“Recall that Stavisky is both the chairman of the Rockland Democratic Party and the Democratic Party Election Commissioner. In the first role she is charged with responsibility to promote party candidates in elections, in the second role she is charged with responsibility to decide who is or is not eligible to run. This puts in her in an impossible position. She really should resign from one of these two jobs.”
To date, Ilan Schoenberger, who some consider to be the Democratic party’s preferred candidate, has gone silent on the ballot challenge issue and many other Rockland issues pinging through headlines.
