Author: Jerry Skurnik

There is a general belief among people active in politics that a candidate who challenges his or her opponent’s petitions forfeits any chance of receiving the New York Times endorsement or at the very least guarantees criticism by The Times of such “undemocratic” tactics.

Many, including me, think that fear is what prevented the Ferrer campaign from challenging the petitions of Christopher Brodeur & Art Piccolo for Mayor even though leaving them on the ballot increased the likelihood of a Primary Run-off.

I don’t agree with this view. I think that the Times Editorial Board considers a number of factors in deciding whom to endorse and whether a candidate takes advantage of the election law is a relatively minor one.

A while ago, I reported on the candidates who filed petitions to run in contested Primaries in New York City. Now I’m reporting which elections in New York State do not have a traditional Republican vs. Democrat contest. That is, the Congressional & State Legislative districts where either the Democrats or Republicans do not have a candidate running.

Congress

4 Democratic Members of Congress – Rep. Gary Ackerman, Rep. Gregory Meeks, Rep. Anthony Weiner & Rep. Maurice Hinchey have no Republican opponents.

State Senate

15 of the 62 State Senators do not have major Party opponents. 7 are Democrats from New York City plus 1 Republican from NYC – Marty Golden.

While various liberal bloggers + Keith Olberman and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have been trying to convince us that a massive vote stealing scheme (with Democrats & UAW officials in on it) delivered Ohio to George W. Bush in 2004, today’s Ohio papers bring news of a real scandal that really might have made the difference in Ohio.

Shouldn’t this be news outside of Ohio?

Less than a week before the 2004 presidential election, Jim Conrad, then head of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, took steps to ensure that a $215 million investment loss in an offshore hedge-fund would not become public …

A few days ago I wrote some comments previewing the hearing on petitions at the New York City Board of Elections.

I attended the hearing for a few hours and here’s some of what I observed.

A few candidates for Delegates to the Republican Judicial Convention were disqualified because they were, in fact, registered Democrats.

A candidate who wanted to run for the Assembly from the 55^th Assembly District was removed because the address he is registered to vote from and which he put on the petition was in the 40^th A.D.

Wednesday is the first day of hearings on petitions at the New York City Board of Elections. In honor of that, I thought it would be good to point out some truths about the petition process in New York.

*A few candidates will be thrown off the ballots because of “technicalities” that no objective person should believe should remove a candidate from the ballot.

*These “technicalities” will NOT be using the wrong color, writing St. instead of street or leaving out a middle initial in a voter’s name.

Previously I posted the list of candidates who filed petitions to run in NYC Democratic Primaries.

Now, I’ll discuss Primary contests in the Republican and Independence Parties.

There are no Conservative & Working Families Party Primaries.

Republican

Congress

11 CD  – 2 Republicans filed petitions to run in the district being vacated by Major Owens – Stephen Finger & Mariana Blume.

State Senate

15 SD – Senator and County Leader Serph Maltese is being challenged by Bartholomew Bruno. I suspect this race is part of the war between Maltese & his allies and Jack & Bart Haggerty for control of the Queens GOP.

I previously posted the list of candidates who filed petitions to run in NYC  Democratic Party Primaries for Public office.

Today, I’ll list those running for Party Office.

In Manhattan and Staten Island, Democratic State Committee positions are contested. In Bronx & Queens State Committee and District Leader are up.  In Brooklyn State Committee and District Leader are the same position. In the Democratic Party, there are Male & Female positions for State Committee & District Leader in each district.

Thursday was the last day to file petitions to run as either a Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Working Family or Independence Party candidate.

Azi Paybarah at the 51^st State site went to the NYC Board of Elections and has listed many of the candidates who filed petitions. http://www.nysun.com/51stState/

Today and for the next few days, I’ll be posting some more detailed lists so we can see who is running against whom.

These lists are subject to change as some candidates will withdraw and may be replaced and others will be removed from the ballot because of challenges to their petitions. This list does not include any races where petitions are filed at the State rather than the NYC Board of Elections.

Tuesday’s Daily News had a story about Thursday’s Bronx Democratic County Committee Dinner.

One line in the story got me thinking –

The party has also been criticized for creating so many political dynasties, with a number of incumbents’ sons and daughters in office.

I have heard this criticism many times. But is this unique to the Bronx? To New York City?  To Democrats?

To answer those questions, I decided to look at all the present members of the NY State Legislature and the NY Congressional Delegation to see how many were related to other elected public officials.

The Wall St. Journal has a web site called Opinion Journal’s Political Diary. It’s a pretty interesting combination of opinions & political rundowns, with the Journal’s political biases.

The site is not usually free but they are offering a free two-week trial.

But sometimes you get what you pay for.

From the June 21^st Political Diary –

Marylanders opposed to the state’s new Early Voting law reached a milestone this week with enough petition signatures to bring a November referendum into the realm of possibility. Not a happy omen for the state’s heavily Democratic legislature and its most blatant effort yet to club Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich.