Rochester Town Board member Manuela Michailescu has successfully qualified to face Republican Party-endorsed and current Ulster County Legislature District 1 incumbent Terry Bernardo (R-Accord) in a Sept. 13 Republican primary.
The two are vying to represent the Legislature's newly-created, single-member District 21, which encompasses Rochester and a small portion of the town of Wawarsing. In related developments, the Conservative Party will not have a line for District 21 in the November election, and whether the November ballot will include a District 21 Independence Party line is a question that will be determined in a pending court action. Bernardo's husband, Len is chair of the county's Independence Party.
According to County Board of Elections (BOE) Commissioner Victor Work, no Democrat is running for the seat.
On July 25, Michailescu's husband Jon Dogar-Marinesco filed challenges with the BOE to Bernardo's qualifying (designating) petitions for the Republican, Conservative, and Independence lines. Although he succeeded, in a July 27 BOE ruling, in having 52 signatures invalidated on Bernardo's Republican petition, she still had 312 valid signatures, thereby qualifying for the Republican line and mandating the primary. The reasons for the signature invalidations included: that the signer was not a registered Republican, or does not appear on BOE records, or had signed Michailescu's petition on an earlier date, or had died prior to the signature date. According to Work, no challenges were filed to Michailescu's Republican Party designating petition, which was the only designating petition submitted for her.
However, also on July 27, the BOE upheld all of Dogar-Marinesco's objections to Bernardo's Conservative Party designating petition, invalidating 13 of the 18 signatures filed for her, thereby disqualifying her from appearing on the Conservative Party line. Signatures were invalidated for such reasons as: that the signer's town was not given, the signer's address does not match that which is on record with the BOE, as well as that petition-witness information was lacking.
In addition, Dogar-Marinesco told the BSP, on July 21 he had filed an Opportunity to Ballot petition for the Conservative Party line to allow voters to write in any name on that line in a primary election, with the primary winner appearing on the November ballot. He also told the BSP that on July 25, Gerry Fornino, Rochester Conservative Party Committee chair, had filed objections to that petition with the BOE and, subsequently, on July 28, had filed a complaint in State Supreme Court challenging the validity of the petition. Work told the BSP that the BOE never ruled on Fornino's objections because Fornino alleges fraud, which is an allegation outside the BOE's jurisdiction and an issue that would go “straight to court.”
Fornino's complaint alleges that the three enrolled Conservative Party members listed on the petition “as a committee appointed to receive notices to fill vacancies in accordance with the provisions of the election law” were never, as required, asked to consent to their appointment and that their names were listed in order to give seeming legitimacy to the petition and induce Party members to sign the petition. The three are Edward J. Gaddy, County Conservative Party chair, John R. Crispell, Party first vice-chair, and Alan D. Hartman, Party second vice-chair.
Gaddy told the BSP, “I realize it's a drastic step” to file the court action because, if the claim is successful, the Party would not have a ballot line in November, since Bernardo has been disqualified. He and Fornino both told the BSP that the action was filed only after lengthy discussion between them. Gaddy said “I would rather leave the [Conservative] line blank rather than have someone hijack it.” He said the Party endorsed Bernardo after a candidate interview process that began in February, and that Michailescu never contacted him for an interview. Crispell told the BSP that Bernardo was selected by Conservatives in Rochester, that Michailescu “circumvented our process,” and “we're very upset about it and about the use of our names without our permission.” Both Gaddy and Crispell blamed much of the petition confusion on the recent redistricting process. In contrast, Hartman told the BSP that he does not agree with the lawsuit and believes that “the people who signed Terry Bernardo's designating petition and who signed the Opportunity to Ballot petition” should have their intentions honored and have a chance to write-in vote for a Conservative Party candidate. “I don't see where it's an advantage to the Party not to be represented” on the ballot, he said. Fornino told the BSP that the matter was “in the hands of the Court and I leave it up to the judicial system.”
Michailescu told the BSP: “Of course I didn't contact Mr. Gaddy this year when all I got in 2009 were lies and insults. At that time, unlike my opponent, I was an elected official who won on the Conservative Party line in 2007. I gathered the required signatures and the Board of Elections confirmed me as a candidate on the Conservative line, but Ed Gaddy refused to let me be on the ballot. He was happy to give the authorization to the three Wawarsing Democrats – all part of the Catalano-Bernardo ‘dirty deal.’ The Opportunity to Ballot is the purest expression of the democratic process, and this is exactly what Ed Gaddy does not like – he no longer can control who the candidate is. He is not willing to let voters have a choice; he wants to push his ‘chosen’ candidate. What we have here is a case of ‘commitment’ vs. democracy.”
The BSP learned just before press time on Thursday, Aug. 4, from Work, that the Court ruled the Opportunity to Ballot petition null and void on the grounds that those named as appointed to receive notice did not consent. Fornino told the BSP: “This shows you should go through the Party process.”
Finally, the BOE met on July 27 and July 28 to consider Dogar-Marinesco’s challenges to Bernardo’s’s Independence Party petition. On July 27, the BOE invalidated five of the twenty signatures, leaving sufficient valid signatures for Bernardo to retain the ballot line. On July 28, the BOE invalidated an additional two signatures, which still left Bernardo with the minimum 13 signatures required. Signatures were invalidated on grounds which included listing the wrong town (Rochester instead of Wawarsing), that the signer is not registered in the Independence Party, or not a District 21 registered voter.
The crucial thirteenth signature, which was challenged on the grounds of being the second signature by the same voter, who had earlier signed Bernardo’s Republican Party petition, split the two commissioners’ votes, resulting in a denial of Dogar-Marinesco’s objection. Commissioner Thomas Turco voted to accept the signature as valid; Work voted to uphold the objection. Work told the BSP that although he could not speak for Turco, he understood that Turco viewed the Republican petition signature as a “mistake” because the signer was not a registered Republican, and that in such a situation, the Independence petition signature is valid. If the Republican signature had been challenged, Work said, (it was not), it would have been disqualified. Work said, instead, he believes that any earlier signature, whether valid or not, invalidates a later signature. Turco told the BSP that he believes that party enrollment trumps the date signed.
On Aug. 1, Dogar-Marinesco filed a petition in State Supreme Court seeking to invalidate the thirteenth signature and thereby disqualify Bernardo from the Independence Party ballot line. Because an Opportunity to Ballot petition has not been filed for the Independence Party, if he is successful, there will not be an Independence Party line on the November ballot.
Bernardo told the BSP: "With respect to the Independence petitions, Manuela's husband has sued. I believe he will lose in court. With respect to the Republican primary, there will be an election. I always trust the wisdom of the voters. I look forward to discussing my record with my fellow Republicans." BSP
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