Republican candidate for town of Ballston Supervisor J.D. Wood has lost his bid for a primary against longtime council member Harold Townley.
Leaders of the town’s Republican Party filed an objection to Wood’s petition to run, questioning the validity of some of the 184 names. Wood’s petition required the signatures of a certain percentage of registered Republicans in town, equaling a minimum of 148 names.
Signatures can be deemed invalid if they are people no longer residing at the address listed, or are contained on more than one candidate’s petition. In that case, whichever signature was received on the earliest date takes precedence; any signature on another petition will be discounted.
On Thursday, Aug. 2, Wood received a letter stating his petition had been found invalid. At issue were the dates at the bottom of some of his pages, as well as the legibility of some of the signed names.
Wood fired back at the decision, standing by all the pages as carrying proper and legal signatures.
Several names were invalid as they appeared to have signed Mr. Townley’s petition on a date before they had signed mine, and this I understand, said Wood. `But what I can’t buy into is who acts as the judge of whether or not a signature is legible or not. After review of Mr. Townley’s petitions, I observed many signatures on his that were far worse than the ones they disqualified on mine.`
Wood went on to state he was less than surprised by the decision, as he believed the Republicans were intent on shutting down his campaign before a primary even came about.
`I was doomed from the start, as my candidacy did not fit the standard protocol of the political machine,` said Wood. `The Townley camp would have to disqualify my petitions as they would not be able to beat me in a primary in September.`
Ballston Republican committee chairman Alan Colyer said challenging an opponent’s petition is standard practice, and the outcome was not a partisan issue.
`There are two commissioners at the Board of Elections, one is a Democrat and one is a Republican, and they both have to concur,` said Colyer. `That’s what happened in this case; they both agreed.`
Colyer also said the decision was based on facts, and that Wood’s reaction to the outcome was extreme.
`Wood has bought into the national Democratic outlook that someone has to be a victim in politics, and (Wood) has anointed himself as that victim,` said Colyer. `If you’re a candidate, you need to be prepared for standard practices including objecting to petitions. This is a general election, and that’s the way it goes.` “