A judge threw out a lawsuit in Albany County Court brought on by an Independence Party member to invalidate petition signatures for Supervisor Jack Cunningham and his slate of candidates for the fall elections in Bethlehem.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Conner ruled against attorney James Walsh, who was representing the party member, on Thursday, Aug. 6, after a witness verified her petition signature. She subsequently claimed she was bullied by a private investigator into saying she was not read an oath before signing it.
The decision approves the Independence Party ballot petitions for Cunningham, Councilman Kyle Kotary and Bethlehem Independence Party Chairman Mark Jordan for Town Board, as well as Nanci Moquin for town clerk and Gregg Sagendorph for highway superintendent.
I’m pleased with outcome but I’m not surprised, said attorney Justin O’C Corcoran who represented Cunningham’s slate. `We asked to judge to formally valid the petitions, which was included in her decision.`
Independence Party Councilman Sam Messina is running against Cunningham for town supervisor. His campaign suffered a similar blow last week when a Working Families Party objection against Cunningham’s opportunity to ballot was dismissed by the Albany County Board of Elections.
Both he and Fernando (Fred) Di Maggio were also named on the suit against Cunningham and Kotary. Di Maggio is running for Bethlehem Town Board on the Republican and Conservative lines.
The court ruling stated that, `Any remaining arguments have been considered by the court and found to be without merit and/or rendered moot.`
The stage is now set for an Independence Party primary as well as an opportunity to ballot primary for the Working Families line in September.
Walsh called the ruling `disappointing.`
`The judge had ruled that she had not believed that failing to administer an oath is wrong and I think she read the law wrong,` Walsh said. `I’d have to respectfully disagree with her ruling.`
Walsh said he would be conferring with his client about the possibility of an appeal against the ruling and added `I am confident an appeal would be successful.`
Corcoran disagreed, saying O’Conner made the right ruling.
`The law does not say you have to walk around with a bible and take an oath,` he said about signing a petition. `At the end of the day we only needs 69 signatures and these guys turned in 501.`
Messina gather 299 signatures from his fellow Independence Party members to run again Cunningham after his party opted not to endorse him for supervisor.
However, Acting state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connelly made the opposite ruling on the same day (Aug. 6), tossing several major party candidates from city of Albany, including the city’s mayor, from the Independence Party line because an oath was not administered.
Nonetheless, Cunningham said he’s ready for the primary.
` I am pleased with the judge’s ruling and I look forward to the coming weeks as I remain focused on taking my message and vision for the future directly to the voters, who above all, should ultimately determine for themselves who they feel is best to represent them and their interests,` said Cunningham.
Kotary issued a statement about Messina and Di Maggio being involved in the matter.
`I’m glad the judge dismissed all counts of Mr. Messina’s and Mr. DiMaggio’s frivolous lawsuit and attempted character assassination. It’s very disappointing that in a small, close community such as ours, that Mr. Messina and Mr. DiMaggio would threaten voters through ‘private investigators’ and drag hard-working residents to court in order to advance their own political ambitions.` said Kotary `But in the end, the light has been shined on these tactics and justice has prevailed.`
Messina said the matter comes down to an issue of control and that Cunningham’s Democratic chairman, Matthew Clyne, is using his position as the Albany County Democratic Commission or the Board of Elections to sway favor.
`I feel that residents of Bethlehem and particularly people registered in the Independence Party did not get served well by the judges decision,` he said. `This is not a trivial matter. The oath is in the law to protect the integrity of the system, to ensure that people are supporting candidates access to the ballot and to protect against major parties raiding smaller parties.`
The Bethlehem councilman said he does not plan to pursue an appeal.
`I believe that this case can be won, and so does Mr. Walsh At this time I feel that I want to do what I can to change the root problem, and move us all onto a better place in terms of politics and governance,` Messina said. `The best way for me to do that is to continue to use my time, energy and money to meet the people and talk about the issues, and that is what I will do.`
For more on this breaking news story, return to www.spotlightnews.com for updates, or read the Wednesday, Aug. 12, print edition of The Spotlight.
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