A judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought on by an Independence Party member to invalidate petition signatures for Supervisor Jack Cunningham and other Independence Party candidates for the fall elections in Bethlehem.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Conner ruled in Albany County Court against attorney James Walsh, who was representing the party member, Jeanette Whitbeck, 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 the outcome but I’m not surprised, said attorney Justin O. Corcoran, who represented the Independence Party candidates. `We asked the judge to formally validate 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 the Albany County Board of Elections dismissed a Working Families Party objection against Cunningham’s opportunity to ballot. Messina contends the objection was tossed out `on a technicality.`
Both he and Fernando (Fred) Di Maggio were also named in the suit against Cunningham and Kotary. Di Maggio is running for Bethlehem Town Board on the Republican and Conservative lines.
The court ruling stated `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 said he is `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 need 69 signatures and these guys turned in 501.`
However, acting state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connelly made the opposite ruling on the same day (Aug. 6), tossing several major party candidates from the city of Albany, including the city’s mayor, from the Independence Party line because an oath was not administered.
Messina gathered 299 signatures from his fellow Independence Party members to run against Cunningham after his party opted not to endorse him for supervisor. He said he had additional signatures but did not submit them after finding out no oath was administered when they were collected.
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 characterize the lawsuit as frivolous.
`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, particularly in the previous Working Families Party decision.
`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 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.`
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