Santabarbara claims Amedore is playing political games
The Change Albany Now party line might just have to wait.
Assemblyman George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, filed a lawsuit against Angelo Santabarbara, D-Rotterdam, for the independent nominating petition to filed by Santabarbara to establish the independent party line Change Albany Now. Santabarbara, legislator of Schenectady County, is running against Amedore in the upcoming election for the 105th Assembly District seat.
Amedore, member of the New York State Board of Elections, is citing the signatures personally acquired by Santabarbara in the lawsuit.
It is quite alarming that of the signatures the candidate himself claims to have personally witnessed there is an amazing 45 percent error that we have found and discovered of those signatures, said Amedore. `Those errors could be non-registered voters, but they also can be completely out of the district voters or individuals.`
Currently, 951 signatures are objected with 1,558 signatures being valid, which is above the minimum amount of signatures required to establish a party line.
`He may technically may have significant number of valid signatures, but the specifics of the objections will also ask the board and the court to look further upon the pattern and the discovery we have found,` said Amedore. `We are asking the court to determine if this gross and reckless disregard for the rules constitutes fraud.`
Santabarbara said this is just a political move Amedore is using against him.
`He is simply trying to smear my name,` said Santabarbara. `I can’t stop him, but I can certainly point out that he is at this point using legal tactics to make it look like I did something wrong, which just is not true. I intend to run this race with a lot of hard work. If Amedore runs this race with legal tactics and legal maneuvers then that is what he chooses to do.`
Amedore doesn’t disagree that Santabarbara probably worked hard to get the signatures, but the signatures go against the law, said Amedore.
`Did he work had to get 2,5000, sure, but a lot of those signatures are against the rules and breaking the laws on what it takes it get those signatures,` said Amedore.
A court date is set for Friday, Sept. 10, at the Supreme Court Courthouse, Albany, at 9:30 a.m. to rule on Amedore’s lawsuit.
Santabarbara said this is not the first time Amedore has tried to `take something away` from him. Santabarbara alleges when he announced his bid for the state Assembly, Amedore had a chat with his employer.
`Earlier this year, my employer informed me that George Amedore and his political cronies had conversations with my direct supervisor on several occasions about how my involvement in this race would affect their business,` said Santabarbara in a prepared statement.
Joe Lanaro, vice president of engineering services for The Chazen Companies, was involved in the incident according to Santabarbara. When Lanaro was asked about the alleged incident he said he couldn’t comment on employee matters because it goes against company policy.
Amedore said he never personally spoke to Santabarbara’s employer at Chazen Companies that Santabarbara entering the race would affect business. Also, Amedore said no staff members talked to Santabarbara’s employer.
`I stand by my comments and I know that they did contact them,` said Santabarbara. `It made me feel very uncomfortable and made me think twice about entering the race.“
