PETITION SEASON ALMOST OVER POLITICIANS

But not before several candidates get bounced due to technical blunders!

In Spring Valley, four candidates have been knocked out of the mayor’s race due to petition challenges: Joseph Gross, Bernard Charles, Anthony Leon and Miguelino Joseph. Leon and Gross have filed motions to defend their petitions in court, but rival candidate Daniel Friedman said he believes that most of Gross’ signatures came from outside his actual election district.

Feeling confident, Friedman posted a $1,000 reward to anyone who could knock his own petitions off the ballot. He has been deemed to have about 50 percent more than the minimum valid number of petitions of 364. Friedman also said that executive director of the Rockland Democratic Committee Tedd Collins failed to qualify in his candidacy for trustee in Spring Valley.

In Stony Point, Democrat incumbent Geoff Finn had warned the GOP he intended to challenge all petitions handed in and run a write-in contest on the Independence line, if GOP-endorsed supervisor candidate Dylan Skriloff ran a primary for the Conservative Party line (which is Skriloff’s registered party).

However, Finn and the Democrats declined to make good on the warning, apparently having another strategy. As a result, the GOP ticket of Dylan Skriloff, Thomas Basile and Jim Monaghan will appear on the Independence line on November 5. Finn and Skriloff will face off in a primary for the Conservative Party line on September 10.

Finn, recently described by Stony Point Democratic Chairman Rob Burns as a “progressive,” earned the endorsement of Conservative bosses due to an unknown insider political agreement. No interviews were held before the endorsement. Skriloff, who is also editor-in-chief of the Rockland County Times, said, “As a registered Conservative, I represent the viewpoint of the actual rank and file members of the Conservative Party. I am fully qualified for the position of supervisor, and as such I am saddened the county party, due to preexisting business ‘arrangements,’ chose to support the progressive Democrat without offering me so much as an interview. I intend to win the primary and score one for the rank and file real conservatives who want their voices heard. The liberal Geoff Finn thinks our party is a joke, yet he seeks to run on our line for political gain.It is absurd.”

In other Conservative Party internal politics, county executive candidate Ed Day is challenging the petitions of county executive candidate Simon Leschinsky, claiming to have found irregularities.

Leschinsky is associated with the Sam Naemit wing of the party, which seeks to oust Chairman Ed Lettre. Naemit is seeking to take control of the party from Ed Lettre next year. Day said it seemed odious to him that the same notary petition workers had walked door-to-door for Democratic county executive candidate Ilan Schoenberger had also worked for Leschinsky.

Opponents have sought to disqualify county executive candidate Democrat Vladimir Leon and he is fighting them in court. He also said he is working on creating an independent line “Organizing Rockland.” Ed Day’s campaign and others have also been petitioning to form independent lines this campaign season.

Dagan LaCorte, though he had double the required number of signatures, is seeing many of them challenged by his competitor David Fried. LaCorte had gathered many signatures at supermarkets, not the most reliable location for petitioning.

Ed Day’s Independence Party petitions are likely to be objected to and he has in turn objected to Ilan Schoenberger’s Independence Party petitions. In Suffern, mayoral candidate Charles Falciglia was booted by the Board of Elections from the Republican line for failing to note “Ramapo” as the town on most of his petitions.

  finn, friendman, gop candidates, otb, Rockland Democratic Committee