Four citywide candidates who submitted petitions will not be among the choices on September 15th. Veteran long-shots Jose Adames (who posted signs after the 2005 vote claiming that he, not Michael Bloomberg, was the legitimate mayor) and Jimmy McMillian (founder, and sole New York City member, of the Rent is Too Damn High party) will not be in the Democratic race for mayor. Walter Iwachiw, a registered nurse who lives in Sunnyside, will not challenge Bloomberg's right to the Republican ballot line. And accountant Salim Ejaz won't be in the Democratic mix for comptroller.
City Limits Magazine
Fall 2008:
Has reform bought better politics?
News Topics
Government
Author
Jarrett Murphy
About | Twitter | RSS
Councilman Alan Gerson, plagued by a typographical error on his petition sheets, almost became the highest-profile departure, but after being removed from the ballot, a judge has restored him. Opponent Pete Gleason promises to appeal that ruling. Even if Gleason should prevail and strip Gerson's name from the ballot once more, that district will still have a handful of serious candidates this year—meaning that voters in Gerson's Manhattan District 1 will at least have some choice.
That's not true for voters elsewhere in the city. In five districts—those of Erik Dilan, Lewis Fidler and Michael Nelson in Brooklyn, and those of Joel Rivera and Jimmy Vacca in the Bronx—challengers threw their hat in the ring, but all candidates except the incumbent were forced off the ballot. (Fidler went from having three opponents to getting September 15th off.) Other Council members never faced any opposition in the first place. All told, 18 incumbent members will face no primary opponent.
Some are likely to have no rival in the general election, either. Both Vacca in the Bronx and Simcha Felder in Brooklyn will appear on the Republican and Democratic lines. Felder also ran totally unopposed in 2003 and 2005—a year in which 27 council members were re-elected without a primary and 13 had no general election opponent.
When public advocate candidate Bill deBlasio, a Brooklyn Councilman, was briefly knocked off the ballot for an error on a cover sheet in which he misstated the number of volumes of petitions he was submitting, there were broad calls for reform. The New York Times editorialized that "New York City's election laws are notoriously unfair."
The number of signatures candidates are required to obtain varies according to office and is covered by state law. Citywide candidates need 7,500 registered voters from their party who reside in New York to sign. Borough president candidates need 4,000 party members who are borough residents, and City Council candidates need 900 people from their party in their district. Candidates can be tossed from the ballot if the Board of Election staffer claims a technical violation, or if a voter—often a surrogate for a rival candidate—objects to the validity of the signatures. Signatures are obviously invalid if they are for fictional people. But a signature could also be deemed invalid if a person signs a petition after having already signed a petition for another candidate in the same race, or if the petition carrier has signed a petition for someone else, or if there is a typographical error.
