Jonathan Judge may have been tossed off the ballot in the upcoming 44th District City Council special election, but he’s not going down without a fight.
Judge retained former State Senator and noted election attorney Martin Connor to appeal last week’s State Supreme Court decision that he came up 15 signatures short to be on the ballot.
“Senator Connor was the obvious choice for our appeal, given his time handling election law matters in the State Senate during his career,” said Judge. “His knowledge and skill as an election attorney are renowned, and our campaign is honored to have him representing us.”
Judge, a Republican, was challenged in court by Democratic candidate David Greenfield after the city’s Board of Elections (BOE) ruled that Judge had 786 valid signatures of his 1,221 signatures collected – 21 more than the 765 needed to get on the ballot.
Judge maintains that the BOE didn’t allow him to reinstate some 100 signatures collected by former Republican District leader Susan Cleary.
The signatures were disallowed by Diane Rudiano, chief clerk of the Brooklyn Board of Elections and the secretary of the Kings County Republican Party.
The two worked together as poll site workers and yet Rudiano accepted the allegation that Cleary was not even a registered voter, said Judge.
Those extra 100 signatures proved crucial because State Supreme Court Judge Larry Martin only looked at the BOE 786 approved signatures.
“The court unfortunately mistook the law and neglected to accept clear and convincing evidence of the scores of additional valid signatures we had collected,” said Judge.
“David Greenfield and his [Kings County Democratic Party boss] Vito Lopez machine have done everything in their power to eliminate the voters’ choices in this election,” he added.
The appeal will likely be heard next week.
Also in the March 23 election race are Democrat Joe Lazar and Republican Kenneth Rice.
The 44th City Council District encompasses Borough Park, Bensonhurst and Midwood.
