Ognibene's Quest for GOP Primary Denied

Newsday ^ | September 13, 2005 | William Murphy

[firebrand]

It's official. There will not be a Republican primary for mayor today.

A federal court has refused to hear an expedited appeal from Thomas Ognibene to restore him to the ballot.

The Board of Elections threw him off last month after Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Ognibene did not have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions.

[firebrand]

Why don't they just let Mike buy the whole city outright and rename it Bloomberg City? It would save a lot of time-consuming separate buyouts.

[wideawake]

Ognibene is an actual Republican. I've met the guy and he's a normal outerborough family values conservative.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Oh, I am sure Bloomberg controls who gets on the ballot. Do any of the media tell the truth at ANY time?

[wideawake]

BTW, I'm not sure how many signatures are required, but Ognibene could easily get 25,000 signatures in Middle Village and Glendale alone.

This has got to be a pure technical challenge by Bloomberg's lawyers - not an honest failure to get enough signatures.

[Clemenza]

The board of elections is staffed with poltical hacks appointed by both parties, who's only purpose to is avoid a primary. Essentially candidates in NY state and the city are hand-picked by the "appointees" to the board of elections. It has been a corrupt process for some time.

[justshutupandtakeit]

I doubt none of that comment.

[firebrand]

The Bloomberg forces were on their mark and set to go, and they stormed Middle Village door-to-door with petitions before anybody even realized what was happening. Many were paid signature-collectors. Ognibene was underfunded and never reached the level where he could get public matching funds. Money seems to have bought this election, but the last episode is still to be shown.

[wideawake]

I see.

So the tactic Bloomberg used was to target areas where many people would sign for Ognibene, knowing that Ognibene would sign up the same people, causing double entries that would make all the petitions challengeable.

For a "nonpolitician neophyte" he sure learned the dirty machine tricks very quickly.

[firebrand]

There is a primary for district leader in the 70th AD, however. Renegades succeeding in getting enough signatures and got on the machines. The GOP establishment was reduced to getting signatures for what's called Opportunity to Ballot status--which means there is a write-in primary. There are three candidates for female district leader---the one on the machine (I believe, unless they went all-paper for this one), and two write-in candidates: the incumbent and one other. Of course you can write in anyone you like, but there are two write-in candidates campaigning.

To me, this is the most interesting race today. It shows that with the new rules (petitions don't have to be a particular color for Pete's sake, or a particular size), and the new technology (easy to make up your own petitions on the computer), guess what, it can be done.

This is the real news, not who wins the stupid Dem primary.

[firebrand]

I'm not sure about the "double entries," whether that was the grounds for the Board of Elections to declare the signatures invalid. They could have been vintage kitchen table (nonexistent people or people just copied off the voter rolls).

But yes, they stormed Ognibene's main area before he could get to it. Ognibene's people had a lot of luck at the bars, where people are against the smoking ban. It wasn't enough, even with the addition of signatures from another candidate (which was absurd; they never should have tried that one).

[Dad yer funny]

yup , and maybe if we're real nice,perhaps,we could convince him to have a lottery, the prize being 2 weeks at his Bermuda crib ,... what'dya think??

[firebrand]

I believe there are similar primaries in Queens, not only for district leader but even for County Committee--maybe you know more about those.

[firebrand]

I'll settle for the Southampton Princess. I love hotels.

[firebrand]

If the appeals court ruling comes in time, and is favorable, it's possible Ognibene could qualify for a Republican primary on September 27, at the same time as the runoff---IF there is a runoff.

[JBGUSA]

"Ognibene is an actual Republican. I've met the guy and he's a normal outerborough family values conservative."

I'd like to see him do something productive such as make a try at the state level. Fighting Bloomberg is worse than counterproductive since a "real" Republican (Guiliani was a RINO) is unelectable in NYC.