On The Ropes Sandra Roper, the upstart challenger to District Attorney Joe Hynes, may be down, but her campaign vows it's not out. Roper recently appealed to a Supreme Court decision removing her from the ballot because the court found that her petitions were permeated with fraud. The court decision also disqualified two judicial candidates who were gathering signatures with Roper, namely Eileen Nadelson and Peter Sweeney. Nadelson and Sweeney would have challenged Judge Howard Ruditzky and candidate Mark Partnow, who comes out of the Thomas Jefferson Club, with the top two finishers getting a seat on the bench. "If they hadn't begun to challenge Partnow, they'd probably still be on the ballot," said one insider.

The Jefferson Democrats had focused much of their energy on ensuring Partnow's election this fall, even going so far as to cut deals with county leader and Assemblymember Clarence Norman, Jr. to ensure his support for Partnow, who has lost a judicial race once before. The club, said sources, was not going to let its candidate be primaried without a fight.

"There was an enormous effort (to get Roper off the ballot) put in by the Jefferson Club people," said another source. "Certainly, on the Hynes end of it, with people like (Kings County Democratic Party executive director) Jeff Feldman, they held up their end. Ruditzky is the lucky duck here because he brought nothing to the table. Partnow has a look of relief on his face for the first time in eight weeks."

Roper spokesperson Cheryl Williams said that the decision to remove Roper from the ballot was unfounded. "We feel that we've really been sandbagged," she said. She said that the fraud was confined to only one volume of signatures, affecting only 1,000 of the total 13,780 they collected. District attorney candidates need 4,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The changes that were made to the signatures after they were collected- changes which formed the basis for the fraud finding-were minute, said Williams. Williams said that Roper's daughter, who works as the campaign's secretary, initialed the changes only after helping signatories correct things like their address or the date. "[The court ruling] is truly an act of injustice," said Williams, who was confident in the appeal. "We will be on the ballot."

Hot Race For Comptroller Another member of the Thomas Jefferson Club has found himself in a rather testy citywide race-against another Brooklynite moreover-that appears to be growing more nasty as it wears on. Councilmember Herb Berman is battling former Board of Ed President William Thompson, Jr. in the comptroller's race, and the two native sons, known to be generally friendly people, are baring their fangs.

On a recent televised debate, the candidates routinely raised their voices and cut each other off, saying that the other was incompetent and trading barbs and blame for the state of the city's education and school construction budgets.

Berman also made no bones about putting Thompson's failure to pay taxes in the early 1980's into play, adding that he was a failure at managing, as evidenced by the Board of Ed's financial predicament. Thompson said that Berman was merely a political puppet who failed to exercise proper oversight.

The tone of the debate was all the more surprising considering that Berman and Thompson are widely considered gentleman. "I really doubt it's personal between them because I know both of these guys and they're two of the nicest guys in the business," said one insider who is close to both men. "I'm quite sure that one of them will make the concession call to the other and wish him the best of luck."

First Dibs One prominent member of the Caribbean American community has his eyes trained on Marty Markowitz's state senate seat and is ready to jump into action should Markowitz win his bid for the borough presidency. "I'm very interested in that seat if the opportunity arises," said Roy Hastick, president of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Hastick, a prominent figure in a community that can help Markowitz fend off the presumed advantage Jeannette Gadson has with the black vote, said that he was remaining neutral in the beep's race. And it's no wonder why.

Hastick is under pressure to back Gadson because he believes he will need the help of her top supporter, Assemblymember Clarence Norman, Jr., in whatever race he does decide to run. But should Markowitz win, then Hastick would certainly want Markowitz's support in his attempt to take over his state senate seat.

"It's a very delicate situation right now," he said. To date, Hastick has given $450 to Markowitz, $200 to Councilmember Ken Fisher, and nothing to Gadson, according to records of the Campaign Finance Board.

Bruised Feelings As the primary draws near, the question of how Joanne Seminara-Lehu will be affected by her split with District Leader Ralph Perfetto becomes more poignant.

Perfetto and his Bay Ridge political organization, the American Heritage Political Club, overwhelmingly endorsed Seminara-Lehu in the 43rd Councilmanic District primary this year despite some past differences that grew out of her 1997 Council bid. But when Seminara-Lehu decided to open a local office with mayoral candidate Peter Vallone in late June, Perfetto was upset. Perfetto works for mayoral candidate Mark Green.

Seminara-Lehu's staff later circulated some Vallone petitions in Perfetto's district, causing the district leader to sever his support for her and advise his club members to do the same, said Perfetto, who felt he had been double-crossed.

The question is now whether Seminara-Lehu's association with Vallone will be worth more in the primary than Perfetto's support. Perfetto said that of the 4,000 signatures she filed, 2,574 were collected by his club. Since Seminara-Lehu is running against two other Italian-Americans, the value of being on Vallone's palm card, and vice-versa, may not be very great. Individual members of the American Heritage club are obviously still free to help her as they please.

Seminara-Lehu's campaign manager declined to comment on the split with Perfetto. Perfetto, however, was not so hesitant. "Her campaign people are devious people. They're users, nothing but users, they're lying and disrespectful people," he said.

He also offered a public apology to candidate Ursula Gangemi, whom he had criticized when she first entered the race as a way to protect Joanne from the threat of another female candidate, he said. "I apologize to [Gangemi] for not thinking she was a credible candidate. Not only is she a credible candidate, but she's a candidate with character. She comes from a good family and it's apparent," he said.

The only male in the primary, Carlo Scissura, has his own problems, having recently been tossed from the local school board for missing required seminars. But Scissura does have an intact political apparatus, resting upon Assemblymember Peter Abbatte and the Bensonhurst district leaders.

Federal Ballot Battle Coney Island Council candidate Inna Stavitsky has filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to get back on the ballot, said her attorney, Harry Kresky. Stavitsky was knocked off by fellow Russian immigrant Alec Brook-Krasny in an attempt by Krasny to consolidate the Russian vote. Krasny is no stranger to ballot roadblocks, as he himself was thrown from the ballot last year in his first attempt at elected office.

Kresky said that the suit challenges a procedural rule that disadvantages political neophytes by forcing them to file a motion to validate with the Supreme Court. If that motion isn't filed, he said, then candidates faced with challenges to their signatures can only defend against those challenges instead of bringing possible mistakes about other disqualified signatures to the court's attention.

If Stavitsky were allowed to ask the court to review certain signatures that the Board of Elections had previously disqualified, she would have made the ballot by about 50 to 100 signatures, said Kresky. The suit, filed in district court, says that the rule is unconstitutional because it violates the rights to due process, equal protection under the law and the First Amendment right to run for office. Another Council candidate, an immigrant from the Bronx, is also listed as a plaintiff.

Borough Politics Archive
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