Court removes Dems from Independence primary ballot line

Here’s a release from the Testa campaign regarding a state Supreme Court decision Thursday evening.

On Thursday August 4, 2011 State Supreme Court Judge Mary H. Smith granted a motion to invalidate Independence Party petitions submitted by Mike Kane as well as Mary Foster and her entire Peekskill City Council slate. The judge concurred that the petitions filed by the Democrats were fraught with numerous inaccuracies, misrepresentations and fraudulently witnessed in several instances.

“Despite the frantic attempts by the Peekskill Democrats and their “spin doctors” to dismiss the lawsuit against them, claiming it amounted to nothing more than “inconsequential technical errors,” as one of them put it, is laughable. The fact is the Democrats got caught cheating…again,” remarked Cathy Pisani upon hearing of the successful outcome of her court challenge.

For weeks throughout the petitioning process the public has been bombarded by the increasing shrill, outrageous claims made by the Democratic candidates and their operatives insisting that County Legislator John Testa was somehow trying to limit the “choice” of voters.  Nothing is further from the truth, “as usual with the Peekskill Democrats, you have to look at what they do, not what they say,” stated Testa. The fact is by successfully challenging them in Court, the fraud they tried to perpetrate has been exposed for what it is, an attempt to limit voters’ choice.  For Mike Kane, Chairman of the Peekskill Democratic Party and Darrin Rigger the local Democratic press secretary and professional political operative who has worked for John Hall and Charlie Rangel to claim “politics” is beyond hypocritical!

A judge had to do what the partisan Board of Election Commissioner Reginald Lafayette would not – admit the truth behind the cheating and outrageous actions by the Democratic candidates during the petition process. Kane’s petitions for County Legislator were rife with improper submissions. Of the 104 submitted signatures only 30 were valid. Kane filed petitions with signatures that did not match those on file with the Board of Elections, a petition for completely different elections was submitted as his own and witness statements on multiple petitions were fraudulent.  Commissioner Lafayette, at the urging of the Democratic candidates, ignored the inaccuracies and pushed the decision over to the judge who determined that enough signatures were invalid to disqualify Kane from the Independence line on the ballot.

The fact remains that three quarters of the required signatures that were submitted were judged improper speaks volumes. “I have garnered a reputation over my almost twenty years of public service, first as a councilman, mayor and now as a county legislator of playing by the rules and following the proper procedures to get elected,” Testa exclaimed. Further stating, “I will not tolerate cheating and will always challenge any opponent who feels they need to cheat during an election. I owe it to the people who have supported and elected me. My thanks to former Councilwoman Cathy Pisani for taking a stand for what is right.”