Appellate Court Upholds Ossining GOP Candidates’ Removal
By Arthur Cusano – A New York State appellate court has upheld a court decision that would keep three town board candidates off the Republican Party line in November’s election.
A four-judge panel of the Second Appellate Judicial Division of New York State decided Aug. 18 to uphold an Aug. 7 Supreme Court ruling that found Ossining Town Board candidate Aaron Spring had not properly collected signatures for himself, fellow board candidate Michael Milner and Town Supervisor candidate John Perillo.
Supreme Court Justices Ruth Balkin, Sheri Roman, Sandra Sgroi and Hector Lasalle ruled that the candidate’s contentions were without merit, and that they will remain off the Republican Party line. The three will remain on the ballot on the Conservative Party line.
Spring failed to collect the necessary number of registered Republican signatures in the company of a witness or notary, according to the initial Aug. 7 decision in the case, Joseph N. Sgammato v John Perillo.
Ossining Democratic Committee Chairwoman Thomasina Laidley Brown said Spring knowingly committed fraud by gathering signatures alone while under the age of 18.
“He knew he was not supposed to collect signatures alone,” she said.
Spring could not be reached for comment.
The three candidates needed 205 valid signatures to be on the ballot for the Sept. 10 primary election. Of the 343 signatures they collected, 35 were invalidated by the Westchester County Board of Elections. Democrats then filed the lawsuit alleging that 147 of the 205 remaining signatures were not properly gathered since a witness had not been present when they were collected.
Spring, who was 17 at the time the signatures were gathered and not able to be a witness under state law since he was not a registered voter, had his mother, Caren Shapiro, sign as a witness for all 147 of the contested signatures. But six witnesses at a subsequent Supreme Court hearing alleged that Shapiro had not been with Spring when they gave their signature.
Perillo, a former village mayor, said Monday that all the signatures collected were by valid party members, and claimed that Shapiro had been with her son when he collected them but said she may have been around 10 feet away and out of view of the signees.
He said county Democratic leaders wanted him off the ballot, and used Spring’s error to do so. The man who filed the complaint, Joseph Sgammato, works as an aide to Westchester County District 9 Legislator Catherine Borgia, and Perillo’s opponent, Dana Levenberg, works for New York State Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, D-95.
“They wanted to win through the courts by disenfranchising the people,” he said.
Perillo said Spring, Millner and himself will continue running on the Conservative line. He also praised Spring, who is now attending Fordham University, for his initiative at a young age when few people are interested in politics.
“This young man is really on his mark,” Perillo said. “He’s going places.”
Levenberg, chief of staff for state Assemblywoman Sandra Galef and a nine-year Ossining Union Free School District Board of Education trustee, will appear on the Democratic line as well as the Working Families Party and Independence Party lines with town board candidates Karen Mansi-D’Attore and Liz Feldman. Levenberg said it was common to question signatures of opposing parties, and that the ruling made it clear Spring broke the law.
“His mother wasn’t with him all the time,” she said.
Under state election law, anyone who can sign a petition can witness a petition signing. Levenberg said candidates and other members of a political party can collect signatures for their party, but if collecting signatures for another party they are required to be joined by a notary or member of that second party. Had Spring been 18 years old and a registered voter, there would have been no issue with the signatures he collected, she said. She praised the appellate court’s decision.
“We all need to have a level playing field,” Levenberg said.
Levenberg said she was not sure how much impact the decision would have on November’s election, since Democrats already have a sizable voter advantage in the town and currently hold all seats on the town board.
Current Ossining Supervisor Susanne Donnelly, a Democrat, was not endorsed by the party this year and is not seeking another term, Brown said.
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