COURIER LIFE, APRIL 2-8, 2021 17
earned their turn to take
an elected post.
“It’s a concept that
very few people in politics
understand, it’s called
loyalty,” Seddio said.
Not anyone can run
for an elected position
in their district, but Seddio
contends candidates
must have taken the time
to nurture ties in the community,
and furthermore
argued that crowded
races suck up tax dollars
due to the city’s campaign
matching programs.
“Everybody wants
things handed them to
them. The most important
thing if you decide
you want to run for offi
ce, you have to earn the
respect of volunteers and
others who are going to
help you get on the ballot,”
Seddio said. “We
have over 500 people in
the city of New York running
for the 51 council
seats… if each of them
meet the commitment
of what we’ve done with
public funding, which is 8
to 1, we are going to pay a
billion dollars!”
BY BEN VERDE &
JESSICA PARKS
After clearing the necessary
270 signatures required
for their names
to appear on the ballot, a
number of City Council
hopefuls have received
challenges to their petitions
from opponents
claiming that the signatures
are illegitimate —
but the would-be pols are
shooting back, accusing
their detractors of engaging
in dirty politics during
a pandemic.
“It’s ridiculous to be
challenging signatures
during a pandemic because
candidates like myself
and our volunteers
are literally risking our
lives to collect these signatures,
and we’re also
putting voters at risk to
sign these petitions,” said
Chi Ossé, a candidate running
for the 36th District
in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The petitioning
process
Under election laws,
politicians and their supporters
need to physically
collect the 270 signatures
from registered
voters in their districts.
While that threshold has
been lowered from the
previous requirement of
900 signatures due to the
pandemic, many politicos
had wanted the signature
provision abolished completely
— saying that inperson
contact put them
and the public at risk.
Signatures can be
deemed illegitimate for a
number of reasons — including
by proving the
person doesn’t live in
the district, or they simply
signed in the wrong
place. If a judge tosses
out enough signatures to
knock candidates below
the required threshold,
their name won’t appear
on the ballot for the June
2021 primary elections.
Often, however, those
who fi le challenges are
simply looking to tie candidates
up in costly and
timely litigation.
Ossé, for example,
fi led over 2,000 signatures,
meaning the challenge
would need to fi nd
that over 1,700 are illegitimate,
which would be farfetched
— and yet, he still
needs to shell out the resources
to defend himself
in court.
‘Democracy is being
manipulated’
In the race to succeed
term-limited Councilmember
Alan Maisel
in southeast Brooklyn,
members of a political
club headed by former
Brooklyn Democratic
Party boss Frank Seddio
fi led objections against
fi ve of the ten candidates.
“It does not surprise
me in the middle of the
pandemic… that Frank
Seddio and his candidate
would challenge our petitions
to run for offi ce,”
said Mercedes Narcisse, a
candidate running for the
46th District.
The candidates — Narcisse,
Dimple Willabus,
Donald Cranston, Shirley
Paul, and Stanley Scutt
— are running in the
election where Seddio’s
Thomas Jefferson Democratic
Club has endorsed
two other candidates, former
Community Board 18
chair Gardy Brazela and
retired NYPD detective
Judy Newton.
“In this instance, democracy
is being manipulated
in an attempt to
benefi t those who are intertwined
with the political
establishment,” Willabus
told Brooklyn Paper.
“It is a blatant misuse of
democracy. A simple review
of the objectors exposes
the fact that they
are all TJ club loyalists,
including its current
president.”
Seddio defended the
practice in an interview
with Brooklyn Paper —
arguing the tactic is regularly
used in politics.
“Quite frankly I am
more upset about the fact
that they’re amateurs,”
Seddio said. “It’s a game.
This is what we do, this
is part of the profession
of being in politics. We do
our absolute best to win
for our candidates.”
The former party boss
said the club’s duel candidates
have both shown
their loyalty to the club
for many years, and have
Candidates speak about petition objections. Dimple Willabus
An old school move
Petition challenges persist amid the pandemic