Candidates in a pair of state Senate and Assembly races in Rockland County face primaries for third-party ballots lines in what appear to be hardball tactics to try to cost them votes in November.
One is Nyack Mayor Joe Rand, a Democrat who’s challenging Republican Sen. Bill Weber and was set to run on the Working Families Party line as well. Republicans forced a June 23 primary for that spot by filing a petition to allow write-in votes for other candidates and then winning a court case to affirm its validity.
The other is Rob Bonomolo, a Republican who’s taking on Democratic Assemblyman Aron Wieder and had the Conservative Party’s blessing to run on its ballot line. A registered Conservative then entered the race and survived a court challenge, setting up a primary with Bonomolo and a potential three-way election in November.
Neither primary appears a genuine effort to launch a third-party alternative to the major-party candidates. Rather, the likely motive is to rob opponents of a secondary ballot line and siphon votes from them in November by putting up straw candidates.
What to know about Rockland political maneuvers
In an interview, Rand told the USA TODAY Network he doesn’t like or practice those tactics but accepts them as an unfortunate part of politics. His task now is to get Working Families voters to the polls in what will likely be a low turnout primary with no actual opponent on the ballot to motivate them.
“I’m going to roll up my sleeves and do what I can to win that primary,” he said.
The same maneuvering happened two years ago in Rockland, where third-party candidates with no visible campaigns cropped up in races for Congress, state Senate and Assembly. In each case, those rivals managed to draw votes in the general election from a major-party contender who lost — though not enough votes to take the blame (or credit) for those defeats.
In the congressional race, former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones lost the Working Families line to a challenger his campaign asserted was a straw candidate in a primary in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Lawler. His rival went on to win 7,530 votes on the Working Families line that might otherwise have gone to Jones that November. But Lawler’s victory margin was much larger than that, at around 24,000.
In this year’s race for the 97th Assembly District, Bonomolo must vie with Abraham Klein on June 23 for the Conservative line that he was counting on to bolster his Republican vote total in November.
Bonomolo said in an interview he almost expected to be challenged for the Conservative line since that happened in the last 97th Assembly District race. He took it in stride, saying he’s treating the primary as a scrimmage for the general election and a chance to start campaigning.
“It’s a time for me to go out and knock on doors and introduce myself to Conservative voters,” he said.
Klein didn’t respond to calls from the USA TODAY Network for comment on his candidacy. His petition was submitted by one of Wieder’s Assembly staff members, and it was defended in court by the same lawyer who helped Wieder fend off a similar tactic against him — a failed bid to insert a Working Families candidate in the race.
In the 38th Senate District race, the write-in petition for the Working Families line was submitted by a Republican who also played a part in the third-party skirmishes waged on Bonomolo’s behalf in the Assembly race. His Working Families tactic against Rand — known as an opportunity-to-ballot petition — was successfully defended in court by Republican election lawyer John Ciampoli.
Wieder declined to comment on the third-party maneuvers. Weber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Michael Sheridan, the Republican who filed the petition forcing a Working Families primary for the Senate race, said he would call back when reached by a reporter but has not done so as of May 15.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Third party skirmishes roil Rockland races for NY Senate, Assembly
Reporting by Chris McKenna, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
