This morning, as we predicted in a story a few weeks ago, five candidates of the eleven council candidates running to fill the vacancy in the Bronx 17th Council District were bounced from the February 23 ballot: Amanda Septimo, Carlton Curry, Helen Hines-Foreman, Elliot Quiñones and retired U.S. Army Sgt John Perez.
Amanda Septimo — Commissioners on the New York City Board of Election ruled Ms. Septimo off the ballot because she circulated petitions under the banner of the ‘Democratic Values’ independent body. State election law prohibits the use of a name that creates confusion with the name of an existing political party. The BOE’s Independent Nominating Rules for the 2016 Elections states that the use of such a name is a prima facie fatal defect. The controlling Appellate Division case, DiResto v. Cornell. Under the New York City Charter, city council special elections are non-partisan elections. Ms. Septimo could have been a contender because she raised over $30,000 in contributions.
Carlton Curry — Suffered a prima facie fatal defect and was ruled off the ballot for failure to file a timely certificate of acceptance. Back on January 20, Mr. Curry vehemently denied that he failed to file his certificate of acceptance. The document he filed was notarized on January 20 — one day late.
According to the NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB), Carlton Curry had raised $17,321.
Helen Foreman-Hines — Also suffered a prima facie fatal defect and was ruled off the ballot for failure to file a certificate of acceptance. Ms. Hines, a retired 1199 SEIU political organizer, seemed to have a rough time raising campaign donations. According to the CFB, Ms. Hines raised only $465.
Elliot Quiñones [No Photo Available] — The BOE commissioners ruled off the special election ballot for filing fewer than the required 450 valid signatures from registered voters in the 17th Council district. Quiñones chose not to participate in the CFB public funds program.
John Perez — The BOE also ruled Sgt. Perez off the special election ballot for filing an insufficient number of valid signatures from registered voters in the 17th Council district. The retired Army vet did not chose to participate in the CFB public funds program.
Sources say that now that his young aide, Amanda Septimo has been embarrassingly disqualified from the February 23rd special election ballot, Rep. Jose Serrano has offered to endorse frontrunner Rafael Salamanca, the candidate of the Bronx Democratic establishment. No word on when that endorsement will be forthcoming.
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