Abinanti continues to try to throw Jen Williams off the ballot
By Dan Murphy
Do we want good people in government who do good work? Should Politics as usual have ended in March? Sometimes, our elected officials just don’t get it, or don’t understand that the time to challenge another candidates petitions, especially if that person is a fellow democrat who has been involved in her community
Last month, we wrote about Jen Williams, a democrat from Irvington, who is challenging longtime Westchester Democrat Tom Abinanti. Abinanti, served for many years on the County Board of Legislators before moving up to serve in the Assembly for the past 10 years.
According to Williams, Abinanti has never been opposed before, but that is not excuse enough to pull the election manuevers he is trying to get Williams off the ballot and out of the democratic primary on June 23.
Yes everything that Abinanti is doing is legal, but at this time in the middle of the Coronavirus, it just seems like the wrong thing to do.
We wrote about this last month, when Abinanti initially challenged Williams’ petition based on a technicality, she had mistakenly wrote New York State Assembly instead of Assemblyman on the top of all of her petitions.
Williams safely collected 160 signatures of democrats in the district, in the middle of the virus. Abinanti and his wife went to Williams home and affixed the lawsuit to her door last month, in the middle of the virus and without any protective gear.
We will let Williams explain her side of this story to you. “Do we want good people in government who do good work? The incumbent for the Assembly in District 92 has never run opposed, and now he has taken to the courts to waste taxpayer money during a pandemic to keep his job
“Should there not be more outrage that a woman who wants to serve her comunity is being denied that right? If you are looking for the “covid angle” it is this: Tom Abinanti, a documented anti-vaxxer, could return to Albany in a position to make decisions about the health care of our children. A woman is working hard to unseat him, but is facing an uphill battle because she is not a lawyer and is a political newcomer. The timeline:
“I submitted my petition, the Board of Election accepted it. I was placed on the ballot. Abinanti sued me, and the Board of Elections removed me from the ballot (They incorrectly cited a rule that does not apply to Assembly positions.)
“I sued to be put back on the ballot and won in Supreme Court. Abinanti appealed to the Appellate Division. The case was heard and I won again. Abinanti has now requested a hearing in New York’s highest court (what is called a ‘leave to appeal’)
“I must again prepare materials for that court, the Court of Appeals, arguing why this is not a constitutional challenge worthy of their limited resources.
“In the words of the panel of 4 judges who had to hear my opponent’s wasteful appeal, my petition “was sufficient to inform the signers, voters, and the Board of Elections that the petitioner sought the public office of Member of the New York State Assembly.”
“The rule of law comes down to a comma. Whether the term I used “New York State Assembly, District 92” contains the two components required to identify the position I seek: an indicator of the position and an indicator of the geographical region.
“Five judges have all agreed on the same verdict and it’s a very simple example of the oldest trick in the book – tie someone up, waste someone’s time, bankrupt their campaign and win in the courts and deny people a choice,” Williams said. “That to me, it’s not correct,”
“My opponent has expended so much taxpayer money wasting court resources on this matter during a pandemic. I hope that he is finally ready to let the voters, not the courts, decide who is best suited to represent the Rivertowns in Albany as their Assemblywoman.
“Election rules must not be so rigid or technical that they have a chilling effect on encouraging citizens to become involved in the process. This is why the courts have consistently ruled in favor of cases like mine.
“Thanks to the Yonkers Times for breaking the story of my successful fight to stay on the ballot for a seat in the New York State Assembly. We also are grateful for the outpouring of support that we received in response to the verdict. As we started to field calls and text messages from voters, people were disappointed to learn that my opponent, the incumbent, would stoop to tying up the courts with a frivolous suit just to avoid any healthy competition. Let alone that he served legal papers to my son in person with no protective gear at a point when new Covid deaths in the New York area were hovering at about 1,000 per day.
“The global pandemic has brought new urgency to these themes – public health, community, and open government. If ever there was a time to rise up and tell the ‘old boys’ that we are ready for new leadership, new ideas, and new energy it is now.
“Small business interests have certainly been at the top of my list. With my father, who passed away last year, I ran a small energy consulting firm in Tarrytown for over 10 years. As my opponent spends his energy trying to win the election via the courts, I have worked with other community advocates to create #takeoutFridays, building support for struggling restaurants in the area.
“We can no longer forgive leaders who still believe that not all students inNew York State must be vaccinated. Now that we have all seen what life is like without one vaccine, we must come together and agree that scientifically valid measures such as vaccines save lives. I say again: it is time for new leadership, new ideas, and new energy.
“My opponent is appealing, in an attempt to bankrupt my campaign and scare me off. He does this in desperation, and in vain. I tell you what I have told him: I’m not going anywhere. Albany politics, as represented ably by my opponent, is an insider’s game that will do just about anything to maintain the status quo. And we cannot abide that status quo.
Please consider donating to our campaign JenforNY.org. Now more than ever, we appreciate your consideration to support our effort and get Jen to Albany,” writes Williams
We find it interesting that one of Abinanti’s few public comments on his petition challenge was that he indicated that he doesn’t think the courts right now are willing to knock anyone off the ballot even though there are multiple precedents around the state to do so.
That’s our point in writing about this race and what we find to be a foolish challenge to make in the middle of a pandemic. It is not the right time to be attempting to deny someone the right to be on the ballot.
Abinanti has commented that the courts are not willing to do knock anyone off the ballot. Why then does he continue to appeal and challenge? These efforts do not appear to be helping your re-elecction. It makes you appear tone deaf, and mean spirited.
Many have admired Abinanti’s work as a public servant over 20 years, most notably his efforts to rid the garbage industry of organized crime while a member of the County Board, and his political courage to challenge former State Senator Nick Spano when nobody else would do it.
But his recent legal manuevers have overshadowed his prior good work. Now your opponent has become a sympathetic candidate and public figure who is now in the public eye, and once the voters take a look at her candidacy, they may realize that Williams is an engaged members of her community, who brings business experience to the race, and who, in our view, is running for all the right reasons.
If not for Abinanti’s petition challenge and multiple appeals, very few voters and democrats would have taken notice of this race. Overall, this was a bad political miscalculation and a bad judgement of what the people of Westchester want to see, and don’t want to see, from their elected officials.
