Jonathan Judge Appeals Lower Court Decision To Restore Name To Ballot

The Jonathan Judge for City Council campaign has released the following statement:

Republican City Council candidate Jonathan Judge has retained former Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor as his legal counsel on appeal of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny Mr. Judge a spot on the ballot. Senator Connor is the former minority leader of the State Senate and represented the 25th Senate district for thirty years.

“Senator Connor was the obvious choice for our appeal, given his time handling election law matters in the State Senate during his career,” Mr. Judge said. “His knowledge and skill as an election attorney are renown, and our campaign is honored to have him representing us.

The Supreme Court decided on Tuesday, March 9th that Mr. Judge had a mere 15 signatures below the number required to stay on the ballot. “The court unfortunately mistook the law and neglected to accept clear and convincing evidence of the scores of additional valid signatures we had collected,” Mr. Judge said. Discussing the lawsuit against him, Mr. Judge added, “David Greenfield and his Vito Lopez machine have done everything in their power to eliminate the voters’ choices in this election.”

The Board of Elections Chief Clerk Diane Rudiano also refused to accept signatures collected by former District leader Susan Cleary while being aware that she was a registered voter. In fact, Ms Cleary served as a Board of Elections poll worker and as a fellow member of the Kings County Republican Party Committee with Ms. Rudiano. Her refusal to accept those dozens of signatures was contrary to the law and entirely inappropriate.

“I am confident that the Appellate Division will restore my name to the ballot given the strength of our legal arguments,” Mr. Judge said.

This appeal comes after Judge’s campaign attained the threshold for matching funds. “I am humbled by the countless donations from my neighbors and friends from across the district,” Judge said. “Our grassroots campaign has been one of the most successful in Brooklyn by far, and that credit goes to the voters of the district.”

Mr. Judge’s appeal will likely be heard early next week.

{Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}