by Thaddeus Flint
With barely three months to go before election day, the first lawsuits intending to knock candidates out of the running before they have even started walking–never mind running–are already being filed.
[private]Last Tuesday, July 28, saw the interesting spectacle of New Lebanon Town Supervisor Mike Benson faced against the New Lebanon Town Clerk Colleen Teal in a Columbia County courtroom. Actually the Town Supervisor sent his lawyer instead of appearing himself so nobody really saw that happen, although it did appear on paper.
Benson, in a private capacity and not in any way connected with Town business, had filed two lawsuits. One named Teal along with Virginia Martin and Jason Natske, Commissioners of the Columbia County Board of Elections. The second named the afore mentioned Commissioners along with Ashley Mole, Kellie McMillian, and Sena Larabee, who, reads the lawsuit, “characterize themselves ‘as a committee to receive notices in accordance with the provisions of the election law for the ‘Independent Party”’.
The motivation for the suits was a decision by Teal, who has been Town Clerk for 13 years, to move a rung up the New Lebanon political ladder and run for Town Supervisor. According to Teal, “the position of Supervisor seemed to be up in the air.” She had made efforts to find out if Benson was running again but nobody could tell her yes or no. “So I considered my two options: walk away and try something completely different or step up and become part of the solution to many of the problems currently plaguing New Lebanon. I opted for the second one”.
Teal chose to run on the Independence party and Republican party lines and went out to petition to appear on the upcoming ballots under those designations. As the Independence Party was endorsing Benson, Teal had to have three New Lebanon Independence Party members agree to serve as the committee. These were Mole, McMillian, and Larabee.
Teal’s intent to one day be Town Supervisor was taken seriously by the current Town Supervisor. Benson filed notice challenging the validity of the petitions.
First of all Teal had written “Independent Party” on the petitions and it should have been “Independence Party”. Never mind that some of the signers were willing to sign again saying that they knew what they were signing when they signed it, that they understood it was the Independence Party Teal was petitioning for. “Independence” and “Independent” are not the same and those few letters of difference, it turns out, could find someone in a court of law.
“The only parties in New York State that may file Designating/Opportunity to Ballot Petitions during the time frame filed are the Democratic, Republican, Conservative, Working Families, Independence and Green Parties,” read Benson’s suit as a candidate aggrieved, which also noted that the most signatures for the wrong party were collected prior to the deadline for getting signatures for the right party.
The Board of Elections split its decision as to the validity of these petitions and so they remained valid.
Acting Supreme Court Judge Richard Koweek sided with Benson on this, but only because Teal was getting signatures on an Opportunity to Ballot Petition and a Designating Petition at the same time which, it turns out, is a no-no.
The second suit questioned whether the Town Clerk actually lives in the Town she clerks in. Benson alleged that Teal spends too much time with her boyfriend over in Pittsfield to be considered a resident of New Lebanon and thus all her petitions which listed her address in New Lebanon were invalid. Just to be sure, Teal’s roommates were subpoenaed and forced to come down to Hudson to be cross examined.
“I don’t mind for me so much,” said Teal “I chose to run for public office. I don’t like everyone else getting dragged into it. They did not choose public office.”
Once again the Board of Elections split its decision which was why Teal and her roommates found themselves before Judge Koweek explaining their private living situation.
Judge Koweek found in favor of Teal on this point.
Benson “contends that ‘physical presence’ equates to sleeping overnight in a specific location. He further contends that the fact that [Teal] worked and owned real property in the Town of New Lebanon, voted in the Town of New Lebanon, maintained a driver’s license with her address in the Town of New Lebanon, filed her New York State and Federal Tax returns…listing the address in the Town of New Lebanon as her residence and received all of her mail at her New Lebanon residence, including all of her bills, was of no moment,” wrote Judge Koweek, who was not so impressed with those contentions. For him, it was moment enough.
“No evidence was offered to suggest that Ms. Teal had attempted to change her residence,” wrote Judge Koweek in his July 31 decision, “and all other indicia of intent comports with this Court’s understanding of the definition of residence contained in Election Law § 1-104 (22).
Teal said she is pleased the Judge’s response will allow her to appear as a candidate in the Republican primary election on September 10. At the same time she said she understands the Judge’s decision in regard to the Independence party, saying “election law is very complex and I apparently undid myself by carrying both a Designating Petition and an Opportunity to Ballot Petition at the same time.” Teal also intends to seek the Democratic endorsement at their caucus on August 20.
Benson is not so pleased. “The sworn testimony of Colleen Teal has very clearly demonstrated that she is not nor does she intend to be a resident of New Lebanon as required by the law,” Benson wrote in an August 3 email. “As such, she should end the deception on an immediate basis.” [/private]