By Doug La Rocque
In July, Tom Gerety, a supporter of Tistrya Houghtling’s bid to garner the Democratic Party line for this November’s special election for the 107th Assembly District, filed a complaint with the New York State Board of Elections. That in effect claims her opponent’s transfer of funds from his now closed Congressional bid, to his Assembly campaign, violated state election laws.
Mr. Gerety contends that Don Boyajian Jr. shows a one-time contribution of $150,000 to his Assembly campaign from his Congressional campaign. Of this, Mr. Gerety claims nearly $109,000 is from individual donations that date back to February of 2017. He maintains the transfer treats Congressional donations as Assembly campaign donations, despite the fact he did not open his Assembly campaign until a year later. “Mr. Boyajian was running a Congressional race at the time, but now reports these monies as donated to his Assembly race. A candidate is prohibited from running both of these races at the same time.”
The Eastwick Press received the following statement from Mr. Boyajian. “The law is clear that the transfer is permissible. I will continue to focus on the issues that actually matter in this race: putting Upstate first, fighting for clean safe drinking water, protecting women’s reproductive rights, and fighting for working men and women.”
The Eastwick Press sent repeated inquiries to the Board of Elections, seeking to determine if the complaint has been accepted or resolved. To date, there has been no answer from that board.
The winner of the September 13 primary will race Republican Jake Ashby, who won a special election against Troy’s Cindy Doran to fill the vacancy created January 1, when former Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin resigned to become Rensselaer County Executive.