Haggertys rebuked as Berney loses challenge to knock Milano off GOP ballot
Posted on August 19, 2010 by Howard Koplowitz in Congress, District 5, U.S. House
A Nassau County appellate court unanimously sided against Great Neck, L.I., attorney Liz Berney in her attempt to throw Dr. James Milano, her opponent in the Republican primary, off the ballot in the race to determine who will face off against U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Bayside) in November.
Berney argued that a document known as a Wilson-Pakula certificate, which is given to allow a candidate registered with one party to run on another’s line, issued to Milano, a registered Democrat, was invalid.
Berney claimed the Wilson-Pakula was not legitimate because she maintained that Republican insurgent Bart Haggerty is the true chairman of the Queens GOP and that he did not receive notice of the meeting when the certificate was issued to Milano.
Haggerty and his brother John, who is facing charges he stole $1.1 million of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s money, have been in a longstanding feud with Queens GOP Chairman Phil Ragusa over control of the Queens GOP. Both Haggerty and Ragusa laid claim to leadership of the borough party, but the Nassau Supreme Court sided with Ragusa and noted that Haggerty took too much time to file a suit against Ragusa.
Ragusa “submitted evidence showing that [he] was elected chairman of the Queens County Republican Party at a Queens County Republican Party meeting held on or about Oct. 3, 2009, and that the statewide Republican Party subsequently recognized Ragusa as chairman of the Queens County Republican Party,” the appellate judges wrote in their decision Tuesday against Berney.
“Under these circumstances, in arguing that the [Wilson-Pakula] certificate was invalid, [Berney] essentially challenges Ragusa’s authority and position…” the judges said. “As the [Nassau] Supreme Court correctly determined, the challenge was time-barred.”
Queens GOP spokesman Robert Hornak said the appellate court decision “comes as no surprise to anyone engaged in Queens Republican politics.”
“The Haggerty brothers have been nothing more than nuisances and gadflies given to making frivolous claims that have only served to slow down the growth of the Queens Republican Party,” he said in a statement.
Liz Berney has used under age petitioners for her tax revolt line and libertarian line and soon the story goes to the press.
Correction:
The last sentence of paragraph 3 should have said:
“Without such a special dispensation, Democrat Milano cannot run as a REPUBLICAN.”
This story leaves out most of the facts and mischaracterizes the rest.
Unfortunately, both this story and the appellate court completely mischaractered Ms. Berney’s claims regarding the Wilson-Pakula certificate. Ms. Berney did NOT maintain that Ragusa is not a chairman of the Queens County Republican party. Instead, Ms. Berney presented the fact that BOTH Ragusa and Haggerty filed the requisite papers with the New York State Board of Elections evidencing their Chairmanship of the Queens County Republican party, and neither challenged the other within the 10-day period for filing challenges. Accordingly, both Ragusa and Haggerty are lawful Chairman, and both were entitled to a “place at the table” to vote on whether to grant out-of-the-district Democrat James Milano a Wilson-Pakula certificate to run on the Republican ballot line.
Nassau County Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello voted AGAINST granting a Wilson-Pakula special dispensation to Democrat Milano to run on the Republican ballot line. Chairman Haggerty filed an affidavit that he also would have voted against granting a Wilson-Pakula authorizatoin to Milano. Haggerty’s vote would have been the deciding vote. Without such a special dispensation, Democrat Milano cannot run as a Democrat.
Ms. Berney also presented the Court with copies of Milano’s Federal Elections Commission filings, which reveal that Milano paid the Ragusa faction of the Queens County Republican Party and related entities $13,000 just before they cast the only vote to grant Democrat Milano the Wilson-Pakula certificate to run as a Republican. Penal Law 200.45 makes payments for a nomination a crime. Curiously, the Court completely ignored Milano’s egregiouis “pay for play” payments in its decision.
In addition, Ms. Berney presented affidavits from voters confirming that their “signatures” on Milano’s designating petitions were forgeries. Some voters were out of the country and out of the area on the dates when their forged signatures somehow appeared
on Milano’s petitions. The forgeries were committed by someone prominent in Milano’s campaign. Ms. Berney also presented numerous other examples of petiton fraud and irregularities committed by persons acting on Milano’s behalf, and affidavits of Milano’s fraudulent statements to voters regarding his residence and party affiliation. The Court’s summary dismissal of these well-documented claims without a hearing was wrong, and hopefully will be overturned on appeal.
Ms. Berney is appealing all of this to the New York State Court of Appeals.
Note: This is the second time the reporter of the story wrote a one-sided story plugging out-of-the district candidate Milano, without engaging in the fair journalistic practice of contacting the other side and reporting both sides of the story. The last time this occurred, Ms. Berney called the reporter to convey the facts. However, the reporter never returned her call. Ms. Berney sincerely hopes that the reporter will engage in fair and balanced reporting in the future.