Where’s Waldo?
While Waldo Cabrera, a protege of County Executive Steve Levy, did not deliver petitions to the Board of Elections by Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, he did get his petitions in the mail in time to challenge Assemb. Philip Ramos.
Cabrera filed 930 signatures, far above the 500 required, and some of those who carried petitions for him included at least a half dozen Levy administration staffers like Deputy county attorney Gail Lolis, economic development aide Lisa Broughton, Dianna Marshall of the Office of Women and Roger Podd from the labor department.
”It’s a big boost,” said Cabrera. “Ramos wants people to believe he’s got the community sewn up but it's not true. This shows I have a lot of support.”
However, Ramos said he collected even more, 1,500 signatures, and relied on outside help. Without mentioning Levy by name, he said, “It’s not representative of his organization but other entities who came in to impose their political agenda on our residents.”
Dean Hough of Coram also filed about 1,100 signatures to run a Democratic primary against Assemb. Patricia Eddington (WFP-Medford), who claimed the contest is being engineered by Kevin Gershowitz, a claim Hough denies.
And Greg Fischer of Calverton has also filed 1,500 signatures on petitions to wage a Democratic primary in the First State Senate district against party designee Lori Cassar of Miller Place who filed 3,530 signatures. And Deer Park Democrat James McDonald filed 1,350 signatures to run against party designee Matthew Rocchio of Lindenhurst who filed 2,076 signatures. In both races 1,000 signatures are required.
Rick Brand
Comments (4)
A lot of the people who collected signatures for Waldo are regulare people who never have done politics before. We are sick of Ramos doing nothing for us and we want someone who will fight to make things better in Central Islip Brentwood and North Bay Shore.
Waldo cares about our neighborhood. He works hard to show all the positive things about the people here. He really tries to make things better for all of us.
Ramos is never here. He is always out of the country. He doesn't get things for the communtiy. For example why did he get money for CUNY City College when that money could go for Suffolk or NYTech or CWPost or Touro right here? Check the record. He gets money for other places like NYCity but not much for here. And he tried to hold up the tax money we need to make us have a hiring hall we don't want.
I was proud to work to get Waldo elected. Many of my friends were afraid to speak out but when they see Waldo on the ballot they will elect him. We are sick of Ramos. We want Waldo.
See Fischer on TV ... http://youtube.com/watch?v=Trm8tAj5nGk
Watch out, there may be a new sheriff in town.
People are afraid. They want to vote for Waldo but they fear coming out and saying they support him because Ramos might come after them. Montano asked my neighbor if she signed for Waldo.
Cabrera Ally Challenges Ramos’ Petitions
Johnny W. Velez, president of the Brentwood Hispanic Democratic Club, has filed specific objections to the Democratic designating petitions of incumbent Philip Ramos. Velez is a supporter of Waldo Cabrera, who also petitioned to appear on the Democratic line in his bid for the 6th Assembly seat.
“Phil Ramos boasted to Newsday of having filed 1,500 petition signatures. However, an examination of his filing reveals that of the 1,464 signatures he submitted, 856 are invalid,” said Velez. He went on to explain that while Ramos himself collected no signatures, the sheets witnessed by several Ramos supporters, including members of his Assembly staff, are filled with the signatures of registrants of other parties, voters who live outside the district, and individuals who are not registered to vote. Numerous petition pages show blocks of signatures obviously written by the same hand. “Although it appears that Ramos has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, I have requested that the Board of Elections make note of the discrepancy in the number of signatures filed and the number of valid signatures on the petition,” announced Velez.
Insurgent Democratic candidate Waldo Cabrera mailed over 900 petition signatures to meet the July 10th filing deadline. “The extremely high number of suspect entries submitted by Ramos’ campaign shows a callous disregard for the rules, regulations, and procedures by which each of us must abide,” said Cabrera. “Clearly, these petitions are an indication of my opponent’s disrespect for the community.” .