We don’t mean to brag but we love it when we are proven right. In fact, we haven’t been proven wrong yet. That’s because we only report on the truth and support our stories with evidence. To be fair we have to admit that when it comes to the Democratic Party in Peekskill, it is too easy. Just take the latest City Council Primary brouhaha for example.
In our last post, we exposed the corrupt process used by the Peekskill Democrats to select their candidates but, more importantly, we showed how the county party works to underhandedly extinguish any challengers to the party choices by using their operatives planted in the county Board of Elections. We even exposed that former Peekskill Democratic Party Chairman TJ Rogers works at the BOE and was involved in the attempt to disqualify the petitions submitted by the Peekskill United candidates for council, Luis Segarra and Robert Sullivan. The methods Rogers used under direction of Morey and Rigger were so far-fetched and outright false that the Peekskill United team had no choice but to challenge the corrupt ruling in court. Make that 3 different courts in fact!
NYS Supreme Court
First stop was in the White Plains Courthouse and more Democratic Party control. After a hearing that required multiple recesses, the Democratic Party Judge ruled that the petitions in question remain invalid. Why? Well, you won’t believe it.
At the heart of the argument were 60 signatures obtained by a college student intern working to help the Peekskill United candidates. As a registered Democrat, she worked diligently to gather those signatures and she felt good about being involved in the electoral process. Well, the Democratic Party didn’t see it that way. A young and energetic college student working for the Peekskill United team? And a registered Democrat to boot? No way! The Democrats needed to find a way to stop those 60 signatures from being valid. If declared valid, the minimum required signature threshold would be met and a Primary would take place.
The Peekskill Democrats, through their campaign Chairman Matt Clausen and the BOE Democratic Commissioner claimed the college student in question was actually not a registered voter in NY, therefore the signatures she gathered were not valid. If that were true they would have been correct in their claim. Except, she WAS and IS a registered voter in NY and the Peekskill United legal team provided original documents on file with the NYS Board of Elections that proved it. Uh oh, now what?
After a two day recess the court met again. Here is the strategy the Democrats came up with over those two days of recess – claim the person didn’t actually sign her name properly on the BOE paperwork. What? The PU team had no choice but to put the person on the stand and ask her under oath if that was her signature and of course she said it was – because it was. The judge then claimed that one of the letters in her last name looked like an ‘E’ but should be an ‘O’ to be her proper name. She explained, under oath, that that just happens to be the way she signs her name. It may resemble an E to some but it is the way she writes the O in her name – and has done it that way all her life. Well, the judge wasn’t accepting that and even said, out loud, in court – “you better learn how to spell your name.” He then promptly declared the petitions invalid. What?! Yup.
Appellate Division of the NY State Supreme Court
The Peekskill United team had no choice but to appeal to the NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division. The ruling in Westchester Court was just too ridiculous to let stand. It was not right and it wasn’t fair to their intern who worked so hard for them. It also wasn’t fair to the 500 Democratic registered voters in Peekskill who signed the PU petitions, and it certainly wasn’t fair to ALL the Democratic voters in Peekskill.
Westchester BOE Letter to “take no position” in the appeal.
It was off to Brooklyn for the Appellate hearing on August 22nd. This time the matter would be heard by a court of 5 judges. It was also far removed from the corrupt Westchester County Democratic Machine. In fact, the Westchester BOE had no choice but to come clean and submit a statement saying the BOE “takes no position on this appeal.” Well, of course they didn’t. They didn’t want to get embarrassed and further exposed for their underhanded ways.
It didn’t take very long for the 5 judges to unanimously overturn the Westchester Court’s decision, declare the petitions valid, and allow the Primary to take place. It showed how the entire challenge by the Peekskill Democrats was a joke and a sham. So, now it was time to plan for the Primary, right? Wait just a minute.
READ FULL APPELLATE DECISION AND ORDER
NYS Court of Appeals
We told you there were 3 courts involved in this. We didn’t realize this was occurring until recently – both sides remained quiet about it. This one took place in Albany on August 30th.
In one last Hail Mary attempt the Peekskill Democrats thought it worth a try to appeal the Appellate Court’s ruling. Mind you, it was a unanimous 5-0 decision that was very clear on the record of evidence it wouldn’t be overturned. But, the Dems just had to try. Funny how they didn’t make a fuss in the press over it as they normally do. No prior warning or claims that they’d be vindicated in Appeals Court. They had their tails between their legs already from getting shut down at the Appellate level so why risk further embarrassment and exposure? It was free so why not – that’s what one of our readers who is close to the Peekskill Dems sent to us in a message. They didn’t care about dragging Clausen’s name around in the mud. He is just a figurehead for the campaign and expendable anyway. Plus, the NYS Dems have lawyers on the payroll that do this sort of thing to keep local political committees happy and beholden to them. The problem with this type of system is that the lawyers involved are not very good and do not commit much time to cases – especially sure losers like this one.
The Court of Appeals works differently than the first two – there actually has to be some merit to the argument for the court to hear the case. To help sift through the frivolous cases and save the judges valuable time so they can focus on serious cases there is a preliminary step to obtain “leave” to proceed to the full court. On the day of the hearing the Peekskill case’s first step was in the Morning Preliminary Review, if deemed with merit, it would proceed to the full court in the afternoon. If not, the process stops and the case goes no further. Well, guess how the Peekskill Democrat’s case fared? Yup, it was thrown out within minutes. Goodbye, stop wasting our time. Good luck with the Primary.
Enter Mike Morey, Darrin Rigger and the Peekskill Democratic Party Spin Machine. They are totally unhinged over the turn of events regarding the Democratic Primary that will take place on September 12th. Time to combine damage control with skewing the facts of what took place and make it look like the Peekskill United candidates are the bad guys. Yes, really… that is what they are attempting to do. Just go on social media and you will see some outrageous claims by the party faithful. They all have the same talking points and they are sticking by them. They just happen to be foolish and so nonsensical that most people are laughing at them.
The serious issue at hand is the Primary itself. It is definitely happening and it is important. The Democratic Party is nervous because they know their candidates are weak and outright unqualified to serve. The Peekskill United candidates are highly qualified and very committed to the City. We have seen some recent posts by the PU campaign that highlight Segarra and Sullivan and are very helpful to get to know them – go see them for yourself. The Peekskill Democratic candidates are nowhere to be found. From the information we have gathered so far, they have very questionable issues associated with them that will surely become public soon enough. They are laying low so they can avoid scrutiny before the Primary.
It is obvious the Peekskill Democrats are approaching the Primary in a stealth way. They mean to get people to vote for their candidates by convincing the registered Dems that the PU candidates are not really Dems. Yes, we know. There couldn’t be a Primary if they weren’t registered Democrats but the Peekskill Dem Party never lets fact or truth get in their way.
We will not make a prediction on who will win the Primary. It is just too difficult to gage. There is already a Primary taking place for Democratic County Executive so there are other factors in play. What we CAN do is give out warnings. First warning is to the Peekskill United team – watch out for the inevitable cheating. The Peekskill Dems are notorious for it. There will be felons voting, those who don’t live in Peekskill anymore voting, those taking other’s identities voting and noncitizens voting. Poll workers will be telling voters who to vote for. They will even sit down with them and help them fill out their ballots. The Party controlled local trolley will shuttle people around – some even to more than one polling place. It has happened every election in Peekskill.
Our final warning is to the City of Peekskill Democratic voters who are not connected to the party machine. Do the right thing for the city, yourself, and your family and vote for Segarra and Sullivan on September 12th.
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