By Matthew Spina
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Published:July 15, 2011, 12:00 AM
Dozens of candidates for county and municipal offices filed petitions with the Erie County Board of Elections on Thursday to get their names on this year’s ballot.
Notably absent from the process was any candidate for County Legislature. Not one filed a petition by Thursday’s deadline because the road to those elections has been blocked by another legislative logjam.
“I think the judge is controlling the process from this point on,” said Legislator Thomas A. Loughran, D-Amherst, one of the incumbents who intend to seek another two-year term. “We don’t even know what the districts are.”
Amid partisan wrangling, the Legislature over the previous months failed to establish this decade’s 11 new legislative districts. Without defined districts, candidates cannot circulate their designating petitions, and Legislature elections are nearly impossible until a judge sorts out the mess.
A hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.
A lawsuit by Ralph M. Mohr, the Republican elections commissioner, threw the matter into federal court. Mohr asks U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny to appoint an expert to devise a set of districts the judge can impose. Skretny has been asked to then adjust election deadlines to give Legislature candidates time to circulate designating petitions.
Without circulating petitions, the selection of party candidates would fall to party committees — a process that would favor incumbents over outsiders and hamstring those incumbents who have fallen out of favor with their party hierarchy.
“If I was a legislative incumbent, I couldn’t be happier,” Peter A. Reese, a Buffalo lawyer and a member of the county Democratic Committee, said of this year’s confusion.
“In terms of practicality, it is impossible for any challenger to put together a campaign for County Legislature. You have to go out and get people to act as petitioners,” Reese said. “How do you do all that if you don’t know what districts you are running in?”
Skretny wants the lawyers to propose the written orders they would have him sign in order to allow more time for circulating petitions. He also wants to see the formal redistricting plans that have been submitted so far to the Legislature and its advisory committee on redistricting, said Erie County Attorney Jeremy A. Colby.
Skretny has been asked to decide a second lawsuit, one filed by a Democratic committeeman from Hamburg, Dennis F. Chapman. Chapman argues that despite the voters’ mandate in last year’s election, the Legislature should not be allowed to shrink from 15 members to 11 after this year’s elections. The state’s Municipal Home Rule Law allows legislative bodies to downsize just once each decade, and Chapman says a decade means 10 years. The Legislature went from 17 members to 15 in 2003.
Several county lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, will sign a letter telling Chapman they oppose his lawsuit and asking him to withdraw it. Chapman, however, has already asked to step away from the lawsuit, to be replaced as the plaintiff by Albert DeBenedetti, a former Erie County lawmaker who agrees that the matter must be clarified, and Justin H. Gerstein of the Amherst Democratic Committee.
While Legislature elections are stalled until Skretny issues a ruling, candidates for countywide office filed petitions as expected Thursday.
In this year’s race for Erie County executive, incumbent Republican Chris Collins filed petitions to place his name on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines. Challenger Mark C. Poloncarz, the county comptroller, filed petitions for the Democratic and Working Families lines.
He’s on a ticket with Maria R. Whyte, currently the Legislature’s Democratic majority leader, who is running for the county clerk’s post vacated by Kathleen C. Hochul when she won a special election in the 26th Congressional District. Whyte’s petitions for the Democratic and Working Families lines also were filed Thursday.
Also filing for county clerk was Republican Christopher L. Jacobs, a member of the Buffalo Board of Education, on the Republican and Independence lines. Joseph Gallo, a member of the Conservative Party from Cheektowaga, filed petitions for the Conservative line.
For Family Court judge, Sharon M. LoVallo, an acting judge in the court, filed petitions for the Democratic and Working Families lines. The Democratic Party has endorsed her, as well well as Whyte and Poloncarz. Also filing was incumbent Family Court Judge Patricia A. Maxwell, on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines. She is endorsed by the Republican Party.