Mount Vernon Democrats’ self-made mess

August

The Mount Vernon Democratic City Committee made a basic mistake on their petition and got their four candidates for City Council booted off the ballot.

They made this mistake even though the county’s Democratic election commissioner serves as vice-chair of that very committee. Commissioner Reginald LaFayette then later had to issue a ruling against his own committee because it was clear that the petition violated election law.

Asked about the situation, LaFayette said no one asked him for help. Other Democratic leaders passed the buck. They said some district leaders knew about the mistake, but never bothered to mention it to party bosses. Was the information withheld because of an oversight, or because of malice? Committee Chairman Deveraux Cannick wouldn’t say.

The petition failed to note one of the candidates was running for a shorter, unexpired term. Other less organized political factions got it right. As a result, the county Board of Elections dropped Jennifer “Anne” Sampson, Debra Stern, Eileen Justino and Collie Nathan Edwers from the ballot. Yesterday, a state Supreme Court judge upheld that decision.

The mistake that could have been avoided if someone spoke up or asked for help. Now, the Democratic Committee has no candidates for city council on the primary ballot. On top of that, the debacle may have paved the way for rivals and political foes of the Democratic establishment and Mayor Clinton Young to win office.

You’d think heads would roll because of this mess. But so far, I haven’t heard about any party shakeup. Have you?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 2:20 pm by Hannan Adely.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
| Email This

2 Responses to “Mount Vernon Democrats’ self-made mess”

Jennifer Walford August 11th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
The requirment to RECREATE petitions from a template is open for mistakes. It is 2009. I’m pretty sure if you go through many of the forms many errors. Errors like missing periods, commas, and tenses can change the legal meaning of this document. These just happened to be seen. The current Nominating system is rife with flaws that discounts qualified candidates. There is no reason the State is not providing templates for candidates using Adobe Acrobat to be filled in accordingly.
the consultant August 11th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
whats your point.the mount vernon democratic city committee
needs an assist in english interpretation?

It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the Terms of Service.