Riley Working Families line challenged
Republicans contest validity of signatures
ALBANY — Republicans contend Democrat Josh Riley submitted dozens of invalid signatures to qualify for the Working Families Party ballot line in the upcoming election for New York’s 19th Congressional District.
If the GOP challenge that was filed with the state Board of Elections last week is successful it could limit Riley to running exclusively on the Democratic Party ballot line. His expected general election opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, has submitted petitions to run on the Republican and Conservative lines.
A spokeswoman for the state Board of Elections, Kathleen R. Mcgrath, said the GOP’S challenge met the submission deadline. Democratic operatives had questioned whether the challenge would be thrown out due to a timing issue.
Riley’s campaign declined to comment.
The outcome could have Riley running on one less ballot line than Molinaro, which would pose an additional challenge to the Ithaca Democrat in the battleground district.
Riley lost to Molinaro in 2022 by about 4,500 votes, or 1.6 percent. It was one of the narrowest congressional victories in the state.
The petition challenge was signed by David Jensen, a former Republican Broome County legislator, and announced by the Broome County Republican Party. It was postmarked on April 11, the deadline to file a challenge.
Out of 232 signatures submitted by Riley’s campaign for the Working Families Party ballot line, the GOP is challenging 83 of those. If all of the challenges prove successful, Riley would
fall six signatures short of the cutoff to be placed on the ballot line.
The challenges include that a person who signed the petition is not registered with the Working Families Party, failed to date or initial the paperwork, identified the wrong town or there is
an issue with the credibility of the witness to a signature.
“Josh Riley thinks he can lie and cheat his way into Congress,” Benji Federman, Broome County GOP chairman, said in a statement. “Fraud cannot be tolerated. He owes voters some answers.”
Federman asserted it’s part of a pattern of fraud by Riley and pointed to a 2022 challenge of his petitions.
When attempting to run in a crowded Democratic Party primary for a Syracuse congressional seat two years ago, a member of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee — which had endorsed a different candidate for the seat — accused Riley of submitting faulty signatures. The case did not proceed after congressional boundaries were redrawn following unrelated litigation, leading Riley to no longer live in the Syracuse-area district.
Instead, Riley unsuccessfully ran for office in the 19th Congressional District.
His campaign has since fallen under other scrutiny. The American Mainstream Policy Leadership Institute’s fellowship program gave Riley and six former Democratic candidates for federal office up to $60,000
after they lost elections in 2022, according to a recent complaint that is being filed with the Federal Elections Commission by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.
Riley’s campaign has defended the contribution, noting the candidate “spent three months studying public policy to address the health care shortage in rural communities.” Molinaro, his opponent, characterized the contribution as an “illegal salary.”
Molinaro and Riley collectively have over $3 million to spend on the upcoming election cycle, according to federal campaign finance filings. The two spent over $6 million in 2022, with Riley spending and raising more money than Molinaro.
The race is expected to be closely watched by political operatives in Washington, D.C., as Democrats seek to retake the U.S.
House of Representatives and Republicans try to hold onto their slim majority in a presidential election cycle.
The boundaries of the 19th Congressional District were slightly altered in the latest round of redistricting earlier this year. The districts are expected to remain the same for the remainder of the decade.
Under the altered district, it is expected to have become marginally more favorable to a Republican. The new district no longer includes Woodstock, Saugerties or Owego, but it did gain Cooperstown and southern portions of Rensselaer County, including East Greenbush.
Based on the new boundaries for the 19th Congressional District, which encompasses parts of the Hudson Valley and stretches into Ithaca, voters favored former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin over Gov. Kathy Hochul for governor in 2022 but favored President Joe Biden over former President Donald J. Trump in 2020.
The validity of petitions to get on the ballot were recently challenged for other candidates.
Kevin G. Nolan is challenging the Working Families Party line sought by former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones. And Shannon Stephens, the Republican primary challenger to U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-long Island, is challenging his ballot signatures with the GOP; a separate challenge to his Conservative Party ballot line was brought by Diane Lewis.