POLITICAL DUEL Another Alexander Hamilton is fighting to get on ballot
He's not throwing away his shot — at a seat on the Jersey City Board of Education.
Candidate Alexander Hamilton, 51, filed suit this week to restore his name to the city's Nov. 5 ballot after the Hudson County Clerk disqualified his candidacy over a failure to use his full name of Vernon Alexander Hamilton on nominating petitions.
“You'd think having a name like Alexander Hamilton would be a good thing,” the 30-year Jersey City resident told the Daily News Wednesday. “But all I can control is what I control. Ultimately it comes down to this [decision] is petty, and my heart is in the right place.”
Hamilton filed a petition with 192 valid signatures, well beyond the required 10 names, and submitted the paperwork under the name he's answered to since birth: Alexander. Though named after his father Vernon, he always went by the more historical first name.
“My mother decided before I could speak that there were not going to be two Vernons,” recalled Hamilton. “So I was always Alex or Alexander.”
Hamilton, the father of a special needs son, is running on the “Change for Children” ticket in a Jersey City race, where 11 candidates, including three incumbents, are seeking four seats. Hamilton's two running mates remain on the ballot, and he hopes to rejoin them.
“Hamilton seeks to be on the ballot as Alexander Hamilton because that is the name by which he is known in the community, and not for any fraudulent or improper purpose,” wrote lawyer Joseph Tringali in his 77-page Superior Court filing.
The attorney also noted that even the July 30 letter tossing his client off the ballot was addressed to “Mr. Alexander Hamilton.”
The clerk's office was ordered to a Friday hearing to argue its case for yanking Hamilton off the ballot for the three-year seat.
An email to the clerk's office for comment on the lawsuit was Wednesday.
Hamilton says he doesn't want to dwell too much on the vagaries of politics in Hudson County, where late New Jersey Gov. Brendan Byrne once asked to be buried “so that I can remain active in politics.”
But, he remains optimistic about faring better in this legal duel than his historic namesake did four miles north in Weehawken, N.J., where the original Hamilton was mortally wounded in a shootout with Aaron Burr in 1804.
“This whole thing is kind of mythically ridiculous, but it's all true, it's all real,” said Hamilton.
He added, “The argument I'd use is that if I used my full name, I'd be misleading voters by doing that. I don't use that name. It's so discouraging, people trying to stop you from doing something. We're not going to let that happen.” not returned