Ognibene Fights Ballot Decision

Mayor Bloomberg stands to win the Republican nomination for mayor without so much as a fight.
Former Middle Village Councilmember Thomas Ognibene lost his initial battle to get on the ballot in next month’s Primary, but said he will “fight this in federal court.”
Unless he can pull an eleventh-hour political magic trick and convince the courts to allow his name to be put on the ballot, Bloomberg will get a free ride until November.
Ognibene sought to take on Bloomberg in the September 13 GOP Primary, but failed to produce the necessary 7,500 valid petition signatures that would legally place him on the ballot.
After tight scrutiny by the Bloomberg camp, a mere 5,848 of the 7,000 names Ognibene was able to produce were deemed valid by the Board of Elections, and Ognibene was denied a spot on the ballot.
Bloomberg contested more than a thousand signatures based on claims that many were invalid or fraudulent — that some of the names of the people listed do not exist, don’t live in the city or aren’t registered Republicans.
In a city where Republicans are largely outnumbered by Democrats, Ognibene feels the magic number of 7,500 names is unfair and unwarranted.
“The Republican Party needs to have a real choice and Mayor Bloomberg seems to be afraid of giving the party that choice,” Ognibene told The Queens Courier. “What is the mayor afraid of?”
Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s campaign is moving full speed ahead after gaining 24,000 signatures.
“The fact that Mr. Ognibene could not get even 6,000 people to sign a petition shows that he really has no backing in the Republican party,” said Bloomberg campaign spokesperson Stu Loeser.
Ognibene outwardly accused the mayor of trying to buy him off by offering him a campaign job earlier this year.
A die-hard conservative and former Council minority leader, Ognibene says Bloomberg, a former Democrat, is turning a deaf ear to the moderate to conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Even if Ognibene loses his court battle, he will still appear on the General Election ballot in November as the Conservative party candidate.
melissa@queenscourier.com