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Marthone returns to challenge Meeks

By Rich Bockmann

A southeast Queens accountant who brought up the rear of a four-way Democratic congressional primary two years ago is returning for Round 2.

Joseph Marthone is vying to get his name on the ballot for the June 24 primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), who is seeking a ninth term in office.

Marthone could not be reached for comment.

He earned slightly more than 8 percent of the votes in 2012, when he challenged Meeks in the primary for the 5th Congressional District, covering southeast Queens and parts of Nassau County. Meeks triumphed in that contest with 9,400 votes — good for a 55-point margin of victory over former City Councilman Allan Jennings.

This time around, Marthone submitted an unusually large number of petitions to the city Board of Elections — 800 pages compared to Meeks’ 257 — though the number of pages submitted does not necessarily correlate to the number of signatures.

Nigel Loncke, whose LinkedIn profile lists him as a community liaison in Meeks’ office, has filed challenges to Marthone’s petitions.

Marthone had not filed any contributions for the first quarter of the year with the Federal Elections Commission by the April 15 deadline and shows no contributions from his 2012 run.

Candidates are not required to file if they do not meet the $5,000 fund-raising threshold.

Marthone did file a statement declaring his candidacy last year, which the FEC said was missing information such as party affiliation, state, district and office sought.

A spokeswoman for the commission said it is possible Marthone provided the information over the phone, in which case there would not be a record on the FEC website.

The day following the 2012 primary, a volunteer for Marthone’s campaign, Ricardo Brown, sent a letter to Washington requesting a 60-day extension to file a report of campaign contributions and expenditures.

The agency’s website has no record of the report being filed.

Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.