Wellington Sharpe

The saga that is the second special election in Brooklyn isn't over, but it's pretty close.

With 53% of precincts reporting, Mathieu Eugene had 1,156 votes (48%), Wellington Sharpe had 657 (27%) and Harry Schiffman had 561 (23%), according to a spokeswoman for the city's Board of Election. As for absentee ballots, there are only 159.

 

Here is yesterday's decision by Brooklyn federal judge Nicholas Garaufis, who reinstated candidate Wellington Sharpe on the ballot for an April 24th City Council election on the grounds that his opponent Mathieu Eugene had an "unfair advantage" in the petitioning process.

This new election, in case you haven't been following, was made necessary because Eugene, the winner of an initial election on February 20 for the same seat, failed to prove his residency in the district.

The Eugene campaign maintained in the days after the election that they were going to be able to demonstrate that he had, in fact, lived there on Election Day, as is required, and they staged a public relations campaign in which reporters were invited to visit Eugene's new apartment in the district to document evidence that the place was, in fact, inhabited. (Pots on the stove! With food in them!)

But the campaign never did come up with the basic paperwork that would have settled things, and some time after the City Council started investigating, Eugene -- who also claims he is a qualified physician, but has never documented it -- abruptly stopped contesting the residency issue and declared that he intended to run in a second, re-run special election.

Garaufis ruled that based on Eugene's timing, he had an "unfair advantage" over other likely candidates in preparing to qualify for the ballot in the second race.

"Eugene claims that on March 5, 2007, when he invited his supporters to attend his March 8, 2007 rally, he had no inkling that he would request a Second Special Election. Eugene, who also claims to be a physician, lacks credibility on this point," Garaufis wrote.

The judge went on to say, "I therefore find that Eugene knew no later than March 5, 2007 that he would request a Second Special Election, and that he was therefore the only potential candidate able to begin circulating petitions on March 9, 2007 immediately upon the Mayor's announcement that there would be a Second Special Election."  read more »

A federal judge has just ordered Wellington Sharpe back on the ballot for the April 24th special City Council election in Brooklyn's 40th district, sources tell me.

Sharpe had been removed because he failed to collect enough valid signatures on his petitions. By my count, that makes a total of three candidates who will not be running for this office. For the second time in about two months.

Another candidate seeking to get back on the ballot, Maria Gina Faustin, remains off the ballot. For now.

UPDATE: A Board of Elections spokeswoman said the printing costs for the new ballot is between $45,000 to $50,000.

One of the candidates in the special April 24th City Council election in Brooklyn has filed a legal challenge to front-runner Mathieu Eugene, contending that Eugene shouldn't be able to run to fill a vacancy that he created.

Sharpe's campaign said Eugene, who won the initial special election but was unable to prove to the City Council that he met residency requirements necessary to take office, is in violation of the state's Public Officers Law Section 30: 1.

"This individual has lied to us and therefore has no integrity," Wellington said in a statement.

The full statement is below.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Mathieu Eugene's opponents have come up with a new legal argument to try to prevent him from running again for that City Council seat in Brooklyn's 40th District that he won, but then was unable to occupy because of his inability to prove that he was a resident. Heartbeat News, a Brooklyn-based paper, quotes an advisor to another candidate in the race, Wellington Sharpe, arguing that it might be illegal for Eugene to run to fill a vacancy that, technically, he himself created.

According to the paper, Burke said, "Eugene's declination of the office and his refusal to execute his oath of office conclusively brought about a vacancy in that office," and, "This circumstance appears to renders[sic] ineligible as a candidate to contest the Special Election that is called to fill the said vacancy he created. I submit that he is ineligible."

Another election lawyer I spoke with today said that statute usually refers to election scenarios different than the one in Brooklyn's 40th district, where Eugene declined to prove to the Council that he met residency requirements to hold office after the City's Board of Elections declared him the winner of a special election in February.

The final list of candidates will be determined on April 11 when the city's Board of Elections verifying who submitted enough valid signatures on their petitions.

Messages left this morning for a lawyer and spokesman for Eugene's campaign were not immediately returned. (I know. It's the holidays.)

Also worth keeping in mind...All this arguing is over a term that ends on December 31. More on that here.

-- Azi Paybarah

Mathieu Eugene won the first election for the City Council's 40th District, but in the fund-raising for the rematch this April, he's trailing. Here are the contributions each candidate raised so far, according to the city's Campaign Finance Board:

$5,250-Mathieu Eugene $6,603-Harry Schiffman $1.073-Marie Gina Faustin $0- Wellington Sharpe

Also worth noting is the fact that Schiffman is participating in the matching funds program and Eugene isn't.

So far, Eugene spent $1,600, more than anybody so far. The money went towards paying rent at his campaign headquarters, and to Una Clarke, a consultant whose advice he's apparently taking with a grain of salt.

UPDATE: Wellington Sharpe raised $17,777 according to updated figures from the CFB. -- Azi Paybarah

The sleepy special election in for the Brooklyn City Council seat vacated by Yvette Clarke has its first legal controversy.

District Leader Jesse Hamilton is suing Wellington Sharpe over the name of his party.

Hamilton's party is called "Family Values and Money Matters." Sharpe's is called "Family Values."

Hamilton's campaign wants an injunction "barring Mr. Sharpe from engaging in any further fraudulent use of the name 'Family Values' designed to defraud voters and thwart the Democratic process."

I called Wellington Sharpe, who seemed happy to respond.

"Number one, my attorney was the person who created the name. He first used it back in 1998 for a client of his. My attorney is Mitch Alter. He can go through the history of that name, long before Jesse Hamilton thought of anything about this.

Number two, we filed before Jesse Hamilton.

Number three, it's a totally different name.

Mitch can prove that he's used that name. Dan Quayle also used it way back when."

So, Jesse Hamilton does not have any claim to that name. In fact, no one can claim Family Values as uniquely theirs."

This echoes a complaint some people have had about the Independence Party, but that's for another day.  read more »

Update: A list of party names used in previous special elections is after the jump, courtesy of an astute reader who follows this kind of stuff.

-- Azi Paybarah

One theme Yvette Clarke rode to victory on Tuesday was that she was the only woman in the four-way Democratic primary for Rep. Major Owens's seat in Brooklyn.

But in the race to fill her soon-to-be-vacated seat City Council seat, so far, women candidates are scarce.

One knowledgeable reader suggested the following as a list of possible contenders to take her place:

-- Wellington Sharpe, who has run for numerous offices and was kicked off the ballot in his race against Assemblyman Nick Perry

-- Moses "Musa" Moore, who just lost his re-election as District Leader and is a close ally of Clarence Norman and Carl Andrews

-- Dr. Mathieu Eugene, who heads an after-school program in the center of the district and is a member of Community Board 14 and is said to have support among the area's Haitian community

-- Samuel Nicolas, a lawyer and cousin of police brutality victim Abner Louima

Any others?

-- Azi Paybarah