Court Case Exposed Petrone’s LIPA Petitions Were Riddled With Fraud

Press Release from Cook, Mayoka, Price Campaign:

A recent hearing involving Election Law and the Town of Huntington showed that numerous New York City political operatives were paid by the Suffolk County Democratic Committee to collect political party signatures on behalf of Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone and that almost 900 signatures were deemed invalid, many due to fraud.

Though a Democrat Judge ultimately dismissed a lawsuit aiming to invalidate Democrat Petrone’s “Stop LIPA now” petitions, the evidence showed that:

• The Suffolk County Democratic Committee paid multiple NYC political operatives to collect Huntington residents’ signatures for Petrone’s petition drive.   In fact, more than 80% of the signatures collected were done so by non-Huntington residents from Queens, Nassau County and Brookhaven Town.  This refutes Petrone’s claim that his petition drive was a local grass-roots effort and shows it was politically contrived by County and City partisans during an election year.

• Approximately 893 of the 2,692 petition signatures that Petrone submitted were disqualified due to fraud, lack of residency or illegibility.

• According to several witnesses under sworn-testimony,  individuals collecting signatures on Petrone’s behalf misled residents when asking for their signature; The operatives asked potential signors to sign if “they were against a LIPA tax” rather than if they wanted to join a political party, which is what the Petrone-Cuthbertson-Edwards petition does.

“It’s yet another example of political trickery by the Petrone-Cuthbertson Administration, done in an attempt to cling onto power,” said Councilman Euguene Cook, candidate for Huntington Supervisor.  “If Huntington’s Town Board had Term Limits, its residents wouldn’t be subject to this form of blatant political manipulation.”

“Frank Petrone and Mark Cuthbertson should send their political operatives back to New York City,” said Councilman Mark Mayoka.  “While our opponents are spending countless hours playing politics, the Cook-Mayoka-Price team is focused on providing Huntington residents real solutions regarding property taxes, term limits and transparency.”

 “As I make my first run for public office I am shocked to see the career politicians take yet another step to deceive the voters on an issue that only exists because of their poor management and unending appetite to tax and spend the hard earned money of the taxpayers of Huntington,” said Josh Price, candidate for Huntington Town Council.

 Walter Long, the filer of the suit, intends to bring the ruling to the appellate court.  A final decision can be expected within a week.