| (Note: This info comes straight from Liz Benjamin at the Daily News; if you want a great place to get political news quickly, her blog is the place to go.)
When Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio resigned from his seat in disgrace, the automatic result was an election to be held in November, with primaries in September.
That was fine, until it became clear that Albert Baldeo was running in the Democratic primary, upsetting the Queens County Democratic Party machine because they don't like him very much -- to say the least. So they have been trying to get Governor Paterson to call a special election for September 15.
Why? In a special election the party machine can pick their candidate, whereas the automatic process means whoever wins the primary is the nominee.
Today, Governor Paterson's office released a proclamation, signed by the governor, calling for a special election. A few hours later, Governor Paterson said, in effect, "there ain't no such animal." Apparently, Paterson's counsel Peter Kiernan is empowered to use the automark to fix the governor's signature on documents, and that's what they're saying is what happened.
We'll never know the whole truth; the only thing that's clear to me is that Governor Paterson's credibility just took another hit. |
