Rob Astorino on Tuesday claimed presumptive Republican Party designee for governor Lee Zeldin is behind an attempt to knock him off the primary ballot after specific challenges were filed against his petitions with the state Board of Elections.
Some of the same voters who filed challenges to Astorino’s petitions to qualify for the Republican gubernatorial primary ballot had also filed objections to Andrew Giuliani’s petitions last week, according to records recorded by the elections board Tuesday.
“Lee Zeldin was an Andrew Cuomo puppet in Albany, and he doesn’t want primary opponents pointing that out to voters,” Astorino told The Post, referring to Zeldin’s time in the state Senate before his election to Congress.
“Now he’s trying to claim with a straight face that he’s not behind the signature challenges, which are certain to fail. This is right out of the Albany swamp book. It’s why Republicans need a proven reformer like me in the Executive Chamber to bring real change to this state,” said Astorino.
The Republican Party had selected Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, as its designee at its party convention in March, providing him automatic ballot status without having to collect voter signatures.
Candidates are required to collect 15,000 valid signatures from Republicans and at least 100 in half of the state’s congressional districts to qualify for ballot status.
Astorino, the former two-term Westchester County executive, who was the Republican Party’s nominee for governor in 2014, losing to Democratic Andrew Cuomo, collected 20,673 signatures.
One voter, Barbara Ellman, claims that 3,963 of the voter signatures collected by Astorino are invalid.
The challenge indicates that Ellman is questioning whether Astorino obtained enough valid signatures in half of the congressional districts.
The Zeldin campaign insisted its hands are clean.
“All objections and their respective objectors are submitted by others,” said Zeldin campaign spokeswoman Katie Vincentz.
“To make the primary ballot, the law requires 15,000 valid signatures from registered Republicans, including 100 valid signatures from each of at least half of New York’s Congressional Districts. If you meet these requirements, you’ll be on the primary ballot and have nothing to worry about,” she said.
Specific objections were not filed against the petitions of another GOP gubernatorial hopeful, businessman Harry Wilson.
Meanwhile, there were numerous petition challenges filed against candidates in legislative and state committee races, particularly in Brooklyn, where party regulars and insurgents are engaged in an ongoing civil warfare.
In Brooklyn, petition challenges were filed against Assembly members Marcela Mitaynes, Mathylde Frontus, Erik Dilan, and Maritza Davila.
Sabrina Rezzy, a spokeswoman for Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, also faced a petition challenge for a state committee post.
Bichotte Hermelyn is challenging the petitions of Victor Jordan for Assembly and state Democratic committee post as well as Kenneth Lee for a state committee post.
Objections were also filed against the petitions of state Sen. Robert Jackson, who represents northern Manhattan; Bronx Assemblyman Jose Rivera, a former Bronx Democratic leader; Queens Assembly members Nily Rozic and Alicia Hyndman and Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall.