A lefty congressional candidate with ties to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political network is seeking to have a rival knocked off the ballot in an AOC-like bid to topple entrenched incumbent Manhattan Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.
Rana Abdelhamid has filed challenges to petitions filed by Suraj Patel, who is running a third time in the Democratic primary against Maloney in the 12th Congressional District that covers the East Side of Manhattan, parts of the West Side and portions of Queens and Brooklyn.
Anti-mask mandate mom Maud Maron is the fourth candidate vying for the seat.
Abdelhamid, 28, who is backed by Justice Democrats — the progressive political action committee group behind AOC’s’ successful campaigns — is even fundraising to cover the legal costs to try to disqualify Patel from the ballot.
She also has the backing of the Working Families Party, city Comptroller Brad Lander and Cynthia Nixon as well as other left-leaning groups.
Patel accused Abdelhamid of practicing anti-democratic machine politics that progressives profess to abhor.
The calculation is obvious: it will be difficult to defeat Maloney, 76, who has served in Congress since 1994 and has never lost a race, in a crowded four-way primary contest.
“Throughout petitioning, Rana and our team of dedicated volunteers—like most grassroots campaigns —spent countless hours engaging with voters alongside thousands of volunteers to share this campaign’s values and vision for the future. But one of our opponents didn’t follow the rules,” the “Team Rana” solicitation to supporters says.
“To qualify to be on the ballot, New York requires valid signatures from registered voters. Thanks to your help, we collected over four times the needed amount of signatures to make our petitions impossible to challenge. But not everyone running for NY12 gathered the required amount. As a result, our team is now facing unexpected legal fees to ensure the Board of Elections upholds their laws.
“Will you support Team Rana to make sure we have resources we need to navigate the legal system and ensure that no one cheats their way onto the ballot?”
Patel, a 38-year-old lawyer and businessman, said Abdelhamid’s move smacks of desperation and an attempt to disenfranchise minority voters. He expects to survive and remain on the ballot.
“If you’re challenging smudge marks and maiden names and invalidating voters – primarily of color – you’re not being very progressive, you’re just trying to disenfranchise voters and limit their choices. Next thing we know they’ll be questioning whether [President] Biden won Georgia,” Patel told The Post, referring to the 2020 presidential election.
Maloney could not immediately be reached for comment.
She defeated Patel in a closely contested primary election two years ago that was plagued by mail-in ballot snafus put in place during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Meanwhile, Lee Zeldin’s name has surfaced in the petition challenge to toss Republican rival Andrew Giuliani off the ballot in the GOP gubernatorial primary for governor.
Zedin, the presumptive GOP designee, is listed as the “aggrieved” candidate in court papers filed by three voters — James Curran, Barbara Ellman and Peter Kermani — against Giuliani’s petitions in Albany state Supreme Court.
An attorney for the Zeldin campaign, Jeff Buley, also confirmed he had been reviewing other candidate’s petitions.
The petitions of Zeldin rival Rob Astorino are also being challenged.
A Zeldin campaign spokesperson confirmed for the first time that its lawyers are now actively involved in moving to invalidate faulty or illegal voter signatures allegedly collected by Giuliani.
“The process at this point is different than the earlier process of objections submitted by others to the Board of Elections. When reviewing the petitions submitted, our team observed thousands of illegal signatures, including people who signed more than once, people who don’t live in New York, fake names, and far more irregularities of others submitting signatures in violation of New York State election law,” said Zeldin spokeswoman Katie Vincentz.
“It’s also clear that many signatures were forged. On April 20th, Congressman Zeldin’s campaign was compelled to take action with regards to the massive amount of illegalities. This is necessary to ensure the integrity of our elections process and protect the voices of legal Republican primary voters.”
She included copies of petitions collected in Staten Island and Nassau County where it appeared three different voters’ names and signatures were signed twice.
In the end, Giuliani claims he will have enough signatures to qualify for ballot status.
Also, the Democratic Party voter petitions of Bianca Rajpersaud, who is running for an open state Senate seat on Staten Island and whose boyfriend is Assemblyman Charles Fall, are being challenged.
Democratic Party district leader Jasi Robinson claims Rajpersaud “personally committed fraud by adding candidates to her petitions after voters had already signed.”
Her rival is Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, a former staffer to Sen. Diane Savino, who is not seeking re-election. Savino and the Dem Party leadership are supporting Scarcella-Spanton. Rajpersaud is expected to dispute the claims.
