No state decision yet in GOP primary case

Noah Manskar

Jack Martins and Philip Pidot are awating a state appellate court’s decision on whether they will run a Republican primary in the North Shore’s Third Congressional District.

Appellate Division judges heard arguments Tuesday in Brooklyn about whether Pidot, a Glen Cove financial investigator, should be allowed on the ballot for a rescheduled primary that he wants to be held later this summer. 

The court did not issue a ruling Wednesday, as expected by spokesmen for Pidot and Martins, a state senator from Old Westbury. The court will issue its next round of decisions on July 27.

The state appeal was one of two court new court filings Pidot made last week in an effort to force a primary after the state Board of Elections ruled he lacked enough signatures to get on the Republican ballot.

Martins won the Republican Party’s endorsement in March, but will not be certified for the general election ballot against Democrat Tom Suozzi until September.

Jerry Goldfeder, Pidot’s attorney, has argued state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Diamond was wrong not to reschedule the June 28 primary despite ruling Pidot had the required 1,250 signatures, court filings say.

Martins’ senior campaign strategist, E. O’Brien Murray, said the appellate judges had a “significant amount of questions” for Goldfeder during Tuesday’s 90-minute hearing. There was “much discussion” about whether the election was a state or federal issue, said Bill O’Reilly, a Pidot spokesman.

“Regardless of which, we are confident that the rights of Long Island and Queens Republican voters will be upheld at the end of the day,” O’Reilly said in an email Wednesday.

Martins’ lawyers also appealed Diamond’s finding that Pidot had enough signatures to make the ballot.

They have blamed Pidot for delaying the legal process and preventing new ballots to be printed before June 28.

“The primary has come and gone,” Murray said. “The rules apply to everybody, including our former opponent.”

Pidot’s campaign has said Martins’ lawyers dragged things out in the courts and has said his campaign is disenfranchising voters.

A separate federal lawsuit filed in Albany July 13 asks for a new primary date and challenges the legality of the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act under the Constitution. The law requires that absentee ballots be sent to overseas U.S. voters at least 45 days before a scheduled election.

Pidot previously dismissed a separate federal suit he filed himself in Central Islip on June 27. No hearing has been set for the suit in Albany.

 

Reach reporter Noah Manskar by e-mail at nmanskar@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @noahmanskar and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.

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