​Julia Salazar Can Be On Democratic Primary Ballot, Court Rules

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- Julia Salazar will be on the ballot, despite state Sen. Martin Dilan's attempts to stop her, officials announced Wednesday.

The New York State Court of Appeals rejected Dilan’s latest appeal to strike Salazar's name from the Democratic primary ballot that voters will use on Sept. 13.

“Our opponent sued to try to kick me off the ballot,” Salazar wrote in an email to constituents. "The courts didn’t buy his claims."

Brooklyn state Supreme Court Judge Judge Edward Walker ruled against Dilan, the Democratic incumbent who claimed Salazar, 27, did not meet the five-year residency requirement because she had spent part of that time living in Florida.

Salazar provided the judge with apartment leases, pay stubs and tax records to prove her residency in New York City and the case was dismissed, her attorneys said.

“Make no mistake, this frivolous lawsuit was an attempt by a scared incumbent to deny voters their right to decide who should represent them in Albany,” Renee Paradis, the attorney for Julia Salazar for State Senate, told the Daily News.

Dilan, 67, has represented District 18 in northern Brooklyn since 2002 when he was first elected. He's facing off against Salazar, a Democratic socialist making who is running for an elective office for the first time.

A spokesperson for Dilan said in response, “We look forward to the voter’s final decision on whether a challenger who was a registered Florida Republican until last year when she parachuted into Bushwick to run should represent them in Albany."

Photo by Kathleen Culliton