Chair Of Putnam County Legislature Off The Primary Ballot

PUTNAM COUNTY, NY — Because too many signatures collected on behalf of Putnam County Legislator Neal Sullivan for a spot on the ballot in June's Republican primary have been ruled invalid, he won't be campaigning for re-election, according to news reports.

Sullivan represents District 9, the hamlet of Mahopac.

His primary opponent, Erin Crowley, had gone to the county Board of Elections to challenge many of the signatures on Sullivan's petition to get on the ballot, saying that many were fraudulent, the Highlands Current reported.

A different kind of problem appeared as well: Anthony Scannapieco Jr., Putnam's Republican election commissioner and head of the county's Republican Committee, had apparently put the wrong date on one of the pages of signatures he collected on Sullivan's behalf.

Scannapieco and his assistant recused themselves rather than make a decision on something he had allegedly done, saying a court should decide.

An attorney for Crowley's husband, Mahopac resident Kevin Osika, who filed the requisite lawsuit challenging the petition, told The Journal News that Sullivan acknowledged there were not enough valid signatures to get him on the GOP ballot line.

The claims of fraud were not litigated, TJN reported. While Sullivan filed petitions to get on the Conservative line in the November election, he won't seek re-election, Osika's lawyer told TJN.

It's just the latest twist in an unusual year for the Putnam GOP, which has long controlled the county. State Assemblyman Kevin Byrne and Legislator Carl Albano had both announced candidacies for county executive, to replace MaryEllen Odell who is term-limited.

Albano later withdrew from the race after Byrne broke publicly with Scannapieco in an exchange of accusations and the Republican Committee endorsed Byrne.