April 17, 2008 - 12:55pm

Sabrin slate booted in Bergen

A Bergen County judge today invalidated the petition signatures of an alternate slate of Republican freeholder candidates in Bergen County that included Senate cadidate Murray Sabrin's wife.

The judge ruled that candidates Florence Sabrin and Paul Mladjenovic only had 94 valid signatures – six short of the 100 needed to get on the ballot. The two were running on a slate headed by Murray Sabrin, under the slogan “Constitutional Republicans Protecting the Liberty.”

Sabrin had pledged to run alternate slates of candidates in most counties.

 

"We obviously disagree with the ruling today.  We feel there are sufficient signatures and we are in the process of seeing what the best course of action is from here," said Sabrin spokesman Adam Alonso.  " We do, however, feel that it’s unfortunate that it’s come to a legal proceeding instead of letting the voters decide who they want.” 

Ajjan did not say whether the freeholder candidates planned to appeal the decision, and referred legal questions to a Sabrin staffer who was not immediately available for comment.

The petitions were challenged by Bergen County Republican committeeman Gary Berner.

If the decision stands, the BCRO’s freeholder candidates will not not face a primary challenge in June.

The Bergen County Democratic Organization’s freeholder candidates were also challenged by a rival Democratic slate on the grounds of a mixed up date on a notarized document, but a judge dismissed the complaint yesterday.

Comments

Dropping like flies...


Sabrin's slates are falling by the way side quickly... guess the 200k+ he spent putting them together is money well thrown away...

04/17/08 5:35 pm

Sabrin slate also booted in Middlesex County


The Middlesex County Clerk, based on a petition challenge filed by the Middlesex County Republican Organization, disqualified the Sabrin freeholder candidates' petition for having an insufficient number of qualified signatures. There were only about 75 or so good signatures of the 100 needed. Over 1/3 of the signatures on the petition were from registered Democrats or from people who were not even registered to vote! This petition was probably the most incompetently handled as any I have ever seen over the years - and I have seen many.

04/17/08 9:22 pm

Democracy in Action


Getting protection from the party bosses is surely a recipe for winning correct? When the dust settles in November, let's revisit the score card and see if the NJGOP really knows what they are doing wasting party donations on exclusionary practices. The past decade's results can be our benchmark.

04/18/08 6:32 am

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh no fair...


"Libertarian" (who gets taxpayers money to put out vanity mail pieces while he is running for governor) thinks its no fair to have to live up to the same rules as everyone else. 100 signatures out of 800,000 people you want to serve too much for you nutty professor? Boy are your grass roots strong!

04/18/08 8:00 am

Gathering 100 signatures


Gathering 100 signatures isn't hard. More than most I've seen gather more than 100.

What criteria disqualifies a signature?

04/18/08 8:48 am

I've done many petition drives...


and 100 (1 petition packet) is NOT hard at all... You must have a signature of a person who is registered to vote in NJ and is either a Republican or Undeclared. No signatures from an opposing party are allowed, or that signature is thrown out.

Sabrin people probably just signed up 100 people walking down the street.

04/18/08 9:16 am

Sabrin hurt his credibility


The news that the Sabrin slate were represented by the BCDO counsel in the proceedings hurts his credibility among the Bergen rank-and-file. There are some folks you just do not accept as your allies

04/18/08 9:52 am

Hail to the Democracy!


That's Democracy in action. Back to the USSR Chairmen throwing out bad petitions of their opponents. Yes, the courts validated these petitions as invalid, yes, they had invalid signatures, yes, it is easy to gather 100 signatures (not!), yes, that's what democracy is all about. Let the voters decide in elections or primaries (not so fast!). Hail to the back to the USSR Chairmen. They really know how to pull the plug on the opposition. Let's hope they are as tough versus Democrats in November! (not!)

04/18/08 12:53 pm

Murray is a kucklehead...


did anyone see a release today where murray calls on chris christie to investigate zimmer? did i dream that? the man is so nutty it is actually funny now. i used to think he was destructive, but now he is acting so nutty only the squirrels stop to listen to him. the nutty professor... kooky murray... how sad. i still love that he professes to be libertarian after he takes taxpayer money to burp out vanity releases to the squirrels who feed off his nuttiness...

04/18/08 7:40 pm