Hikind's Conservative Petitions Ruled Kosher; Storobin isn't Bound by Party Label

Updated, 8/10 1:15 PM

Dov Hikind will have the conservative line, the court ruled today. "The judge ruled a signature with the wrong address written on the petition as valid," Joseph Hayon wrote me. Moshe Tischler, who's challenging Hikind's petition and succeeded to knock him from the republican party line, planned yesterday to appeal the decision, and Hayon prepared tonight the documents for it. I'm told that it looks like that his right to appeal was taken away. Celeste Katz posted the ruling.

Unlike Hikind, David Storobin is in trouble. His case is much worse, dealing not only with an incorrect address, but also an incorrect name for an unregistered signature, and it was done by the candidate him-self. Based on these transcripts, I'm hearing that Storobin will very likely have to run on a third or fourth party line. In addition, a handwriting expert who was paid by the Felder campaign testified that signatures gathered by Storobin were fraudulent. Someone involved with the Storobin campaign is telling me that this assumption is pre mature. "Historically there has rarely been a situation where a candidate was thrown off the ballot on fraud charges," he wrote me. A decision is expected today. Both sides rested their cases, and are awaiting the ruling.

"The Senator has always viewed himself as an independent. He's appreciated the support of the party, but doesn't feel bound by party label,"Steven Stites - who finished today his work for Halloran and speaks now for Storobin exclusively - just emailed me after boarding his plane (I assume to Isreal, where he will accompany both of them. That assumption was wrong). This was in response to a different post I'm already working on for the full week, and has nothing to do with the developments in court. Still, it goes to show that he's ready to go without the party label.


On a side note: I'm amazed how Hayon, with a campaign chest of 50 cents in the red, easily overcame the objections and cruised to get all 3 party lines he was petitioning for, while sitting officials, as the veteran Hikind and State Senator Storobin, are schvitzing. Maybe is it because his opponent isn't so concern about to vigorously challenge him?

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