Treadwell now only Gillibrand challenger

WASHINGTON — The field of challengers vying to unseat freshman Democratic Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand in the 20th Congressional District shrank to one this week after the state Board of Elections disqualified petitions filed by two candidates seeking to participate in the Sept. 9 primary.

Republican Sandy Treadwell’s successful effort to remove John Wallace and Michael Rocque from the GOP ballot clears the way for him to concentrate on the November general election.

The Treadwell campaign also successfully challenged Rocque’s petitions for the Conservative line.

Rocque and Wallace issued statements Tuesday announcing their withdrawal from the race.

Both also criticized the state’s arcane election laws that can invalidate voter petitions on technicalities such as the use of a mailing address instead of the town of city a voter officially resides in.

“I had hoped to be able to continue in this campaign for the 20th Congressional District to give the voters a real choice,” Rocque said in a prepared statement. ”However, the process allows the lawyers to have a greater say over who is on the ballot then the voters.”

Although Wallace did not fault the state Board of Elections for invalidating many of the voter signatures on his candidate petitions, he termed the current system an “antiquated process” that was used to disenfranchise many registered Republicans.
As a result, the November ballot in the 10-county district stretching from part of Dutchess County northward to Lake Placid will look this way:

— Gillibrand on the Democratic and Working Families lines.

— Treadwell on the Republican, Conservative and Independence Party lines.
Gillibrand’s effort to engage Treadwell in a primary for the Independence Party line fell short because party officials did not authorize her candidacy, despite her successful effort to gather voter petitions to qualify for the ballot. Because Gillibrand is a Democrat and not a member of the Independence Party, she needed permission from party officials to be placed on the ballot.

Although the elimination of other challengers is good news for Treadwell, a former New York State secretary of state from Lake Placid, he still faces an uphill fight in his effort to unseat a popular lawmaker who has raised $3.69 million for her re-election campaign.

”His problem is that she is so well liked and she’s held in high regard,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

Rothenberg recently upgraded Gillibrand’s re-election chances by rating the district as “Democrat favored” from its previous ranking of ’leaning Democrat.”

The new rating is based on private polling and discussions Rothenberg has had with political insiders.

Matthew Walter, executive director of the New York State Republican Party, said he hasn’t seen the private polling Rothenberg referred to.

”What we’ve seen within the district is good registration numbers, a good solid dialogue by Republicans on how they can effectively represent the district and very little from Gillibrand in terms of results,” Walter said.

Treadwell is “a quality challenger,” Rothenberg said. ”But he’s got a different kind of problem. If she isn’t vulnerable, he could run on 10 lines and still wouldn’t beat her.”