Third-party candidate in Lawler-Jones race will stay on ballot after judge dismisses suit
A Westchester County judge has dismissed a last-ditch attempt to remove a third-party candidate from the critical House race between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Mondaire Jones.
The judge ruled on Friday that it was too late to challenge the candidacy of Anthony Frascone, a Rockland County resident who won a spot on the Working Families Party ballot line in an apparent effort to sap votes from Jones. The lawsuit sought to remove Frascone's name from the ballot and came at a late stage, after counties already had started sending out mail-in ballots with Frascone on them.
Frascone has waged no campaign but could peel off some progressive voters — and dampen Jones' tally in a potentially tight race — simply by appearing on the Working Families line. A poll this month of likely voters in New York's 17th Congressional District found Lawler leading by a single point, 45%-44%, with 3% of those surveyed saying they would vote for Frascone.
Attorneys for the six people who brought the case — including the Democratic Party leaders of Westchester and Putnam counties — argued Frascone was a "subversive" candidate and a convicted felon whose criminal record disqualified him from running for Congress. Frascone, a builder, had pleaded guilty in 2022 to bilking two insurance carriers out of premiums and agreed to pay $1.6 million in restitution.
Opposing attorneys pointed out in court papers that Frascone had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor — petty larceny — and not a felony under his plea deal with prosecutors.
And state Supreme Court Justice Janet Malone ruled that the case failed to prove Frascone's conviction disqualified him, and that it came well after the April 18 deadline to to challenge his candidate petition. Jones brought and lost an earlier suit to try to disqualify the petition.
Frascone beat Jones in a low-voting primary in June for the Working Families line after a herd of Rockland County voters enrolled in the Working Families Party and voted for Frascone. Jones won the three other counties in the 17th District — Westchester, Dutchess and Putnam — by 97-12, but Frascone won Rockland by 275-100 and prevailed.
Working Families leaders have denounced Frascone as a Republican plant and urged voters not to cast ballots for him in the Nov. 5 election.
Court challenge: Late suit in Lawler-Jones race seeks to remove 'subversive' third candidate from ballots
Lawler's campaign had blasted the last-minute court challenge after it was filed, accusing Jones and his supporters of "resorting to dirty tricks to try and kick a primary-winning candidate off the ballot.”
Almost 1,900 17th District voters are enrolled in the Working Families party, which is slightly more than Lawler's slim margin of victory in 2022 over then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney. But the number of progressives who vote on that line can be higher. In 2022, nearly 8,300 people voted for Maloney on the Working Families line instead of the Democratic line.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.