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Sweeney and Johnson running without major party oppostion; Green Party candidate still fighting to be on ballot
by John Cummings and Carolyn James Using the half-full, half-empty analogy, there are two ways you can look at the elections in the 11th Assembly District and the 4th Senatorial District. Either, that there are no real elections there this year, or that the incumbents are so senior and so popular that there’s no real point. Assemblyman Robert Sweeney of Lindenhurst, a Democrat who has held his post for 16 years and State Sen. Owen Johnson, a Republican who has been in Albany since 1972, clearly are unbeatable—because neither has a major party opponent again this year. Critics of the State Legislature, which this year was called the most dysfunctional in the nation, say the one reason for this is the fact that the same legislators hold office, year after year. But other observers of the state political scene say that while voters might dislike the Legislature, they like their representatives. And this appears to be the case for Sweeney and Johnson. Neither major opposition party was able to find candidates who wanted to oppose them. and this was true two years ago as well. So Sweeney’s only opposition candidate is Conservative Lou Molinaro, while Johnson may or may not be opposed by Green Party candidate Kimberly Wilder. After receiving a conditional approval on her petitions, she was knocked off the ballot by the Suffolk County Board of Elections, a move she said was illegal and one she’s fighting in the courts.
"This fight really goes beyond this election," explained Wilder who said the Board of Elections denied her placement on the ballot after the deadline for challenging her petitions had passed. That, she said, raised the real possibility that if left unchallenged, the move could set a precedent giving boards of elections across the state the ability to negate a candidate’s position on the ballot outside of any legal time frame. "If I allowed myself to become a victim of this, it would have effectively created a lot of other victims in the future," said Wilder who goes to court again this week in an effort to have her name put back on the ballot in time for the election November 2. But Wilder’s initial focus was to ensure that voters had a choice. "I live in a democracy and I find it offensive to go into a voting booth and have no choice," she said.
Both Sweeney and Johnson have been instrumental in bringing home money and other aid to their districts. In Congress it’s called "pork" and in Albany it’s called "member items." Babylon Town Republican Chairman Harry Withers summed up the situation when he said "it all comes down to money." No candidate, he says, can win without it, and political parties don’t like to commit money to a race that appears impossible to win. And, if the race doesn’t appear winnable, the party puts its assets elsewhere. And Withers speaks from experience. Years ago, he ran against one of Long Island’s then-biggest vote-getters, former Congressman Tom Downey. The Republican National Committee, he says, looked at the race and closed its purse. Like baseball teams, Withers says wait until next year. In 2005, the newly elected Babylon Town Republican Chairman said "there will be a GOP candidate in every single race. "Every one," he emphasized.
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