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On The 1986 Campaign Trail:As Primary Nears Assembly Races A Legal Waiting GameB Y R O B T A Y L O RCandidates for State Assembly in three Downtown Brooklyn districts%u2014including two incumbents%u2014are still off the Sept. 9 Democratic primary ballot after their first appeals of a lower-court ruling were waged in the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court.A storm of protest of the state-wide election law was provoked prior to the Aug. 22 Appellate Division%u2019s decision to uphold the lower-court invalidation of a number of Brooklyn candidacies in the September primary because of inaccurate cover sheets.The appellate rulings did not seem to surprise any of the candidates and no tears were shed when the four-member court issued a written opinion in a case involving BedfordStuyvesant Assemblymember A1 Vann (56th AD), whose cover sheets did not break down the number of signatures he was filing for his Assembly seat on a joint petition with his Democratic District Leader Annette Robinson.Other cases, including Ft. Greene Assemblymember Roger Green (57th AD) and a slate of candidates challenging incumbent Brooklyn Heights/Carroll Gardens/Bay Ridge Assemblymember Eileen Dugan (52nd AD), were based on the Vann ruling.Some of the candidates, expecting the lower-court decisions to be upheld, began to look for other ways to assure a position on the November general election ballot, despite any possible reversal by the State Court of Appeals.%u201c I am disappointed, but I am not defeated,%u201d said Vann in a statement issued after the Appellate Court released its decision. The veteran Assemblyman predicted that the %u201ctrivial and ridiculous%u201d issues would be reversed in the State Court of Appeals.Following two days of hearings, Aug. 19 and 20, the court, including Justices Lawrence Bracken, James Niehoff, Geraldine Eiber and Arthur Spatt, wrote that they perceived %u201cno valid distinction between%u201d the Matter of Pecoraro %u2014 a 1985 State Court of Appeals ruling that set judicial precedence for the current cases which have affected some 200 races across the state this year %u2014 and %u201cthese proceedings.%u201dThey said in their opinion: %u201cIndeed, both controversies involve petitions which relate to all of the candidates named on the respective cover sheets, and the number of required signatures for the various positions are the same. While the designating petitions in the Matter of Pecoraro contained additional defects, it is clear from both the majority and dissenting opinions that the omission of signature and page totals for each individual candidate constituted the basis for the invalidation of the petitions.%u201dVann%u2019s attorneys had tried to argue that the Matter of Pecoraro was based on five election law violations, not just the cover sheet irregularities. The Appellate Court%u2019s decision appears to clearly rule this argument out.Most election lawyers awaiting the decision conceded they expected the Appellate Court to uphold the lower-court ruling forcing the State Court of Appeals itself to reexamine its 1985 decision.%u201cFrankly, by what I was able to ascertain when I appeared before the Appellate Division, it felt constrained to go along with the State Court of Appeals decision,%u201d said Jeffrey Golkin, who had planned to run for Democratic District Leader in the 52nd A.D. Golkin had filed a petition which included Anthony LaBella, who had hoped to run for Democratic nomination to the Assembly against Eileen Dugan.%u201cThe primary is really a lost cause now because what they set out to do, to harass and intimidate us from running, they have done,%u201dHerman Badillo (top, left) campaigning inGreenpoint for Democratic nom ination inthe race for the State Com ptroller%u2019s office.Above, Assem blym em ber Roger Green announces the filing of petitions to run as anindependent candidate in the Novembergeneral election. Robert Hunter, (bottom,left) a candidate for the Dem ocraticnom ination for Assem blym em ber from the56th A.D. the seat currently held by incumbent Al Vann. (PhoenixrTaylor Photos)added Golkin referring to incumbent Eileen Dugan and her Democratic District Leader running mate, John McElhinney. %u201cWe%u2019re continuing to campaign, but we%u2019ve lost the ability to get out there and do what we had intended to do.%u201dDugan rebutted the charges again last week, saying, %u201cOur position was not an onerous one. Judge Slavin said that the rule would have taken five minutes to comply with if they had filed their petitions properly in the first place.%u201dThe %u201cMatter of Pecoraro%u201d has caused turmoil in primary races across the state, including a related decision rendered Aug. 20 that removed Abe Hirschfield, who had hoped to run in the Democratic Primary for Lt. Governor. Many of the candidates whose petitions were invalidated had more than enough signatures on their petitions to qualify for the ballot. Brooklyn%u2019s Assemblyman Roger Green, for example, filed 2,792 signatures, but was removed forwhat he calls a %u201chypertechnicality,%u201d while his opponent, Stanley Frere, filed only 781 signatures, enough to qualify to be the only %u2014 and therefore the winning %u2014 Democratic nomination candidate.Though he already has the Liberal Party nomination to assure a spot on the general election ballot, regardless of the outcome of the Court of Appeal review, Green%u2019s supporters filed a 2,383 signature petition under the banner of the Rainbow Independent Political Party on Aug. 19. Green said that %u201cas a result of the cynical manipulation%u201d of the election law he has had to present himself three times to voters to win the Assembly seat in November. Green is now running as an independent, as a Liberal Party candidate and, he says, as a Democratic Party candidate if the Court of Appeals reverses the two lower-court decisions.Vann has not chosen to file as an independent, according to his campaign coordinator, Paul Wooten. A similar run-in with the election law cost Vann a place on the Democratic Primary Ballot in 1980, but he won re-election that year in the general election as a Liberal Party candidate. Vann says that he is prepared to do so again.The Appellate Court heard one other election case in the series of presentations Aug. 19 and 20, this one involving Maurice Gumbs, who had hoped to be in the Democratic Primary against incumbent State Senator Marty Markowtiz in the Flatbush 21st S.D. Gumbs was removed from the ballot by the State Supreme Court on Aug. 4 for failing to comply with the 12-month residency requirement for candidates. The Appellate Court affirmed the lower-court decision.The State Court of Appeals, which sits in Albany, has set aside Aug. 27 and 28 for election case hearings. If the Appellate Court rulings are not reversed then, Vann, Green and LaBella and Golkin ail say they expect to appeal the unfavorable decisions in Federal Court on constitutional grounds. But, says Golkin, %u201cAt that point a Federal Court decision would result in an empty victory.%u201dWhile many are blaming the courts for the current confusion and difficulties over petitions as a result of 1985 and 1986 decision, the Brooklyn appellate judges see the matter differently. It isn%u2019t the State Court of Appeals and its 1985 Pecoraro decision that is to blame for the fall-out of that ruling, but the State Legislature.%u201cIt is significant that the Legislature has not seen fit to amend the subject statute in order to obviate the result dictated by the Matter of Pecoraro decision,%u201d said the justices in their written opinion. It is only now, after incumbents and challengers alike have been removed from the primary ballot, that the Albany legislators have begun to address the possibility of action on the matter.Downtown Races Update: Candidates Plod Toward September PrimaryWith Downtown Brownstone area Democratic primary candidates either dropping out of the campaign or being removed from the ballot by legal action, the choices for voters in the September election looks pretty slim.Much of the action has been taking place in Ft. Greene/Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods where three Leader and Assembly challengers, allied with former State Senator Anna Jefferson, are finding themselves alone on the Democratic primary ballot after successfully knocking off Assembly incumbents Al Vann and Roger Green.Following is a rundown by Senate and Assembly District of the current political situation in the downtown area:21st Senate District: If the incumbent State Senator from this Flatbush district successfully keeps challenger Maurice Gumbs off the Democratic primary ballot, Markowitz will have no challenge until he faces Republican nominee Donella Jackson in November.22nd Senate District: The Bedford- / F t Greone/Prosoect Heigh';,s/Red Hook district is now repM ersted by Velmanette Montgomeryby Montgomery to have her removed from the ballot, the battle is continuing. A Republican challenger, Madgie Ford, awaits in the November general election.23rd Senate District: Incumbent GOP Senator, Christopher Mega, holds this Bay Ridge/Park Slope seat and has no primary opposition. His Democratic challenger in November will be Joe Montalto, who held the seat in 1983-84.25th Senate District: Marty Connor is unopposed for the Democratic nomination this year in his Brooklyn Heights, lower Manhattan and Staten Island district.44th Assembly District: 16-year Assembly veteran Mel Miller is running unopposed as are his Democratic District Leaders, Joni Yoswein and Jacob Gold in this Flatbush/Park Slope district. Miller has no Republican challenger in November.50th Assembly District: Joe I^entol has represented the Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Ft. Greene district for seven terms and is unopposed in both the primary andsignatures.51st Assembly District: This Park Slope/Windsor Terrace district is represented by Jim Brennan who is unopposed this year. The Democratic District Leaders, Richard Guay and Louise Finney, are also now running unopposed after challengers Ismael Moices, Jr. and Joanne Mejias-Rodriguez were removed from the ballot.52nd Assembly District: Eileen Dugan is the incumbent representing this Brooklyn Heights/Carroll Gardens/Bay Ridge district. Anthony LaBella had hoped to challenge her in the Democratic primary, but he is now appealing a decision by the Appelate Division of the State Supreme Court that removed him from the ballot. Republican Diane Picucci will face the Democratic winner in November. John McElhinney is running for Democratic District leader alone at this point, though Jeffrey Golkin had planned to run against him until he was removed by the Supreme Court. Golkin might make a comeback as he is appealing the decision. DemocraticPrimary ballot. Vann was removed from the ballot and from his race for re-election as 56th A.D. Democratic Leader by a State Supreme Court justice. He will, however, be on the November General Election ballot for Assembly as one of the few Liberal Party candidates this year. Vann still hopes to be returned to the Democratic ballot by the State Court of Appeals. Democratic District Leader Annette Robinson was also removed from the ballot and hopes to be returned by the higher court Barring that possibility, Sylvia Fuel and Richard Taylor are alone on the ballot for the two posts of Democratic District Leader and will win unopposed.57th Assembly District: Incumbent Assemblyman Roger Green represents this Ft. Greene district, but he is off the Democratic ballot by a State Supreme Court ruling. Green has the Liberal Party nomination for the post, guaranteeing he will be on the General Election ballot. He has also filed nominating petitions for a second line on the November ballot. Stanley Frere remains as the sole candidate on tne Democratic Assembly ballot.Ed Hightower and Ruby Nottage, incumbent Democratic District leaders are unchallenged for re-election in the parts voting.general elections. His Democratic District leaders. Steve Cohn and Linda Minucci, also have no opposition despite an early attempt by Community School Board 13 member Six to Ponce to run againstDistrict leader Joan Millnian is running unopposed.56th Assembly District: Robert Hunter, who is challenging 12-year BedfordStuyvesant Assembly veteran Al Vann is