Jenkins objects to back-rom politics

Monticello village trustee candidate Gordon Jenkins calls on Election Commissioner Hill and deputy Kaplan to recuse themselves, citing dual roles on county committee

MONTICELLO – Gordon Jenkins, a lifelong Democrat and Monticello native, is seeking the support of his party’s voters in a primary election to be held January 25th in Monticello. The general election for the one-year trustee remaining on a trustee seat vacated several months ago by a resignation will be held on March 15th.

But if a few party insiders get their way, however, Democratic voters in the Village of Monticello may be denied the opportunity to decide who will run on their party’s line.

In a letter to the Sullivan County Board of Elections dated January 14th Jenkins asked election commissioner Tim Hill – who has the unusual dual role of county chairman of the Democratic Committee – to recuse himself from taking part in ruling on matters involving Jenkins’ candidacy, as well as deputy commissioner Faith Kaplan for similar reasons.

The Democratic Committee is trying to hand-pick a candidate, blocking rank and file Democrats from having a voice in the process, Jenkins asserted. He faulted the called the committee’s back-room selection process, pointing out that the committee failed to advertise or offer invitations for candidates to seek its endorsement.

“It is obvious to any intelligent and unbiased observer,” Jenkins asserted in his letter to county election commissioners, “[that] Mr. Hill and Ms. Kaplan as Committee members have already indicated prejudice in favor of my opponent and should be disqualified from hearing any matter concerning my candidacy.”

Jenkins pointed out that Sternberg’s objection specifications were faulty in themselves, since no actual “Objections” to his petitions were filed with the Board of Elections by the deadline – only “specifications”, which NYS Election Law makes clear is a separate document that follows the filing of “general objections” by several days, but does not constitute “Objections” in itself.

Jenkins accused Hill of stifling democratic principles by trying to throw him off the ballot.

Sternberg is trying to prevent Jenkins from running because of an alleged clerical error in the wording of some of Jenkins’ petitions. In papers filed last week, which Jenkins said Hill and James helped Sternberg prepare, they claimed that because the phrase “Village Trustee – One Year” was inadvertently left off of some petitions, Jenkins may not run as a Democrat.
The one-year Trustee position is the only office or question appearing on the March ballot.

According to Jenkins, Hill and Thompson party chairman Bill James – who enjoys the dual role of being “news” director on Monticello’s WSUL Radio, selecting and shaping information that is presented to the public – haven been trying to help his opponent to prevent that election from occurring.
He called this a “slap in the face of the hundreds of Monticello Democrats who signed my petitions.”

The deadline for filing nominating petitions with the Board of Elections was January 10th. That day, Jenkins filed some 220 signatures by registered Democrats who live in the village. Sternberg only submitted 143. Many of Sternberg signers are not eligible voters, either because they’re not registered, aren’t Democrats, or live outside the village, Jenkins said. Some witnesses on Sternberg’s petition signed as witnesses to their own signatures and committed other serious errors. Jenkins later filed formal objections, followed by specifications to those objections, on the principle that only eligible voters should be allowed to participate in the Democratic primary.
Citing an “inherent conflict of interest that exists by virtue of his dual roles as Democratic Commissioner of Elections and chairman of the Sullivan County Democratic Committee,” Jenkins questioned how Hill can pretend to be unbiased as election commissioners when he chairs the committee, accusing him of “bias against me by indicating support or endorsement of Jeffrey Sternberg.”

“Likewise, deputy commissioner Faith Kaplan, has the same inherent conflict of interest in that she is a member of the Democrat Committee which is supporting Mr. Sternberg,” Jenkins added.

Because of their roles on the committee and showing they favored their hand-picked man over him, Jenkins called on both Hill and Kaplan to step aside from ruling on any matters involving his candidacy.

Jenkins said he hopes to help ordinary Democrats like him break the stranglehold that old-time party rulers have on the election process, and again hold Monticello government accountable to the taxpayers. He criticized New York’s arcane election laws which he said are designed to be used by entrenched party hacks to control who is allowed to run.

“They’re trying to tell me I ‘need not apply.’ Well, I have some news for them,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins said in a statement released Saturday that he intended to file a complaint in Albany this week.