Spin Cycle

The Suffolk Board of Elections rejected Thursday the challenge to Democratic state Senate candidate Jimmy Dahroug’s nominating petitions, putting him on the party’s September primary ballot against Broolkhaven Supervisor Brian Foley.

The commissioners’ disallowed 243 of Dahroug’s 1,408 signatures, but it still left with him with 165 signatures more than minimum of 1,000 names he needed to qualify.

Doug Forand, consultant for Senate Democrats campaign committee who are supporting Foley, said they will pursue their challenge of Dahroug petitions in court, claming 506 of his petition signatures were invalid. Both men are seeking the right to face 36 year Senate veteran Caesar Trunzo, 82, in the November election.

Dahroug had charged that the effort to knock him off the ballot was “underhanded and shady” tactic he called “an act of desperation by Foley’s campaign” because the supervisor is “nervous about facing me in a primary.”

In other board action, Assembly challenger Waldo Cabrera’s Conservative petitions were validated on a split vote with Democratic Commissioner Anita Katz voting to uphold the objection which would have knocked out the petitions. Cabrera, who is also seeking to challenge Assemb. Philip Ramos in a Democratic primary, was challenged for having improperly filed out his acceptence of the Conservative’s nomination. Ramos is also challenging his petitions in court.

And the commissioners unamimously upheld the petitions of Dean Hough, a newly minted Democrat seeking to run a Demnocrat primary against Assemb. Patricia Eddington.

Eddington forces claimed that Hough’s petitions were “permeated with fraud” and that he is not qualified to run because he does not meet state residency requirements. Election officials say those type of challenges can only be resolved by a judge. Hough foes have filed suit to knocked him off the ballot.

Meanwhile, John Zaher’s petitions to run an Independence Party primary against Eddington, the party’s designee, were upheld in a split vote even though the candidate who thought he submitted 201 signatures, was later told that 118 signatures were filed because a number of petition pages were missing. He needed 131 to qualify.

Republican commissioner Cathy Richter Geirer, who voted against the objections, did not return calls for comment. Eddington supporters have sued to remove Zaher from the ballot.