A two-day hearing challenging the nominating petition of Mario Kranjac, a former Englewood Cliffs mayor running for governor, ended abruptly late this afternoon after attorneys for Kranjac and another Republican, Bill Spadea, agreed to a settlement that will allow Administrative Law Judge Carl Buck III to determine several legal matters.
Timothy W. Howes, who is representing Spadea, argued that unaffiliated voters should not be permitted to sign Kranjac’s petitions and that signatures circulated by non-Republicans should be tossed. Howes also said that one set of petitions gathered by a Kranjac circulator, Sharyn Alban, a former Spadea employee who signed Jack Ciattarelli’s petition, should also be tossed.
Buck had rejected 335 signatures from Kranjac’s total, while withholding judgment on about 76 others. (The court had previously said the number of signatures that had been thrown out was 374, but a staffer later acknowledged that she had double counted some of them).
Kranjac had filed with 2,949 signatures – 449 more than the minimum requirement under a new state law. Spadea needed to get 450 of them rejected to block Kranjac from being on the ballot. Even if all of the 76 signatures on hold were to be removed, Kranjac would have had enough to remain on the ballot.
But if Buck tosses the unaffiliateds, or the booklets signed by circulators being challenged, then Kranjac would be out of the race.
“The whole purpose of this is that we want to liberally construe our election laws. We want to franchise. We don’t want to disenfranchise,” said Kranjac’s lawyer, Giancarlo Ghione. “Signing the petition is an act of First Amendment.”
Buck’s decision is just a recommendation. The final determination will be made Lt. Governor Tahesha Way, the Secretary of State. Either party can challenge Way’s ruling, which would go directly to the appellate division.
A determination is due tomorrow.