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Posted by Pepe Bonmot
on April 23, 2002 at 14:09:24:
Martinez taken out of congressional race BRIEFS Jersey City Reporter Taking the competition to court, Congressman Bob Menendez successfully contested Edgar Martinez’s legitimacy as a congressional candidate. Menendez said there were glaring deficiencies in the ballot petitions submitted by his challenger for the 13th Congressional seat for the June 4 primary. Administrative Law Judge Elinor Reiner agreed. Menendez said he intended to prove that the signers were misled while the signatures were being collected. “The petitions filed by Edgar Martinez contained errors [and] were circulated by persons who intentionally misled the voters,” Menendez said, calling the collection process a “fraud.” According to signed affidavits that Menendez has collected from signers of the Martinez petition, several circulators of the petition did not clearly and openly state the purpose of the petition, but rather claimed to be circulating them to “bring more funding to local public housing developments.” In one case, the signer claimed – according to Menendez –she thought she was signing for Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham to run for Congress, not Martinez. Menendez also claimed other irregularities in the collection process. Upon hearing the judge’s decision, Martinez said that he would not appeal. |
