Portelli’s NY-19 Candidacy At Risk After BOE Petition Review

Longshot Candidate Makes Flurry of Accusations

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
CHERRY VALLEY

Alexander Portelli may not appear on the June Republican primary ballot for New York’s 19th Congressional District. Pending further hearings, the New York State Board of Elections has found enough invalid ballot petition signatures to prevent him from meeting the 1,250 signature threshold.

The longshot candidate is hoping to beat state Senator Peter Oberacker to face incumbent Representative Josh Riley, a Democrat, in November. Allegations of fraud from a Valatie, New York resident, Olivia Clemente, have also threatened his plans. Portelli denies the accusations. Staff at the NYSBOE invalidated 387 of Portelli’s 1,609 signatures following Clemente’s objections.

State law requires that the NYSBOE finalize the ballot by April 29. Hearings for candidate petitions are being held this week, with NYSBOE commissioners making final determinations next week. Unless Portelli is able to restore enough signatures to make up the gap, he will not be eligible to appear on the ballot.

On April 9, Clemente filed a general objection, the first step before detailing specific complaints. In response, Portelli claimed on Facebook that “The seditious Governor Kathy Hochul will use her minions to do all she can to stop this campaign, but we are ready to fight them to get this message to go to the voters.”

Portelli’s post included a photo first posted to social media last October by the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District–where Clemente is executive director–of Clemente and Gov. Hochul at a local business. The caption for the organization’s post thanks Hochul for supporting the City of Troy’s downtown.

Asked by AllOtsego whether he had any further evidence that Hochul was behind the petition challenge, Portelli replied that he did not know who Clemente was and he “couldn’t say it was done on behalf of Hochul.” Asked why he would make the post then, Portelli wrote, “Ya I should clarify” and that he would make a new post.

Portelli’s new April 10 post, without naming Clemente, alleged that she was filing objections “on behalf of the Republican establishment, as they are upset that we have to have a primary, like usual” and criticized the petitioning process as unnecessarily arduous. He said he originally concluded Hochul was involved because his campaign frequently criticizes her. While people have a right to file objections, Portelli wrote, the “notion that a person who chooses to interject themselves in a public election, and file legal paperwork that have ramifications in that election, is somehow immune from criticism for those actions, is ridiculous.”

The old post remains up, with more than 1,500 reactions and nearly 900 shares as of press time.

A text exchange between Columbia County radio host Jeff Yeh and Portelli, which Yeh posted on Facebook on April 12 and Portelli later confirmed with AllOtsego was real, debated the original post. Yeh, who withdrew his support for Portelli, claimed in the messages that the post led to Clemente receiving death threats. Portelli claimed the post was going viral with over 100,000 views.

Among other messages, Portelli responded to Yeh’s message about not wanting “death threats sent to anyone period,” by saying, “Why wouldnt people be pissed at her? I running to repeal the income tax, end foreign aid, and kickout the foreign energy companies. Anybody who sabotages my campaign is going to get people upset” [sic].

Portelli told AllOtsego that “the situation really was unintended. I don’t want people to feel threatened or intimidated. It’s unfortunate my texts were posted but it is what it is I suppose.”

Clemente, who previously worked as director of operations for the New York Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, filed specific objections to 1,120 of Portelli’s signatures. In her April 14 NYSBOE filing, Clemente alleged that “this entire petition is invalid due to fraud on the part of the candidate causing the petition to be permeated with fraud.”

Clemente alleged in her objections that Portelli falsely claimed to fill out signature witness information himself and that he “purportedly witnessed multiple petitions on the same day in parts of the state that are several hours away from each other.” Itemized objections ranged from ineligible voter signatures to an incorrectly listed town or city.

Clemente did not respond to AllOtsego’s requests for comment for this story.

In a Facebook post on April 15, Portelli denied the allegations.

“I personally witnessed all of my signatures; many of you following the page met me personally as I knocked on your doors in the cold or rain, and signed my petition,” Portelli wrote. “Every witness on my petition can be questioned, and will most definitely remember me.”

Portelli previously told AllOtsego he had personally collected approximately 1,100 signatures himself, with the rest coming from volunteers. He filed the signatures on April 6, NYSBOE records show.

It is not the first time Portelli has faced petition troubles. When running as a Libertarian for mayor of Albany in 2013, the “Albany Times Union” reported at the time, then-Albany County GOP Elections Commissioner Rachel Bledi described Portelli’s ballot petitions as “one of the worst petitions we’ve ever seen come across our desk.”

Portelli also faced questions about his ability to witness petition signatures and run as a parolee, the “Albany Times Union” reported. He had been convicted of two drug charges and announced his campaign shortly after going on parole. Portelli eventually dropped out before legal eligibility questions could be resolved.

Today, Portelli sees the petitioning process as evidence of a corrupt political system that locks out everyday people who do not have the benefit of party insider connections.

“It’s quite sad that the people trying to stop this movement are not Democrats. It’s my own party,” Portelli said in an April 12 video. “They don’t even want to put this campaign to the voters.” He promised to “expose” them over the coming weeks.