Anna Throne-Holst gets Women’s Equality nod in 1st C.D.

No matter how she fares in the Democratic congressional primary in June, Anna Throne-Holst is on her way to getting a guaranteed place on the November ballot — if she can get just one petition signature.

The Women’s Equality Party, born in the 2014 governor’s election, has given Throne-Holst authorization to run on its line in papers filed Monday at the Suffolk Board of Elections.

Rachel Demarest Gold, a member of the new party’s executive committee, said Throne-Holst was the only candidate in the race to seek out the line, and that she interviewed her and recommended the authorization for the former Southampton supervisor.

Throne-Holst is battling David Calone, former Suffolk Planning Commission chairman, in a June 28 primary for the Democratic nomination against Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley).

Rahul Kale, Calone’s campaign spokesman, said Calone did not seek the line because he is “focused on winning the Democratic primary in June and building the kind of organization need to win in November.”

Throne-Holst needs only a single signature to qualify for ballot line. But the challenge is finding a Woman’s Equality Party voter to sign her petition. Elections officials say there are only 40 in the entire first congressional district registered in the new party.

Election officials had no statistics on how many votes the line drew in the first congressional district in 2014 since former Democratic Rep. Tim Bishop did not have it in his unsuccessful re-election bid. However, Gov. Andrew Cuomo received 6,681 voters countywide on the Women’s Equality line or about 2 percent of the vote.