Rob Astorino allies taken off Independence Party rolls

ALBANY -- A state judge has removed 3,700 names from the rolls of Westchester County's Independence Party after complaints from the party chairman that they were allies of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino and improperly changed affiliations last year to ensure he'd be re-elected as county executive.

State Supreme Court Justice Robert DiBella's decision Monday echoed a ruling by a midlevel state court that the party chairman has legal authority to cancel enrollments of those found "not in sympathy with the party's principles." The Appellate Division had concluded that the canceled enrollments were "just."

The party filed a separate federal fraud lawsuit last year against Astorino and 91 other defendants, including the county Board of Elections and the county Republican Party. It claimed Astorino's friends, families and associates fraudulently switched from Republican to Independence voter registrations, even backdating some documents, in an attempt to give him the minor party ballot line.

Among names removed from the Independence rolls was Astorino's father.

Astorino was re-elected county executive last year on the Republican and Conservative lines over Democrat Noam Bramson, the New Rochelle mayor, who also had the Independence and Working Families lines.

In a radio interview yesterday, Astorino called the federal lawsuit against him "a complete waste of time and money." He said the Independence Party wanted him to provide no-show jobs to get its endorsement, but he refused.

Peter Tilem, an attorney for the Independence Party, said Astorino was the one trying to "subvert the democratic process."

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has accepted the Independence Party's nomination for governor. -- AP