Calcaterra drops out of race after residency flap

The region's highest-stakes ballot-access fight ended yesterday when Regina Calcaterra, promoted by Democrats as a strong challenger to State Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), reluctantly dropped her candidacy.

Last week she was ruled disqualified by a State Supreme Court judge. This week a panel of five appellate judges all agreed - based on what her backers angrily blasted as a "technicality" but her foes cited as case law.

The state Constitution requires a legislator to have been "a resident of the state of New York for five years" before an election.

Calcaterra grew up in Suffolk and lived as an adult in New York City. In total, she's resided in the state for many more than five years. But in 2002 the state Court of Appeals interpreted the phrase to mean five years "immediately preceding" the election. At trial, her residence for part of that time was determined to have been in Pennsylvania.

Calcaterra blasted the rulings as "flawed" and against the intent of the Constitution. But she's decided to forgo further appeals, saying that under the election deadlines that would raise the risk of letting LaValle run unopposed. Instead, Democratic and Working Families Party leaders have replaced her as nominee with Jennifer Maertz, a lawyer and vice chairman of the Brookhaven Democratic Party, who has been working on Calcaterra's campaign.

As anyone new to this may have guessed, we're talking here about more than the 1st Senate District.

The jarring twists and turns of a single state Senate election out of 62 would once have drawn much less contention. But just this once, every district counts big.

Democrats now have a 32-30 majority. If Republicans gain just one state Senate seat, there will be a 31-31 partisan deadlock. If Republicans net two seats in the Capitol's upper house, they'll have won back the majority they lost two years ago. Conversely, if Democrats gain seats, the leadership could gain clout; conference members would lose singular veto power over bills.

In addition, next year's class of lawmakers gets to redraw a decade's worth of districts based on the census.

With the outside world watching, verbal fire flew between Suffolk's partisan warriors.

In her statement, Calcaterra slammed "the underhanded, desperate legal challenge brought by my opponent Ken LaValle and his longtime political cronies" and LaValle's "brand of Albany insider politics," which has "long since passed its expiration date."

LaValle noted it was Greg Fischer, her Democratic rival for the nomination, who "unveiled this whole issue of residency" and first brought it before the state Board of Elections (though, of course, it was picked up and pursued by Republicans). LaValle described Fischer as "an energized citizen" and "a very persistent, very energized individual."

Ironically, Fischer, of Calverton, a self-styled political maverick, has been attacking LaValle for years. He and LaValle even have a personal history of bitter litigation against each other. Fischer, who was also ruled off the ballot in the current race based on a purportedly late petition filing, said Thursday he will represent himself on appeal, although he isn't a lawyer.

Meanwhile, County Republican chairman John Jay LaValle said he found it "offensive" that Calcaterra, as a one-time employee of disgraced ex-comptroller Alan Hevesi, "could attack a respectable individual like Ken LaValle."

For his part, County Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer said: "They [Republicans] were afraid of Regina. They knocked her out on a technicality. Their main goal is to deny the voters a choice."

And so, New York's arcane scrums over ballot access go on without end. For now, it's Maertz vs. LaValle in the 1st Senate District - one of many moving parts in the great Senate war.