CROWN HEIGHTS — There will be no Democratic nominee and no endorsement from the Brooklyn Democratic party in the race to replace Karim Camara in the state Assembly, local party leaders said Tuesday, after a late-entry candidate who snagged the nomination this weekend failed to file paperwork to secure his place on the Democratic line, records show.
The nomination was set to go to Guillermo Philpotts, a perennial candidate who effectively nominated himself as the Democratic contender at a meeting of the county committee Sunday. But he did not make a midnight deadline Tuesday to file a certificate of nomination with the Board of Elections, election records show.
The slip-up cost him the nomination and leaves the Democratic line open.
“We are extremely disappointed that the apparent Democratic candidate selected at Sunday’s meeting failed to submit the appropriate documents which would have allowed him to be our candidate in the special election, resulting in there being no Democratic candidate,” Frank Seddio, chairman of the Kings County Democrats, said Tuesday in a statement.
Philpotts did not respond to inquiries on Tuesday.
The mistake has forced three Democrats to run on alternative lines in the race for the 43rd Assembly District, which covers parts of Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.
Diana Richardson will run as the candidate for the Working Families Party, a step WFP state director Bill Lipton compared to Letitia James' 2003 run as the WFP candidate, saying in a statement, “we’re keen to have another neighborhood champion make that splash again.”
District leader Geoffrey Davis will run on the “Love Yourself” line, BOE records show, which he said he named after a community group, “Love Yourself, Stop the Violence,” which was founded by himself and his brother, Councilman James E. Davis, who was shot and killed in City Hall in 2003.
District leader Shirley Patterson, who insiders said was the presumed Democratic nominee before Sunday’s meeting, will run on the Independence Party line. Previously, Patterson’s campaign said she had Seddio’s endorsement, but the party said Tuesday it will not back a specific candidate in the special election.
“We still encourage voters to go to the polls, and there are three Democrats running on other lines we urge voters to consider,” Seddio said.
When asked about the party’s choice to not endorse anyone in the race, Patterson’s campaign manager said “we reserve comment.”
A fourth candidate, Menachem Raitport, will run on both the Republican Party line and the Conservative Party line, records show.
The special election to fill Camara’s empty seat is set for May 5, after a judge ordered Gov. Andrew Cuomo to set a date to fill both Camara’s vacant district seat as well as Staten Island representative Michael Grimm’s congressional seat. Camara resigned from the Assembly last month to join the Cuomo administration as executive director of the newly created state Office of Faith-Based Community Development Services.
