Campaigns are gathering speed as the Sept. 15 primary election for City Council is fast approaching. On July 16, all City Council candidates were required to submit at least 900 petition signatures to secure a position on the ballot.

If any candidate receives a general objection to their signatures, which were due on July 20, the objector has six days to file a specific objection. When a specific objection is filed, hearings are held on the petitions for the objected candidate to determine whether they can continue on the ballot.

In the 14th District, each of the five candidates who gathered 900 petition signatures received general objections to their petitions.
The candidates who filed petitions election in District 14 (see story, page 1) include incumbent Maria Baez, Fernando Cabrera, Miguel Santana, Yudelka Tapia and an unknown candidate, Kevin Ennis. (Yorman Nunez dropped out of the race without submitting his signatures.)

All of the candidates except, it seems, for Ennis have been campaigning for months (some like Tapia and Cabera, for almost a year). No professional information is known about Ennis and the only recorded information at the New York City Board of Elections about him is his general objection to Cabrera’s and Tapia’s petitions and his address on Morris Avenue in the Bronx. Both Santana and Nunez said they had never heard of him.

In District 11, incumbent Oliver Koppell and his opponent, Tony Cassino, have both garnered well over the 900 petition signatures needed for the ballot. Koppell managed to obtain over 6,300 signatures while Cassino came in slightly behind with about 4,300 signatures. Neither candidate received objections to their petition signatures, meaning both candidates will be on the September ballot.