Sometimes Robert Giuffre, the 27-year-old candidate for assembly in the Bronx’s 81st District, which includes Norwood, Morris Park and Allerton, thinks he might be going crazy.

It’s usually when he looks at the state government’s petitioning process that determines which candidates get on the ballot during election season and sees how discouraging it is to potential challengers.

“I’m up at night thinking, ‘Am I the only one who sees how insane this is?’” Giuffre says.

Giuffre managed to get on the ballot despite being challenged by the incumbent Naomi Rivera’s lawyer, Bronx power player Stanley Schlein. But Giuffre says defending himself cost him valuable hours that he could have spent campaigning, or at least sleeping.

“The biggest open secret [in New York government] is the whole petitioning process,” Giuffre says. “Everyone knows about it. But nothing ever changes.”

To get on the ballot, an assembly candidate needs 500 signatures from registered voters who live in the district. Giuffre, his girlfriend, his mom and a couple of friends captured 1,033. But Schlein challenged 568 of them.

Giuffre called the challenges “frivolous.” Schlein, who works for the Bronx Democratic Party and is also lobbyist for the real estate industry, called the signature of one of Giuffre’s best friends from grade school a forgery. He also questioned the validity of the signature of the wife of Joe Thompson, a retired NYPD cop and community activist, who challenged Rivera in 2008.

Rivera did not respond to several requests for an interview.
Giuffre, a political junkie who helped an insurgent Queens City Council candidate named Tom White get on the ballot last year, spent countless hours going through every objection and making sure his defense was solid. He also received help from Ezra Glazer, a northwest Bronx lawyer, who took on Giuffre’s case pro bono.

On Aug. 6, Schlein dropped the objections. But three other candidates — Marcy Gross, Irene Estrada, and Julio Munoz — were knocked off the ballot because of challenges. “Although I made the ballot — eventually — many people who would’ve made good candidates did not, and that is wrong,” Giuffre said in a statement.

Giuffre says the system is stacked against challengers.
For one, it benefits candidates with the money who can hire lawyers like Schlein. Secondly, the members of the Board of Elections, who decide which candidates get on the ballot, are political appointments, meaning they have an incentive to side with the political machines like the Bronx Democratic Party, which this year is backing incumbents almost exclusively.

Giuffre says the system can be remedied, either by allowing candidates to get on the ballot by simply paying a small fee, as other states do, or by hiring civil servants to objectively determine the validity of a candidate’s signatures.

A lifelong Morris Park resident, Giuffre acknowledges that he’ll probably lose to Rivera in the Sept. 14 primary, but his experience has reinforced his desire for reform.

“I’m going to work for amending the system,” Giuffre says. “I’m going to help as many candidates get on the ballot as possible.”