Politics

McCain In NY Ballot Challenge

December 10, 1999 / 11:23 AM EST / AP

New York City may be at the forefront of a lot of trends, but there's a presidential hopeful who says the state of the same name lags behind in an important way.

John McCain, the Republican U.S. senator from Arizona challenging for his party's presidential nomination, said he plans to file a federal lawsuit in hopes of changing the New York primary process before the March 7 election.

The state requires candidates to collect the signatures of 1,000 or 0.5 percent of party members, whichever is less, in any congressional district where they want to put delegate slates into competition. In effect, New York has 31 separate GOP primaries, one in each congressional district. The Democrat primary process operates under the same rules.

Getting on the ballot in other states is much easier - in New Hampshire, McCain simply paid a $500 filing fee.

"In 49 other states Republican voters have the ability to make a choice without the obviously confusing and Byzantine situation that exists here in New York state," he said.

He said he wants the process changed so that "every viable candidate in the state" can appear on the ballot."

McCain's state campaign chairman, Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, also noted that petitions collected in any of the state's 31 districts can be challenged. That lends an advantage to candidates with the most support and most money because they have the resources to launch those challenges.

"The process we have in New York state is deliberately skewed in favor of the political establishment. We all know that," Molinari said.

Only Texas Gov. George W. Bush, regarded as the front-runner, and billionaire publisher Steve Forbes, are expected to be on the Republican ballot for the state's first early primary, which will be held on the same day as California and 13 other states.

McCain said he did not believe Gov. George Pataki, a fervent Bush supporter, and State Chairman William Powers were intentionally trying to keep him off the ballot.

"I would never accuse those great Americans of doing anything untoward," McCain said as the assembled crowd laughed. "We just want to see the process changed so that I can get on the ballot."

He also called on both Bush and Pataki to support his lawsuit to change the Republican balloting process.

That appears unlikely.

"Therees no reason anyone can't get on the ballot if they really want to get on the ballot," said Pataki spokesman Michael McKeon. "If you make the effort, you can get it done."

A call to Powers office seeking comment was not immediately returned.

McCain's lawsuit will likely be filed in January, either in federal court in Manhattan or Brooklyn, said attorney Richard Emery, who will be handling the case along with attorney and law professor Burt Neuborne, who is the legal director for the Brennn Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Emery said they would challenge the process on the grounds that it's "an overly burdensome process that violates the First Amendment." The attorneys successfully handled Forbes' Republican primary challenge to get on the ballot in 25 of 31 state districts in 1995.

While McCain diplomatically sidestepped criticizing either state Republican leaders or Bush by name, his attorney did not.

Emery said the process was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated plan by Republican leaders like Pataki and Powers to keep the system closed to all but the richest and most politically powerful candidates.

"The appropriate term for George Pataki and Chairman Powers is, they are commissars in a small Albanian backwater political system," Emery said, "and they are simply restricting ... the voters from making a choice."