Leon Launches Write-In Campaign For County Executive

Would-be Democratic candidate for Rockland county executive Vladimir Leon announced a write-in campaign for the Democratic and Conservative Party lines for the September 10th primary. Leon initially submitted a petition to run on the Democratic line but the county Board of Elections declared his petition flawed after a challenger’s campaign filed objections.  Leon appealed the decision but his appeal was overruled in court this week.

In a statement released Friday, Leon said his campaign decided it would be more cost effective to run a write-in campaign than to continue with the appeal process. Leon plans to promote his write-in candidacy with campaign literature and advertisements. In order to vote for a write-in candidate, voters should fill in the circle on the write-in line and add the candidate’s name.

Leon’s re-entry in the county executive race brings the number of Democratic hopefuls back to four. The other candidates are David Fried, Dagan Lacorte and Ilan Schoenberger. Lacorte’s petitions were also challenged by Fried’s campaign with Lacorte being removed and then reinstated on the primary ballot. An appeal of the decision putting Lacorte back on the ballot will be heard in Appellate Division next week.

In deciding to continue his campaign Leon said “he has no enemies in politics but adversaries.”

The ballot draw to determine the order of candidates on the primary ballot was held yesterday for the county executive race among others. In the draw, Fried received the first line, Lacorte the second and Schoenberger the third.