XPost: alt.politics.elections, talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: drooler@gmail.com   
      
   Four Brooklyn residents have claimed that their signatures were forged on   
   filings seeking to boot candidates for Brooklyn Democratic Party positions   
   off the June primary ballot. Now, THE CITY has learned that the forgeries   
   originated from inside the camp of an elected party official.   
      
   Longtime 55th Assembly District Leader Anthony Jones said the forms   
   submitted this month to the Board of Elections — which include the four   
   forged signatures — were filled out by members of his Democratic club in   
   Brownsville, but that he’s not sure who.   
      
   “Somebody in our club filled out those papers, OK? And we’re still trying   
   to figure out who did it, but we just don’t know,” he said in a phone   
   interview on Wednesday.   
      
   Jones said the effort was part of a borough-wide bid to knock Democratic   
   rivals from the ballot communicated to district leaders at a recent   
   meeting of the Kings County Democratic Party, which has been taking steps   
   in recent months to protect current leadership’s majority control of the   
   party by targeting rivals.   
      
   This included filing signature objections against more than a hundred   
   candidates for unpaid party positions known as county committee members —   
   about 4,000 of whom will serve for two-year terms starting in September.   
      
   These members vote on party rules and help pick the party’s nominees in   
   special elections following sudden vacancies in the state legislature.   
      
   Jones, who is running unopposed for district leader, said he takes   
   responsibility for failing to properly oversee the process that resulted   
   in the allegedly false filings against county committee candidates in his   
   district. But he blamed the forgeries on what he described as infiltrators   
   of his Community First Democratic Club, whom he believes are affiliated   
   with his political adversaries.   
      
   “What we do know is that we feel like we were set up,” said Jones.   
   “Whoever signed those papers and put those names, they knew exactly what   
   they were doing and that’s why I’m where I’m at today.”   
      
   At Leaders’ Direction   
   The allegedly fraudulent filings were part of a flood of ballot challenges   
   filed earlier this month with the Board of Elections, dozens of which   
   listed Anthony Genovesi Jr., a top Brooklyn Democratic Party lawyer, as a   
   point of contact.   
      
   In the wake of the forgeries — which have sparked a rally, an official   
   complaint with the BOE, and a lawsuit— the party said it played no direct   
   role in securing individual objections.   
      
   But in his interview with THE CITY, Jones asserted that district leaders   
   aligned with party leaders were instructed to gather and submit ballot   
   challenges against county committee hopefuls – as part of a battle with   
   the New Kings Democrats and other groups seeking to reorganize the party   
   and dilute the power of its executive committee.   
      
   “It’s New Kings Democrats and the county going back and forth, back and   
   forth, back and forth,” said Jones. “And everybody gets caught up into   
   this mess.”   
      
   Jones said that one of his associates picked up the pre-printed ballot   
   challenge forms from the office of Abrams Fensterman, a large Brooklyn law   
   firm where Genovesi Jr. works and where Mayor Eric Adams’ chief of staff,   
   Frank Carone, formerly served as partner.   
      
   He said they were returned to county leadership after being filled out.   
      
   Genovesi and Bob Liff, a Brooklyn Democratic party spokesperson, did not   
   respond to requests for comment.   
      
   Jones said he didn’t supervise the process or inspect the objection forms   
   because he has no personal interest in trying to obstruct people who want   
   to participate in the Democratic party.   
      
   “All throughout my years of being a district leader, I’ve never challenged   
   anybody running for county committee because I believe it’s an open   
   process and I’m not trying to stop anybody from running,” he said. “If   
   County tells us to do it, we did it.”   
      
   Déjà Vu   
   While Jones blamed political foes for the forgeries, a Board of Elections   
   document reviewed by THE CITY shows that one of the forged names on the   
   ballot objections also appeared weeks earlier on a petition to re-elect   
   Jones himself.   
      
   The March 11 document contains 10 signatures gathered by Marilyn Beck, a   
   former staffer for Jones’ failed 2021 campaign for Brooklyn borough   
   president.   
      
   One of the 10 alleged signatories is John Booker, a street vendor who   
   previously told THE CITY his signature had been falsified on a ballot   
   objection form in the 55th Assembly District.   
      
   On Wednesday, after reviewing an electronic copy of the March ballot   
   petition, Booker told THE CITY this was yet another obvious forgery.   
      
   The 67-year-old, whose right hand is injured from years of carting around   
   merchandise, said he could not physically write out the version of the   
   signature as it appears on the filing Beck compiled for Jones and a slate   
   of affiliated Democratic candidates.   
      
   The “J-O-H-N” in his signature, as it appears on his driver’s license, is   
   a mess of diagonal curves and dashes. But on the form turned in by Jones’   
   associate, his supposed signature is easily legible and begins with a   
   traditional, cursive “J.”   
      
   “I can’t sign like that,” he said, sitting at his table outside the   
   Broadway Junction train hub. “The J’s too big.”   
      
   Beck told THE CITY that she doesn’t ask people for identification when she   
   gets them to sign their names on petitions. She couldn’t remember the   
   specific petition in question, having filed dozens of them.   
      
   “When I go out there, I go out there and I work very hard for Anthony   
   Jones,” she said by phone.   
      
   Denied Matching Funds   
   City Campaign Finance Board records show this is not the first time Jones   
   has been scrutinized for questionable signatures.   
      
   Last year, when Jones ran for Brooklyn Borough President,his campaign   
   finished nearly $750,000 in debt after being denied public matching   
   dollars because of red flags identified by the CFB.   
      
   Candidates for Borough President and City Council are eligible for public   
   matching funds at an 8-to-1 ratio for the first $175 in contributions from   
   each resident who lives within the district.   
      
   At a hearing held online on Nov. 18, 2021, senior CFB counsel Joseph   
   Gallagher explained why Jones’ campaign was denied hundreds of thousands   
   of dollars in potential matching funds the month prior.   
      
   “CFB staff had identified 28 non-credible signatures on affirmation   
   statements submitted by the campaign,” said Gallagher. “So the CFB staff   
   recommended denial on that basis.”   
      
   Affirmation statements are signed declarations by donors that they have   
   given cash to a candidate’s campaign.   
      
   Jones testified that he was told throughout the election that his campaign   
   was getting closer and closer to the threshold for receiving matching   
   funds, and that at one point he was even erroneously awarded more than   
   $200,000 by the CFB — which he promptly returned.   
      
      
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