A screen grab of Thomas J. Kenny, 22, who is running for the 113th Assembly District. A lawsuit challenging his candidacy questions his abrupt switch from the Conservative Party to the Working Families Party.
Thomas J. Kenny campaign website
ALBANY — A change in New York Election Law late last year was supposed to curb a growing tactic known as ballot line hijacking. But a young candidate’s recent entry into a race for a state Assembly district has led to a lawsuit being filed in state Supreme Court that may offer an early test of the new statute.
The lawsuit centers on the motive of candidate Thomas J. Kenny’s switch of his enrollment from the Conservative Party to the Working Families Party. It also questions whether the 22-year-old meets residency requirements in the 113th Assembly District, a seat held by Democratic incumbent Assemblywoman Carrier Woerner which encompasses parts of Saratoga, Washington and Warren counties.
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The circumstances outlined in the lawsuit, which seeks to have Kenny removed from the Working Families Party ballot line, mirror questionable political tactics Republicans and Democrats have used for decades, where ballot-raiding candidates often switch parties to hijack a line in an attempt to siphon votes from a political adversary. The result has often been ghost campaigns, in which the candidates engage in little if any campaign efforts.
In Kenny’s case, there is no record of him filing campaign finance registration documents with the state Board of Elections, although he has recently established a website touting his campaign for the Assembly seat.
The practice of stealing ballot lines is an issue that the Working Families Party has grappled with for years. When that’s happened, WFP organizers across the state have often warned voters to skip over their party line on Election Day. In December, Democrats in the Legislature gave minor state parties the authority to boot members from the ballot, and this is the first election cycle that will test whether those changes work.
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A state Working Families Party spokeswoman said that the organization has no affiliation with Kenny. She said the progressive party believes Republicans are “attempting to deceive voters” with his candidacy to benefit a Republican candidate. She declined to say whether the party would take action under the new law to try and remove him.
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“I completely deny any accusation of ballot hijacking,” Kenny said. “It is appalling that such accusations would be made against one of the youngest individuals ever to run for the New York state Legislature. I am working to pave the way for other young, like-minded people across New York who want to turn the page on long-term incumbency and one-party rule.”
In the court case, which was filed in state Supreme Court in Albany, the attempt to kick Kenny off the ballot is coming from Woerner’s friend.
Julie Galloway, who previously served as the chair of the Malta Democratic Committee, filed the lawsuit on April 15. Galloway lives five blocks from Woerner in the village of Round Lake in Saratoga County.
A friend of Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner has filed a lawsuit to remove a Working Families Party candidate from the ballot. The circumstances surrounding the case mirror ballot line hijacking cases.
Jim Franco/Times Union
Woerner’s campaign is paying for an attorney in the legal case, said Mark Streb, her campaign manager. Woerner did not respond to multiple requests for comment and Streb told the Times Union he was speaking on her behalf.
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“We believe that he did not follow the rules to be on the ballot,” Streb said of Kenny. “If you’re going to make the laws, you should follow the laws.”
Galloway is the only person to file objections against Kenny with the state Board of Elections, records show. Her complaint was filed in early April, days after Kenny filed to run for office. She filed the lawsuit to buttress her administrative challenge of his candidacy.
Allen Caruso, who is running on both the Conservative and Republican lines against Woerner, criticized Democrats, who hold a supermajority in the Assembly, for using the courts to “keep a candidate off the ballot instead of letting voters decide.”
“That is not good for the process, and it is especially troubling when a young candidate is being forced to spend time and resources defending his ballot access rather than making his case to the public,” Caruso said.
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When informed that Kenny was not endorsed by the Working Families Party, Caruso said it was not appropriate for him to comment further.
‘Suddenly had an epiphany’
Kenny, in an email, told the Times Union that he is a duly enrolled member of the Working Families Party and is confident he submitted enough signatures to meet the legal requirements.
“While I’m disappointed that my candidacy is being challenged, I believe voters deserve a fair opportunity to choose their candidates and have their voices heard,” Kenny said. “I look forward to the court’s decision.”
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He did not address allegations in the lawsuit regarding his abrupt switch in party enrollment or his residency. When asked to respond to the concerns of the Working Families Party that his candidacy may be a sham, he pointed to that state party’s limited organizing efforts in the 113th Assembly District.
“I am eager to grow more within the party and grow support for our party’s movement locally,” he said. “I believe many people in the 113th District are looking for an alternative to establishment Democrats, and I look forward to continuing to campaign across the district.”
The state Board of Elections, in response to a records request, said that it had not received campaign finance registration documents from Kenny, a key early step in a campaign that allows a candidate to begin fundraising.
Kenny created a campaign website on April 14, the day before Galloway’s lawsuit was filed.
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On his website, Kenny describes himself as a “proud resident of Glens Falls” who is running to “bring transparent, accountable, leadership to Albany, focused on fair wages, strong schools, small businesses, and affordable health care.”
A screen grab from Thomas J. Kenny’s campaign website, which was created soon after the Times Union began asking questions about his campaign.
Thomas J. Kenny’s campaign website
He included the logo from the widespread “No Kings” movement that is protesting against perceived authoritarian and anti-democratic policies under President Donald J. Trump’s second presidency.
Before creating the website, Kenny had done little beyond announcing his candidacy to his 98 followers on Facebook. As of Friday, he didn’t have a campaign social media account and most of his social media profiles are private. His LinkedIn account says that he works at an Amazon warehouse in Washington County. Campaign finance records show he has not donated to any state or federal campaigns.
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The lawsuit that seeks to invalidate his candidacy notes Kenny was registered to vote for years at an address outside the 113th Assembly District in Queensbury. He didn’t update his voter registration to an in-district address in Glens Falls until late February. Candidates are required to live in the district for at least one year before the election.
Records cited in the lawsuit show that Kenny initially registered without a party, switched to the Conservative Party in 2025, and attempted to enroll in the Working Families Party in February.
Party enrollment changes made after mid-February typically don’t take effect until after the June primary. If that rule applies, Kenny would still legally be a Conservative, not a Working Families Party member, the lawsuit alleges.
As part of the ballot access process, Kenny submitted a designating petition under the Working Families Party line and acted as the subscribing witness for signatures on the petition. The law requires that a witness be a member of the same party.
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If Kenny was not officially enrolled in the Working Families Party, the lawsuit claims, every signature he witnessed could be invalid.
Streb questioned the timing of Kenny’s switch from Conservative Party to the Working Families Party but stopped short of saying whether he believes it to be a ballot hijacking attempt.
“He went from one end of the political spectrum to the other end,” said Streb. “Maybe he suddenly had an epiphany and thought he was more in line with progressive values. I can’t say if that was or was not the case but the timing definitely seems interesting.”
The Capital District Working Families Party did not respond to a request for comment.
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Joe Seeman, a volunteer organizer with the Capital District Working Families Party chapter, said that Kenny hadn’t approached anyone in the local chapter and that the candidate in no way reflects the Working Families Party values.
“It was very clear to me that Kenny is in effect, a phony Working Families Party candidate,” he said. “We’ve seen this before.”
First cycle, first test
New York is one of two states to use a fusion voting system, which allows candidates to appear on multiple ballot lines and makes it easy for a major party to run a spoiler candidate in a primary.
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For decades, Democrats and Republicans have worked to manipulate the Working Families Party ballot line.
In 2010, nine public officials in Troy and Rensselaer, as well as political operatives, were targets in a criminal case involving a massive voter-fraud conspiracy during that year’s primary elections. The victims included dozens of residents of city housing projects, all registered to vote on the Working Families Party line. They had absentee ballots filed in their names that included forged information, including signatures and the excuses for why they could not vote in person.
A former Democratic elections commissioner and a Troy councilman’s joint trial ended in a mistrial when the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Each were acquitted at separate retrials. Prosecutors secured guilty pleas from five Democratic officials and operatives in the case. Charges were dismissed against two other Democratic councilmen in Troy.
Richard W. Crist speaks to reporters Wednesday after a federal jury acquitted him and two other Rensselaer County officials of conspiracy charges tied to absentee ballots they submitted during the 2021 primary elections.
Will Waldron/Times Union
In a similar case in 2021, Republican operatives in Rensselaer County were accused of using “ghost candidates” to manipulate the Working Families Party ballot line, though they were ultimately acquitted of criminal charges in federal court. The three defendants all had key roles in the administration of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office offered evidence that candidates listed false or misleading addresses in the alleged conspiracy that managed to knock four of the six Working Families Party-endorsed candidates off the ballot in races for County Legislature seats. The candidates were displaced by Republicans who presumably did not espouse the progressive party’s values.
Similar ballot raiding issues have surfaced in local races in Saratoga County, prompting party officials there and elsewhere to urge voters to not cast ballots for the Working Families Party.
The issue also gained widespread attention during the 2024 race for New York’s 17th Congressional District, where incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler defeated Democratic challenger Mondaire Jones.
Anthony Frascone secured a spot on the ballot under the Working Families Party line. Party officials said they did not know Frascone and noted he had previously voted as an independent and a Republican. The Working Families Party urged Hudson Valley voters not to support him and accused Republicans of planting Frascone to block Jones from appearing on their ballot line. Frascone netted 2% of the vote in the race that Jones lost by 6%.
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The Frascone case prompted Democrats in the Legislature to introduce a bill making it easier for third parties to remove candidates “not in sympathy” with the party.
Ron Kim, a former Democratic challenger for Saratoga Springs mayor, comments on local GOP efforts to add their candidates to the Working Families Party line in 2021.
Will Waldron/Times Union
“Frascone did not run a campaign for the congressional seat,” according to a memo accompanying the bill. “There was no fundraising or significant outreach to gather any additional support, and Frascone did not have any previous affiliation with the party. It appears there was no genuine intent to truly represent the people of NY-17.”
Before the law passed, only local county party committees could initiate “disenrollment” of a candidate. The Working Families Party does not have local county committees and the law now allows state committees to step in.
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In a statement to Newsday soon after the governor signed the bill, a Hochul aide called the measure a “common-sense fix.”
State Sen. Pete Harkham, the Senate sponsor of the bill, said last week that he was not familiar with Galloway’s lawsuit. He said the law provides a mechanism to allow the party to intercede.
“It was just signed into law and we will see how it works,” Harkham said. “Then we may need to make revisions, but … this is the first petitioning cycle where it’s being tested.”
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