{"id":205546,"date":"2026-04-22T01:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T01:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T01:17:11","slug":"ny-rep-mike-lawler-accuses-dem-rival-of-forging-voter-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/205546\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Rep. Mike Lawler accuses Dem rival of forging voter signatures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler <\/a>is accusing the campaign of one of his Democratic opponents of forging dozens of voter signatures on petitions to qualify for the June primary ballot, according to an explosive new lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Lawler on Tuesday submitted to a state court 30 signed affidavits from Rockland County voters claiming they never put their names down on petitions collected by Effie Phillips-Staley\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not sign the designated petition bearing my signature and address,\u201d Frank Capuano, a Cornell University student, said in an affidavit dated April 17, noting he was at the Ithaca campus and could not have signed the petition. <\/p>\n

Rep. Mike Lawler has accused his opponent, Effie Phillips-Staley, and her campaign team of forging dozens of voter signatures on petitions to qualify for the June primary ballot. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe signature attributed to me is dated March 25, 2026. At that time I was away at Cornell University for school and was not present to sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added for good measure that he\u2019s not a registered Democrat and therefore \u201cineligible to sign\u201d a petition for a candidate running in the party\u2019s primary.<\/p>\n

The 29 other voters filed identical statements that they did not sign Phillips-Staley\u2019s petitions.<\/p>\n

Phillips-Staley, the Tarrytown trustee, is seeking to win the Democratic primary to challenge two-term incumbent Lawler in the 17th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley suburbs north of New York City, which includes all or parts of Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties.<\/p>\n

Her campaign filed 2,900 signatures to qualify for the primary. <\/p>\n

Under the law, 1,250 valid signatures must be collected for ballot access and the Lawler lawsuit threatens to disqualify her.<\/p>\n

The State Elections Board and Phillips-Staley are listed as defendants in the case. Ciro Riccardi, Lawler\u2019s campaign manager, is a co-plaintiff with Lawler.<\/p>\n

Lawler sent out 30 signed affidavits from Rockland County voters who said they never signed petitions collected by Phillips-Staley\u2019s campaign. Tomas E. Gaston for NY Post<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unusual for a Republican to intervene in a Democratic primary. But Lawler\u2019s campaign said the other Democratic candidates running in the primary should condemn the alleged fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question now is for Cait Conley and Beth Davidson: will you denounce Effie when this fraud is proven in court?,\u201d asked Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell.<\/p>\n

Russell noted that Conley worked for the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Security Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer silence on forged signatures in her own primary is especially damning. If Democrats actually believe in election integrity, here\u2019s their chance to prove it. We\u2019re not holding our breath,\u201d the Lawler campaign rep said.<\/p>\n

Phillips-Staley is seeking to become the Democratic nominee to challenge two-term incumbent Lawler for the 17th Congressional District seat. Instagram\/effieforcongress<\/p>\n

Phillips-Staley team claimed Lawler\u2019s claims of forgery were nonsense, and that there was a mix-up with some voters with the same first and last names.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawler is desperate to stop Effie\u2019s momentum, but all he\u2019s doing is disenfranchising Democratic voters and subverting Democracy,\u201d said Philips-Staley campaign spokesman John Tomlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis phony challenge is an effort to distract voters from how much he licks Trump\u2019s boots. He\u2019s pathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cook Political Report considers the race for the Lawler seat a toss-up <\/a>during the midterm of Republican President Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just the latest controversy in the House race.<\/p>\n

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Democrat Peter Chatzky recently ended his campaign for the House seat after facing a firestorm of criticism for resurfaced social media posts <\/a>about kiddie porn and sex with a 17-year-old.<\/p>\n

Other petition challenges have been filed with the city Board of Elections.<\/p>\n

David Orkin, a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate and an immigrant rights\u2019 attorney challenging Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar in Queens 38th District, claimed the incumbent\u2019s petitions were riddled with forgeries.<\/p>\n

Rajkumar said the case lacks merit.<\/p>\n

Another complaint filed with the city elections board claims that dozens of voters\u2019 signatures were forged for Democratic candidates running in Queens\u2019s 35th Assembly District to qualify for ballot access\u2014including signatures on behalf of a dead person. <\/p>\n

The petitions were submitted on behalf of Assembly incumbent Larinda Hooks, judicial candidates and a Democratic district leader.<\/p>\n

Hooks declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is accusing the campaign of one of his Democratic opponents of forging dozens of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2132,153,199,57,46937,883,9,24,55,54,56,7316,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-205546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-democrats","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-hudson-valley","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-midterm-elections-2026","13":"tag-mike-lawler","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-city-news","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}