Judge topples imperiled Republican’s bid to oust Dem contender

The Hudson Independent reports that New York Supreme Court Jus­tice David Fried has re­jected a claim by U.S. Re­p. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) ’s to oust De­mo­c­ra­tic can­di­date Effie Phillips-Sta­ley’s pe­ti­tions to be on that bal­lot to run against him.

Lawler is the only Republican incumbent in New York whose district is rated a “tossup,” and he faces a difficult year with President Donald Trump acting as a drag on Republicans in the midterms. In November, Cook Political Report categorized Lawler's Hudson Valley seat as "lean Republican." But by January, one year into Trump’s second term, Cook shifted that designation to the "tossup" column.

Lawler is running for a third term in one of only three districts nationwide represented by a Republican that Democrat Kamala Harris won in 2024.

Lawler argued that Effie Phillips-Sta­ley’s pe­ti­tions were “per­me­ated with fraud,” but Fried ruled that the Lawler cam­paign “failed to prove that the in­valid sig­na­tures were enough to taint the en­tire sub­mis­sion,” according to the Independent. “Stip­u­lat­ing that as many as 501 sig­na­tures col­lected by one of Phillips-Sta­ley’s hired col­lec­tors were in­valid still left 2,058 valid sig­na­tures where only 1,250 were re­quired to put her name on the bal­lot.”

Additionally, the judge determined that Lawler failed to show that the can­di­date her­self or her cam­paign had col­lab­o­rated with the col­lec­tor, Dion McBean, to fal­sify sig­na­tures.

Lawler, who has been confronted by angry constituents griping about his connections to deeply unpopular Trump, did not accept the decision gracefully.

“No sooner had Judge Fried’s rul­ing been an­nounced than the Lawler cam­paign called for ‘an im­me­di­ate crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion by state and fed­eral au­thor­i­ties’ of her pe­ti­tions,” reported the Independent.

“This is a crim­i­nal mat­ter,” said Lawler’s cam­paign man­ager, Ciro Ric­cardi Wednes­day. “Six vot­ers tes­ti­fied live and un­der oath that sig­na­tures bear­ing their names were forged. Twenty-four more swore to the same thing in no­ta­rized af­fi­davits. The can­di­date’s own lawyer ad­mit­ted on the record that this ‘makes it fraud by some­body.’ Now we are call­ing on every law en­force­ment agency with ju­ris­dic­tion — state and fed­eral — to do their job, un­cover how deep this fraud op­er­a­tion went, and hold the per­pe­tra­tors of this scheme ac­count­able.”