The October 12 hearing is cancelled.  No complaints were received.

The October 18 hearing is cancelled.  No complaints were received.

The October 25 hearing is cancelled.  A complaint was received and will be heard in the regularly scheduled hearing for November 3, 2011.

Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital District, Inc  reviewed Mr. Santabarbara’s complaint dated 10-28-2010 and issued the following response:

Our standard for accepting emergency complaints for a hearing is:

The complaint must be so egregious that it requires an immediate response and the facts of the complaint could affect the outcome of an election.

In reviewing this complaint we found that the essential dispute in this case is the same as the dispute which we decided in Complaint 2010-1.  We do not find that the subsequent actions of the parties rise to the standard of egregiousness required to hear an emergency complaint. This issue has been thoroughly discussed in the Daily Gazette on several occasions, and the voters have been thoroughly informed about the facts, the charges and the counter charges.  Issued:  10-30-2010

Generally speaking, the press will not publish a FCP finding issued after the Saturday before an election, so unfortunately, last minute dirty tricks are difficult to counter.

Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region, Inc. (FCP) held a hearing on October 19, 2010, to consider a complaint made by Angelo Santabarbara against George Amedore, Jr. Both are candidates for the Assembly seat in the 105^th District. Present were hearing panel members Michael Foster, Beverly LaBarge, Stephen Muller, Faith Weldon, panel Chair Katherine Henrikson, and Coordinator Barbara Thomas. Mr. Santabarbara was represented by his attorney, Michael Godlewski. Mr. Amedore appeared with his attorney, Michael Cuevas.

Mr.  Santabarbara complained that Mr. Amedore had misrepresented Mr. Santabarbara’s actions in circulating petitions for the “Change Albany Now” line on the ballot in violation of Principle 2, “the candidate will not engage in, permit, or condone unfair or misleading attacks upon the character of an opponent”, and of Principle 4, “The candidate will not use…any campaign material … that misrepresents, distorts, or otherwise falsifies…the facts regarding either the candidate or an opponent”.

FINDING 1: UNFAIR CAMPAIGN PRACTICE

Mr. Amedore accused Mr. Santabarbara of breaking the law in collecting signatures on a petition to gain a ballot line for the Change Albany Now party for the election on their Assembly district. Mr.  Amedore went to court to have Mr. Santabarbara’s petitions thrown out on the basis of fraud in collecting the signatures.  The Supreme Court in Albany found that there was no or insufficient evidence of fraud, and the petition was dismissed in a ruling by Judge McDonough on September 21^st. Despite the court’s dismissal of the case, on September 23^rd Mr. Amedore posted a press release on his website that repeated the allegations in the court case and included the following quotation: “There are enough dishonest politicians in Albany and the taxpayers do not need another who is willing to bend the rules to further their careers.” Violation of Principle 2, “The candidate will not engage in..unfair or misleading attacks on the character of an opponent.”

FINDING 2: NO UNFAIR CAMPAIGN PRACTICE.

Mr. Santabarbara complained that the same press release quoted a dissenting opinion of an earlier court case as a “decision of the court”  in violation of Principle 4: “The candidate will not use…any campaign material that misrepresents, distorts, or otherwise falsifies a fact… regarding either the candidate or an opponent.” The press release does not misrepresent Mr. Santabarbara and so there is no violation of Principle #4. However, the panel does find that the press release is misleading, since it uses a wrong standard of law by citing a dissenting opinion as a “decision of the court”.

Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region, Inc. was established to promote a climate of fair, open, and honest campaigns; encourage candidates to discuss the issues; encourage candidates to refrain from defamatory attacks on opponents; discourage use of campaign materials that distort facts; and expand the political debate by more fully informing the electorate about the use of unfair campaign practices.

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Note: If a candidate or campaign wishes to quote from this finding, it must do so accurately, particularly if it uses partial quates. Otherwise the use is an unfair campaign practice.

The hearing will be held at 7pm, on Tuesday, October 19th at Calvary United Methodist Church, 15 Ridge Place, Latham, 12110.