By Jonann Brady
The fight has been brewing since the Independence Party's convention to nominate new leaders last September. James Kapsis, who has been the Nassau County chairman since 1999, says he was re-elected by the party membership. However, a separate party faction claims that Michael Peragine was elected and should be the Nassau chairman.
While the two factions have battled over arcane election laws and fraud charges in the courts, they have also nominated different candidates for a number of county posts, including county legislator. In the Fifth Legislative District, the Kapsis faction has endorsed Legislator Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin), while the Peragine faction endorsed Republican challenger Kevin Kamen.
After months of legal battles, the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, two weeks ago affirmed a previous state Supreme Court decision that the Independence Party must hold a primary for the two slates of candidates.
Kamen has publicly declared himself the Independence candidate for county legislator, and signed several letters to the Herald identifying himself as the party's candidate in the past months. But in a letter to the Herald this week, Kapsis wrote that Kamen is misrepresenting himself, since no official party candidate had been declared.
Kamen said that he appeared before the Independence Party nominating committee and was told he received the nod from the recognized chairman. "It's an internal thing, which I'm not involved in at all," said Kamen, adding that he signed the letters before the court's final decision about the primary.
"I want the independent line because I'm an independent person," he said. "The line permits people to vote for me who might not want to vote another line."
Scannell, however, called Kamen's actions "disturbing," saying that as a candidate for elected office, he should have been aware of the strife within the Independence Party. "It was inappropriate and extremely premature for him to do that," Scannell said, referring to Kamen's declaring himself the Independence candidate.
Adding that he, too, could have made such a declaration, Scannell said that Kamen could not hide behind not knowing where the lawsuit stood. "It's his job to know," Scannell said, adding, "I'm going to fight for the line I've been on the past two election cycles."
In the fight over party leadership, Kapsis claims that Peragine and his supporters circulated blank proxy petitions to nominate a new leader. Hundreds of signers were duped into signing these proxies, allowing others to vote on their behalf, say Kapsis and his attorney, Daniel Pagano of Westchester County. Peragine "voted over 300 proxies himself, including people who lost the elections, moved or are not registered in the party," according to a letter Kapsis sent to state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Peragine's election to the chairmanship is "based on fraud ... horrible, outright fraud," said Pagano.
Peragine could not be reached at press time, but Bonnie Green, his vice chair, said that the proxies were all legitimate and the strife has devolved into "schoolyard bickering." She added that Kapsis' own convention was illegitimate, leaving out many party members. "[Kapsis] threw a convention and didn't invite me," she said.
After the two factions submitted their slates of candidates to the Board of Elections, each sued the other to invalidate its candidates. Recently the New York State Supreme Court allowed both side's candidates to be placed on the ballot, and the Court of Appeals upheld that decision, necessitating a primary. Pagano says more lawsuits are pending.
While the party leadership remains in contention, Nassau County's nearly 14,000 registered Independence Party members will have a chance to decide who will get that party's line in several races. There are 876 registered Independence voters in the Fifth District, according to Kapsis.
For now, both Kamen and Scannell say they are fighting for the Independence line, and the party factions are each hoping their favored candidate will prevail.
"We now have to focus on the candidates," said Green.
