A judge has kept independent candidate Ted DiNoto on the ballot for Erie County sheriff, rejecting the county Republican Party’s attempt to remove him from the field on a technicality.
DiNoto is an Amherst police lieutenant who chose not to run in the Republican primary and instead established a line for himself on the November ballot by circulating an independent nominating petition. DiNoto calls his party the Public Service party.
Republican Chairman Karl Simmeth and a second person, a political appointee with the County Legislature, filed legal papers asking a State Supreme Court judge to disqualify DiNoto because the symbol of a star used on the petition looked, to them, too much like a star sometimes used by the Democratic Party and might have confused signers.
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The county Board of Elections determined DiNoto’s petitions to be valid, and so did Judge Timothy Walker on Thursday, DiNoto announced Friday.
The race for sheriff remains a four-way affair with DiNoto and three candidates who were formerly with the Buffalo Police Department: John C. Garcia, who won the Republican primary; Kimberly Beaty, who won the Democratic primary; and Karen Healy-Case, who has the Conservative Party line.
Two men who had vied for the Democratic line are no longer in the race: activist Myles L. Carter, whose independent nominating petition was rejected by the Board of Elections; and Brian J. Gould, Cheektowaga's assistant police chief who gave up an independent line to help the Democratic Party unite behind Beaty.
Incumbent Republican Timothy B. Howard has chosen not to seek re-election after four terms.
Election strategists sometimes try to narrow the field of candidates so as not to split the ballots cast by like-minded voters. DiNoto says the Republican organization’s aim was to remove him so he doesn’t take votes from a GOP candidate.
“They are the ones splitting the vote,” DiNoto said of the Republican Party. “I will unify the vote for everyone who doesn’t want political machines choosing the only elected law enforcement officer in the county.”
Simmeth could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
