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Democrats help kick Chwat out of race

By Daniel Massey

Longtime Forest Hills activist Norbert Chwat has been kicked off the Democratic primary ballot in the 29th District for failing to get the proper number of legitimate signatures needed to run for City Council.

As they were about to protest the barring at the Board of Elections July 31, the candidate’s wife and campaign manager, 77-year-old Estelle Chwat, suffered a mini-stroke and had to be taken to the Parkway Hospital.

The battle began when Melinda Katz, another candidate for the seat to be vacated by Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills) and the director of community boards for Borough President Claire Shulman, challenged the signatures obtained by her opponent.

Katz said her campaign questioned the signatures collected by Chwat because he did not “show enough community support to get on the ballot.”

Volunteers for her campaign examined the signatures obtained by Chwat and found that a large portion of them did not adhere to the parameters set by the Board of Elections, said Katz.

In order to run for City Council, Democratic candidates must have the signatures of at least 900 registered Democrats from their district.

“We had enough signatures to get past the 900 signature threshold,” said Norbert Chwat in an interview Tuesday. “They kept reducing them. Their idea was to make sure I was knocked out of the primary.”

Estelle Chwat said her husband collected 928 signatures, 401 of which were declared invalid by the city Board of Elections.

A spokeswoman for the board said she could not comment on the case. Signatures can be thrown out for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from wrong addresses to illegibility to forgery.

Many of the invalidated signatures came from Russian immigrants in Forest Hills who were registered to vote by the Chwats, said Estelle Chwat.

“These are immigrants. They’re not forged,” she said. “These are human beings willing to work together. They have been disqualified in a very arbitrary way.”

Katz contended the signatures were invalidated because they were illegal.

“Ethnic background is not relevant. You need Democratic signatures to show a minimal amount of community support. It’s not hard to do,” she said.

Estelle Chwat said she had hoped the hearing at the board would allow her to prove the legality of her husband’s signatures. But when told she would only have two minutes to make her case, she panicked.

“The two minutes that they gave me was very harsh sounding and I was thinking about how I could present it in that short time,” she said. “I had so much to say. These are people. And that’s when the stroke hit me.”

But despite being denied candidacy as a Democrat, the Chwat campaign is not over.

Estelle Chwat was released from the hospital last Thursday, and though she said she will not be making any more speeches in front of the Board of Elections, her husband is still running for City Council on the Conservative Party line.

“We’re starting our campaign now,” she said. “It’s full steam ahead from now on.”

Reach reporter Daniel Massey by e-mail at [email protected] or call 229-0300, Ext. 155