Leibell Goes After Odell

Mary Ellen Odell speaks at the Putnam County Courthouse Wednesday. Greg Ball appears in the background. On Wednesday afternoon, in front of the Historic County Courthouse in Carmel, Putnam County Executive candidate Mary Ellen Odell accused State Senator Vincent Leibell of “trying to subvert the democratic process and steal the election.”

Odell claimed that Leibell was behind a challenge to the Board of Elections concerning more than 500 signatures that she obtained for her petition to be on the Republican ballot. Odell, currently a Putnam County legislator, said that the majority of the challenges consisted of typos such as missing commas. In one instance, obtained by the Courier, a signature was challenged because the “e” in the abbreviation for “avenue” was left off when the voter wrote his address.

Two hundred of the challenged signatures were removed from the petition because they were duplicates or the signees belonged to another party; the rest were deemed legitimate. Although 200 signatures have been voided, Odell said she was encouraged that members of opposing parties have chosen to support her.

Leibell acknowledged that he was behind the challenge, even though he said he does not see Odell as a threat. Franklin Farrell, who according to Odell is connected to County Legislator Mary Conklin of Patterson, officially filed the complaint with attorney James Walsh. Leibell said many more of the signatures should have been deemed invalid, but Anthony Scannapieco “approved of enough signatures to get her in.”

According to Leibell, Odell was the deciding vote in favor of reelecting Scannapieco as Co-Commissioner of the Board of Elections “sixth months ahead of his election time.” Scannapieco is also the Putnam County Republican chairman, and Leibell considers the two positions Scannapieco holds to be a conflict of interest. “The Putnam County Board of Elections is a political cesspool and Scannapieco leads the pack,” Leibell said. “He endorsed [Odell], campaigned for her, and maligned me. This is the first time in history that a Commissioner did this.”

“I don’t know if Tony got me signatures, you have to ask him,” said Odell. “I don’t micromanage. Leibell wants to play in the political playground. I play in the people’s playground … he would talk about this from now to September if he could because he has no new ideas … I’m over and done with this. I’m on the ballot … and on September 14, the people should have a choice. Democracy should prevail.”

Odell has already been endorsed by the Independence party. “Regardless of what [Leibell] is trying to accomplish here… I’m going to the general election.”

“I find it interesting that an outside counsel was obtained to review my petition … which means they put some very serious effort into trying to knock me off the ballot,” Odell said. At the press conference Wednesday, Assemblyman Greg Ball, Republican candidate for the 40th Senate District seat, said that this is a “completely political move” to make sure that Leibell doesn’t have a legitimate opponent in the race at any point.

“The same people who carried Mary Ellen’s petition are the same people who carried my petition and Assemblyman Katz’s petition,” said Ball. He said that Odell’s petition was the only one that was challenged.

When asked if Odell would encourage better punctuation amongst her supporters to avoid such issues in the future, she laughed and said that it is insulting to “disregard the voter’s intent” over things that are “silly and administrative.”

“When you walk into the election booth on September 14, the question is what type of administration do you want to represent you?” asked Odell. “I offer you an administration that will bring fresh new ideas, professional leadership, and fiscal responsibility.”

“There are two ways to run a political campaign,” said Odell. “You can stick to the issues and identify the ways that you can bring better government or you can run a campaign based on backroom nonsense.”

The COURIER was unable to obtain a reply from Scannapieco concerning Senator Liebell’s cesspool comment.