Former Allies Cipriano and Eaton Face off in Court

Kings County Republican boss Craig Eaton has gone to court to knock 21-year-old student Peter Cipriano, a Bensonhurst resident, off the ballot for Republican district leader in the 49th Assembly District by challenging the signatures on Cipriano’s nominating petitions.

The GOP primary is Sept. 13. Cipriano needs the signatures of at least 450 registered Republican voters in the district to file nominating petitions and get on the ballot. He has filed 520 signatures, but Eaton contends that many were invalid because the voters had already signed other district leader candidates' petitions:  the first petition the voter signs trumps all others.

Cipriano was waiting for Eaton in court, having filed his own action on July 29 to knock Matthew Graves, Eaton's district leader choice, off the ballot. Saying that he is challenging the party boss system at large, Cipriano charges that Eaton has used his position as county chair to manipulate the petitioning process and control election outcomes.

Eaton and Cipriano were once allies. In 2010, Eaton supported Cipriano in the GOP primary against Lucretia Regina-Potter for an Assembly seat in the 49th AD.  Cipriano won the primary, but lost the general election to Democrat Peter Abbate.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.