Monroe resident John Allegro announced he is ending his run for the 98th New York Assembly District Sept. 16 saying in a statement the “turn out simply wasn’t enough to justify the resources it would take to continue.”
The announcement came after he lost in the primaries to incumbent Republican Karl Brabenec from Deerpark in a bid for the Republican Party nomination.
Responding to Allegro’s decision, Brabenec said in a statement it was “paramount in uniting the Republican Party” against his democratic opponent, Aron Wieder, a Rockland County legislator, and extended a metaphorical olive branch to those who voted against him.
The 98th Assembly district covers the City of Port Jervis and the towns of Deerpark, Greenville, Minisink, Warwick, Monroe, Tuxedo, and portions of Ramapo in Rockland County.
In addition to running against Brabenec for the republican nomination, Allegro was competing with him for the United Monroe Party line, a movement turned political party centered on political reform and opposition to the annexation of Monroe land by the Village of Kiryas Joel.
United Monroe said Brabenec tried to bolster the number of signatures on his petition by changing addresses to make it appear people outside the 98th Assembly District were eligible to sign.
Both candidates challenged the other’s petitions, both of which were ultimately cleared.
Because Brabenec submitted his petition to the state Board of Elections several hours before Allegro did, he took the United Monroe line from Allegro, who is a founding member of the organization and their endorsed candidate. United Monroe announced on Sept. 9 that they planned to file a lawsuit in state Supreme Court against Brabenec to keep him from using the United Monroe name.
“Voters who go to the polls in the 98th Assembly District on Election Day will be fooled when they see the name of Brabenec as a United Monroe candidate,” United Monroe chairwoman, Emily Convers, said in a statement.
Time Warner Cable reported that attorneys for the two candidates met last week and reached an agreement that Allegro would drop his assembly bid and Brabenec would, within a week, change the name of the party to appear on the ballot from United Monroe.
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