NIAGARA FALLS – State Supreme Court Justice Frank Caruso on Thursday upheld the ouster of 133 supporters of Gary D. Parenti from the Niagara County Democratic Party committee primary.
Caruso said the lawsuit Parenti brought to try to overturn the county Board of Elections’ decisions on nominating petitions was filed and served too late.
“I believe the Board of Elections did their job. There are certain time limits with regard to service. It’s no one’s fault,” Caruso said.
The ruling left the Parenti forces undermanned in a race against incumbent Chairman Jeremy M. Schnurr and former chairman Nicholas J. Forster, who made conciliatory comments about unifying the party.
An unofficial tally by The Buffalo News showed 30 districts, mostly in Niagara Falls and Wheatfield, will have committeeman primaries Sept. 13.
The News’ analysis of the candidates showed Parenti has 60 candidates entered in contested primaries, while Forster has 51 and Schnurr has only 18.
Meanwhile, Schnurr sponsored 139 candidates who will not have to face primaries, against 73 for Forster and only 4 for Parenti.
The News’ analysis was based on whether petitions listed Forster, Schnurr or known Parenti backers among the members of their committees to fill vacancies. However, committeemen are not legally bound to vote for any particular candidate.
The new chairman must be chosen within 20 days after the primary.
Forster and Schnurr supporters challenged many of the Parenti supporters’ petitions, and every one they challenged was thrown out.
Schnurr, a North Tonawanda attorney who argued his case before Caruso, acknowledged that the case turned on technicalities, such as having to file and serve a lawsuit within three days of receiving notice of the board’s ruling on a challenge.
“Unfortunately, in politics rules and technicalities are very important,” Schnurr said after court. “Now is the time for the party to come together.”
“There will probably be an intermediary,” Forster said. “I’d be willing to talk to Jeremy at his earliest convenience.”
Parenti vowed to fight on, promising “more [contests] than they’ve seen in 20 years. … I think it re-energizes the party.”
Forster scorned Parenti, whose own committeeman petition was among those thrown out.
“When you cut the head off the snake, that usually ends the snake,” Forster said. “They’re unable to put an organization together legally.”
Parenti’s attorney, Peter A. Reese, admitted that many of the Parenti backers’ petitions were faulty.
“Much of our paper is bad. There’s no two ways about it," Reese told Caruso. But he insisted that the Board of Elections had stonewalled his requests for timely information about their proceedings and violated the state Open Meetings Law in the process. The commissioners said Reese refused to fill out a Freedom of Information form before looking at documents.
“He said, ‘I’m not going to fill out that paper. I have to do it my own way,’” Republican Commissioner Mary Ann L. Casamento said.
Caruso said he thought a different type of lawsuit needed to have been filed to contest that issue.
“I think there are appealable issues,” Reese said.

email: tprohaska@buffnews.com