Petitions Challenged

OGDENSBURG - A candidate's petitions to run on the Taxpayer Party line in the City Court race were challenged in filings to the Board of Elections late last week.

The challenges, to petitions for Judge William R. Small, cited various reasons, according to elections board officials, including faulty signatures. David LaFave filed the challenges.

Thomas A. Nichols, the Republican elections commissioner, said the St. Lawrence County Board of Elections would review the challenges Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Throughout the lengthy petition process my team has obtained enough legal petition signatures," Mr. Small said in a statement. "Unfortunately, instead of standing on their records (or lack thereof), my opponents have decided to play dirty politics."

The Small campaign is saying that the challenges — 80 in total — are frivolous.

Nicholas J. Vaugh, an Ogdensburg city councilor and an advisor to the Small campaign, said that an objection to one particular signature stood out in his mind: the signature of Nicholas J. Vaugh.

"These objections are simply politics as usual, frivolous and desperate attempts to gain an edge in this election," Mr. Vaugh said.

Mr. Small, an Ogdensburg Republican, has served for the past three years as a special city judge. He is running against Mary E. Rain, a Potsdam lawyer running on the Republican Party and Independence Party lines, and Marcia L. LeMay, an Ogdensburg lawyer running as a Democrat. The sitting judge, George E. Silver, will retire in January.

Mr. LaFave could not be reached for comment.