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LaValle foe thrown off the ballot

Senate hopeful Regina Calcaterra lost her place on the November ballot Monday, after a state Supreme Court judge ruled she did not meet residency requirements.
The decision means Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) will likely run unopposed by Democrats for a second consecutive election. Ms. Calcaterra, an attorney from New Suffolk, said Monday that she will appeal the decision.
At the heart of the case was the question of whether a state legislative candidate must live in New York for five consecutive years immediately prior to running for office. Opponents of Ms. Calcaterra point out that she bought a home in suburban Philadelphia and registered to vote there in 2004, then switched her enrollment and driver’s license back to New York in 2007.
Ms. Calcaterra responds that during the period from 2004 to 2007 she maintained a New York address, a rental apartment in Manhattan. She is a partner in the New York-based law firm of Barrack, Rodos and Bacine and during the time in question worked out of the firm’s Philadelphia office.
“I was born in Suffolk County, raised in Suffolk County, and I pay property taxes in Suffolk County,” Ms. Calcaterra said in a statement Monday. “The court has ample evidence that, even as I temporarily owned a home in Pennsylvania, I lived in New York, paid taxes here and represented a New York pension fund in a case that saved New York taxpayers millions of dollars.”
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