Court Rejects Bid to Throw Socialist Candidate Off Primary Ballot

A state senator from Brooklyn lost a bid to knock his primary foe off the ballot on the grounds that she hasn’t lived in the district long enough.

The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected a motion by Democrat Martin Dilan to appeal last week’s Appellate Division ruling on opponent Julia Salazar’s residency.

A lower court ruled earlier that Salazar met the state requirement of five consecutive years of residency for candidates. The decision by the Court of Appeals not to hear Dilan’s appeal means that Salazar, a socialist who has expressed the hope for private land ownership to be abolished, will face Dilan in the Sept. 13 primary.

Dilan spokesman Bob Liff said the campaign looks forward to “the voters’ final decision” on who should represent them.

Salazar also faces criticism over her previous claims that she was Jewish and born in Colombia. A Tablet Magazine expose last week identified her as having been born in Miami to a non-Jewish Colombian mother.