Brooklyn Teacher Challenging Veteran Assemblyman

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ALBANY – A teacher from Brooklyn is mounting a write-in campaign for the Assembly against Roger Green, a veteran of the Legislature who is seeking re-election after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and resigning earlier this year.


The challenger, Susan Metz of Prospect Heights, submitted petitions to run as a Green Party candidate, but earlier this month the Board of Elections denied her a place on the ballot for technical reasons. Ms. Metz is due to announce today that she will run as a write-in candidate rather than drop out of the race.


The only other candidate on the ballot is a Republican, Ricardo Ocasio, who lost to Mr. Green in 2002 by a vote of 700 to 18,023.


Write-in candidates rarely win elections, but Ms. Metz wants to give voters of the 57th Assembly District another choice on November 2, according to a supporter of her campaign, Daniel Goldstein. “He needs to be challenged,” Mr. Goldstein said yesterday. “There’s no way an incumbent who resigned under that kind of ethics problem should run unopposed.”


Ms. Metz is demanding that Mr. Green release the report of the Assembly Ethics Committee that prompted his resignation in June. She is also running as an opponent of developer Bruce Ratner’s $2.5 billion Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, which calls for building an arena for the Nets basketball team, along with housing and commercial space.


Mr. Goldstein said Mr. Green is one of the few public officials to support the project, which is unpopular with many residents of his district.


“If she was on the ballot she would have a very good chance of winning, because the issue in this district is the arena project,” he said. Mr. Green pleaded guilty in February to misdemeanor charges of padding his expense account.


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