CITYWIDE

FERRER OFFICIALLY WINS PRIMARY

After a week of confusion about whether Fernando Ferrer was the true winner of the Democratic mayoral primary, the city Board of Elections made it official yesterday. The executive director of the board, John Ravitz, said enough of the 32,667 outstanding absentee and paper ballots were cast for Mr. Ferrer to call the election. Though the board can still receive valid ballots until today, Mr. Ravitz said it would be nearly impossible statistically for another candidate to emerge the winner. Mr. Ferrer, he said, exceeded the 40% vote marker required to avoid a runoff election with 192,243 votes, or 40.15%.

The news comes a week after the primary, in which Mr. Ferrer missed the mark by a fraction of a percent and just days after the second-highest vote-getter, Rep. Anthony Weiner, pulled out of the election. Last week, Mr. Ravitz said the board would be obligated – even after Mr. Weiner exited the race – to hold a runoff at a cost of more than $10 million if Mr. Ferrer didn’t hit the mark. “We felt comfortable enough with the numbers to present the numbers to the commissioners tomorrow,” Mr. Ravitz said. “Since there was an interest from the press, the candidates, and now the courts, we felt it was important to get the number out today.” Roughly 18% of the city’s 2.6 million registered Democrats voted in the primary.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

PATAKI AIDE JOINS BLOOMBERG CAMPAIGN

Governor Pataki’s top aide in charge of Jewish outreach in New York State, Michael Fragin, is joining the Bloomberg re-election campaign this week.

Mr. Fragin, an executive assistant to the governor since January 2004, will work on politics, field operations, and get-out-the-vote efforts for Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign. The Pataki camp is sorry to see Mr. Fragin leave, a Pataki spokesman said.

“The governor thinks he’s been a tremendous asset to the administration,” the spokesman, Kevin Quinn, said. “Essentially, he is the governor’s primary adviser on issues relating to the Jewish community in New York State.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BIG BOX BOYCOTT

An anti-Wal-Mart group is set to put pressure on Mayor Bloomberg over his willingness to let the store open in the city. The group, which is called Wal-Mart No Way, will begin airing 30- and 60-second advertisements on New York 1 today. The group paid $5,000 for airtime over the next three weeks.

When asked about Wal-Mart yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg repeated his past stance, that customers should decide whether to shop there. “This city should not be in the business of saying which companies can come here and which companies cannot,” he said.

The mayor’s Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer, said he “absolutely agreed” with the fight to keep Wal-Mart from opening in Queens and on Staten Island. “A lot of these big box stores are coming in, denying benefits to its employees, and if everybody thinks they’re getting a break on it, they’re wrong. In fact, we’re paying for it. It amounts to an indirect subsidy.”

Mr. Ferrer appeared with two of his opponents in the primary, Rep. Anthony Weiner and the speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, to denounce the mayor’s veto of the Health Care Security Act. The legislation, which was aimed at non-union retailers like Wal-Mart, would have required large stores to pay for some of its workers’ medical costs. The mayor vowed to expand health care in other ways.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

BOARD OF ELECTIONS SUPERVISOR TESTIFIES AT NORMAN TRIAL

A former supervisor at the State Board of Elections testified yesterday that Brooklyn Democratic Party leader Clarence Norman Jr.’s re-election committee was authorized to support two other political candidates in 2000 and 2002, but did not have the authority to accept contributions on their behalf.

The defense, led by attorney Edward Rappaport, argued that the omission of the names of two state committee candidates on an official authorization form was a mere technical oversight on the part of Mr. Norman’s treasurer, since Mr. Norman was financially supporting the campaigns of William Boone III and Shirley Patterson. If Mr. Norman’s re-election committee had been authorized to accept contributions on behalf of all three candidates, then the committee’s contribution limit would have been raised from $3,100 to $6,610, Mr. Rappaport said. Although the $7,493 in contributions Mr. Norman is accused of accepting from a lobbyist in 2000 exceeds even the higher limit, the defense has argued that because the lobbyist issued separate checks from its corporate and political accounts, the contributions can be considered two separate donations.

But Mr. Norman’s re-election committee was expressly barred from accepting contributions to other candidates, Kevin Richardson argued repeatedly for the prosecution, and the State Board of Elections had no way of determining whether the contributions were legal or not, because Mr. Norman did not report them.

Mr. Norman is expected to testify today.

– Special to the Sun

EAST SIDE MAN ARRESTED ON SEX CHARGES

A man charged with allegedly propositioning two children with cash is expected back in court Thursday. Last Monday at about 9 p.m., Paul Buskirk, 58, approached two children, 10 and 14, on 18th Street and First Avenue, according to the criminal complaint. He showed them adult pornographic videotapes and offered them $25 to return to his residence to view the tapes and engage in sexual activity, police officials said. Mr. Buskirk, who resides on East 37th Street, appears to have no prior criminal record. He was charged by the district attorney’s office with two counts each of attempted criminal sexual acts and endangering the welfare of a child. He is in the Bernard B. Kerik Complex on $10,000 bail, according to the New York City Department of Correction.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING DAUGHTER

Robert Abreu, 23, was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter in Brooklyn after allegedly running over his 3-year-old child, police said. He was expected to be arraigned yesterday.

On Sunday at 10:01 p.m., Mr. Abreu stopped his sport utility vehicle in a parking lot outside of 2940 W. 31st St., where he resides, to let out his daughter and girlfriend, who is also the mother of the child, according to the office of the Kings County district attorney, Charles Hynes. Mr. Abreu pulled away as his daughter walked in front of the vehicle and ran her over, authorities said.

The child was taken to Coney Island Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said. Mr. Abreu was arrested and the district attorney’s office charged him with vehicular manslaughter, operation a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and unlicensed operator of a vehicle. He was reportedly driving with only a learner’s permit.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

STATEWIDE

PIRRO CALLS FOR CLINTON PLEDGE

Claiming Senator Clinton is hiding behind her husband, possible Republican challenger Jeanine Pirro renewed her effort yesterday to get New York’s junior senator to take a pledge to serve a full, six-year term if re-elected.

A major thrust of Mrs. Pirro’s campaign has been that Mrs. Clinton wants to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008 and will be an absentee senator if she is re-elected.

Thus far, the former first lady has refused to address the full-term pledge issue, although her husband said Sunday she shouldn’t make such a promise again because she might become a presidential contender.

The former president told NBC’s Tim Russert on “Meet the Press” that “for figures that are large figures in their parties, who honestly don’t know and can’t know this early whether they’re going to run – we have no idea what facts will unfold – I don’t think they should make commitments. President Bush didn’t make a commitment when he ran for re-election as governor of Texas, and he was remarkably candid.” Mr. Clinton himself pledged in 1990 to serve a full, four-year term as governor of Arkansas, then broke the promise to run for president in 1992.

At a state Capitol news conference, Mrs. Pirro took the Democratic senator to task, questioning why “Hillary Clinton needs her husband to come out and speak on her behalf.”

– Associated Press