WESTCHESTER COUNTY: Independence Party intrigue

The soap opera that is the Westchester County Independence Party must be in sweeps week.How else to explain a week in which Yonkers police are investigating allegations that Yonkers one party official punched a local Web site editor in a Yonkers restaurant, as two competing factions battled over petition signatures that could determine who controls the influential minor party?

The Westchester Integrity Committee, a group of disgruntled party members, have been collecting petition signatures to challenge a slate of district leaders backed by de facto head Giulio Cavallo. If validated by the Board of Elections, the petitions could set up district leader primaries in September that could result in new leadership being voted in.Westchester County Board of Elections Commissioner Reginald Lafayette said it is too early to say for sure -- with possible legal challenges to petitions still a possibility -- but it looked like a number of district leader posts could be contested. One set of petitions not yet submitted to the Board of Elections, however, might be the most intriguing development. Lafayette said Nader Sayegh, a founder of the local party and former chairman now heading the Integrity Committee, did not submit petitions for his race to force a primary with Republican state Sen. Nick Spano for the party's line in the 35th Senate District.

The line is crucial in the 35th District race, in which Spano is trying to fend off Democrat Andrea Steart-Cousins in a district where Democrats have a 40,000 voter enrollment advantage.Sayegh, however, isn't yet willing to say he's dropping out. In an interview earlier today, he said he didn't know why his petitions were not submitted and his supporters were meeting with election lawyer Henry Berger on Monday. Berger represented Stewart-Cousins in the protracted recount in her eventual 18-vote loss to Spano two years ago.Sayegh would not say what he thought happened to his petitions.