A state Supreme Court justice issued the “reluctant opinion” that Long Island Democrat Regina Calcaterra failed to meet the five-year constitutional residency requirement to run for the state Senate.

Justice John Bivona, a Democrat, rejected the allegation that Calcaterra had “perpetrated a ‘fraud’ on the Pennsylvania Court” by seeking a divorce in the Keystone State. He also failed to find “one scintilla of evidence” that her candidacy was a “sham”, as her challengers insisted.

“Such shameful allegations leveled against a courageous, impressive successful woman who overcame so many adversities are totally unwarrented and ignoble, serving only to discredit petitioners and the election process,” Bivona wrote.

“Perhaps, as William Cullen Bryant stated: ‘Difficulty is the nurse of greatness.’”

(Rarely have I seen so sympathetic a statement from a judge in favor of the person he was ruling against).

Calcaterra called the ruling “wrong” and said she’ll immediately appeal it.

“I was born in Suffolk County, raised in Suffolk County, and I pay property taxes in Suffolk County,” Calcaterra said.

“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.”

Calcaterra has been running against GOP Sen. Ken LaValle and is one of the DSCC’s top tier candidates. Senate Democrats were hoping she would help them grow their razor thin two-seat majority this fall so Conference Leader John Sampson can stop being held hostage by a single member’s whims.

a Decision 8-9-10

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