After losing the appeal of her residency case, Regina Calcaterra is giving up her bid to try to oust GOP Sen. Ken LaValle and has asked Suffolk County Democratic and Working Families Party leaders to tap her friend and donor, Jennifer Maertz, to run in her place.

“Unfortunately, because of the underhanded, desperate legal challenge brought by my opponent Ken LaValle and his long-time political cronies – and court rulings that I adamantly believe were flawed and not in standing with the intent of our state constitution and legal precedent – my candidacy has been knocked off track,” Calcaterra wrote in a statement released this afternoon.

“I firmly believe that a fight to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, would provide the opportunity to make a strong argument to keep me on the ballot and had a good chance of success.”

“However, because of pending deadlines for parties to formally place alternate candidates on the ballot, I simply am not willing to take a chance that Ken LaValle and his incompetent political agenda would run unopposed for a second straight election should my further appeals fail.”

“He should not be our representative in the New York State Senate and his brand of Albany insider politics has long since passed its expiration date. Ken LaValle must go now.”

Calcaterra said she is convinced that Maertz, a Woodbury attorney who has been supporting her campaign since it started over a year ago, will be able to win the election and be a “great state senator”, in spite of her late entry into the race.

While it’s true that anti-incumbent sentiment is prevalent this year, the reality is that changing candidates this late in the game is never a good thing – particularly when that candidate is fighting an already uphill battle trying to take out an incumbent who was first elected in 1976.

The enrollment in the 1st SD is: 72,123 Democrats, 83,495 Republicans, and 62,801 blanks.

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