We last reported that Melanie D’Arrigo, a candidate for Congress in New York’s Third Congressional District, was engaging in a bizarre scheme to knock one of her Primary challengers off the ballot, while secretly filing objections against herself, in the hopes that she would look like a victim and stay above the fray. It didn’t go well for Ms. D’Arrigo.
She not only got caught, but Jay Jacobs, the Chairman of the New York State Democrats, came out forcefully and denounced her failed scheme. “I’ve never seen anything like this” he told the Great Neck News “It is absolutely outrageous. She thought she was trying to deceive the public and make it seem like [Suozzi] was attacking both of them. It makes her seem like a phony progressive.”
While D’Arrigo’s underhanded strategy was peculiar and brazen, the statement that she released after getting caught was even more brazen. D’Arrigo steadfastly refuses to admit her scheme and take responsibility. Instead, she released a statement saying that she did absolutely nothing dishonest or unethical. But rather, “miscommunication” was entirely to blame.
“My team was dealing with new deadlines, working hard, and taking care of children, and there was a miscommunication,” D’Arrigo said. “It was unfortunate, but like with any campaign, you learn from the mistakes and you move on.”
In other words, D’Arrigo is telling voters “Yes. I filed an emergency lawsuit against myself and my one of my opponents, during a pandemic. But it’s not my fault. I’ve been very busy. And my team has the added burden of watching our children.”
This isn’t the first time that Melanie D’Arigo and her campaign team have encountered significant difficulty telling the truth. According to D’Arrigo’s website, her most notable professional accomplishment was serving “as campaign manager for Tony D’Urso in his successful race for Assembly District 17”.
There’s two problems with that statement. The first problem is that Melanie D’Arrigo was never Tony D’Urso’s campaign manager. The second problem is that Tony D’urso ran for re-election in New York’s 16th Assembly District, not the 17th.
If D’Arrigo had actually served as Tony D’Urso’s campaign manager, she probably would have known which district they were seeking re-election.
According to numerous insiders, D’Arrigo simply volunteered as one of the campaign’s “office managers.” The D’urso re-election campaign had offices in Great Neck and Port Washington. Melanie D’Arrigo was the manager of the Port Washington office. She was never the campaign manager. Although she was a daily presence in the Port Washington office, she was never entrusted with decision making authority on anything substantive during the campaign.
Former staffers were perplexed about D’Arigo’s motivation for stretching the truth. “Melanie did a good job as the office manager and the Assemblyman was very fond of her. There’s no shame in helping run the office. It’s a weird thing to lie about” said one insider.
Melani D’Arrigo has also repeatedly failed to file her financial disclosure statements with the federal government. This is not only a violation of the federal ethics law, but it is especially surprising, because the cornerstone of the D’Arrigo campaign has been her commitment to ensuring full financial disclosure and refusing to accept corporate contributions. Federal Election Commission Records also reflect that she “loaned” her campaign $60,000 of her own money.
While D’Arrigo now claims that her campaign erred when it filed objections against Weinstock (and herself) at the Board of Elections, she has yet to offer any explanation for why her name also appears in the State Supreme Court proceeding that is now pending in Albany.
On April 3, 2020, Melanie D’arrigo, along with Josh Sauberman, filed an Emergency Filing in New York State Supreme Court in Albany, seeking to knock Michael Weinstock off the ballot (see attached filing). Sauberman is a political gadfly who has sought political office on a number of occasions, but his name has never actually appeared on the ballot on Election Day.
Although Sauberman’s Facebook account has recently been scrubbed clean of all history, there was success in obtaining screen shots of earlier posts. These postings suggest that Sauberman, like D’Arrigo, has a difficult relationship with the truth.
At one point Sauberman was claiming residence in Queens, NY while also asking friends/supporters to write his name in for Library Trustee in another County.
Sauberman’s current Facebook page fails to mention anything about having a law degree. In the past, however, Sauberman not only suggested that he was a lawyer, but his Facebook profile also claimed that he was an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School.
The New York State Bar Association has no records of Josh Sauberman ever being licensed to practice law. According to Fordham Law School, they only hire licensed attorneys as professors and they have no records of anybody named Sauberman being employed as a professor.
According to one of Sauberman’s old campaign websites, he once enjoyed an extraordinary career at the United Nations. He claims that his diplomatic career required him to travel to 83 different countries and he became proficient speaking twelve (12) foreign languages.
Although the Human Resources office of the United Nations is closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the online database of the United Nations fails to confirm that anybody named Joshua Sauberman has ever been employed in any sort of position that requires international travel.
A number of people who know Sauberman through his volunteer work with Long Island Activists, expressed incredulity with his claim that he speaks twelve foreign languages. “As far as I know, he only speaks English. He might also speak a little Spanish” said one activist.
At the very least, it appears that both Sauberman and D’Arrigo have been caught stretching the truth. It’s unlikely that voters will take either of them seriously if either of their names ever appear on the ballot.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court proceeding against Weinstock is scheduled for April 20th, in Albany. Both D’Arrigo and Sauberman are represented by Arthur Schwartz, a prominent Election Lawyer who frequently represents Bernie Sanders.
According to court records, D’Arrigo is willing to dismiss the proceeding but Sauberman is determined to keep fighting Weinstock in court. While the hearing remains on the court calendar, the duo face an uphill battle to have Weinstock knocked off the ballot. Not only did Weinstock submit twice as many signatures as the law requires, but the Albany courthouse is operating with a skeleton crew and judges are reluctant to entertain any new cases that aren’t genuine emergencies.
