The Westchester Fair Campaign Practices Committee has shot down a complaint filed by Republican Kurt van Kuller alleging his opponent for a seat in the county Legislature had fabricated his level of public service.
The committee also found two complaints lodged by Democrat Anant Nambiar to be of merit in the increasingly contentious race for the county’s 7th legislative district.
The ruling did not accept van Kuller’s allegation that Nambiar had inflated his resume by repeatedly claiming he had 15 years of public service experience when he has only served five years in elected office — on the Mamaroneck Board of Education and the Mamaroneck Town Council.
“The Committee found that ‘public service’ is a broad term and can mean many things to the general public, including government work, community service, and work with nonprofit organizations,” according to a press release issued Thursday night.
“In addition to his School Board and Town Board service, Mr. Nambiar has also volunteered in his community and with nonprofit organizations during the period described,” the release added.
The committee, however, found in favor of Nambiar — previously unknown complaints he had filed with the committee — on two points based on the candidates’ presentations at a hearing on Wednesday.
They ruled that van Kuller “engaged in misleading attacks on his character and misrepresented his campaign, referring to him as a ‘radical’ and calling him ‘Mr. Mamdani.’”
During the Oct. 22 debate in the Mamaroneck Town Center, van Kuller referenced Mamdani, the polarizing frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race and a self-described Democratic Socialist, when referring to Nambiar.
Both Nambiar and Mamdani are Indian American.
The WFCPC found that van Kuller “was misleading the voters by contending that Mr. Nambiar’s priorities and policies are the same as those of Mr. Mamdani, the South Asian NYC mayoral candidate.”
“Mr. van Kuller did not offer an apology during the Forum, nor did he publicly apologize afterwards,” the committee also said.
Van Kuller told The Record on Tuesday that he was guilty of “a slip of the tongue.”
The committee also agreed with Nambiar’s claim that van Kuller engaged in an unfair campaign practice by distributing a press release on Oct. 25 when filing a complaint with the WFCPC.
Nambiar told The Record the decisions “speak for themselves.”
“My opponent’s decorum in the Oct 22 debate and after have been wrong and unacceptable,” he added. “His actions are desperate and distracting, and the FCPC clearly agrees with that.”
WFCPC regulations forbid candidates from publicly commenting on complaints before they have been ruled on. Even though van Kuller rescinded the press release on Oct. 26, the committee found that he had acted improperly.
Van Kuller also violated a WFCPC rule that “A candidate should not abuse the process of filing complaints to obtain political advantage by notifying the press or public prior to the hearing of a complaint,” according to the findings.
He was quick to dismiss the committee’s findings as “A BIASED PROCESS MASQUERADING AS FAIR” in a Facebook posting just after midnight on Friday morning. Van Kuller criticized the group, whose decisions are not binding, for running a hearing he characterized as “imbalanced, disorganized, and rushed” and releasing its findings “just as voters head to the polls.”
The mostly Sound Shore district includes Rye, Mamaroneck, and Larchmont, as well as parts of Harrison, with more than 43,000 registered voters.
