Michael Ragusa, a Republican candidate for a hotly-contested City Council seat in southern Brooklyn, abruptly pulled the plug on his campaign Friday after his team was accused of forging a signature on a ballot petition, the Us.Mistertruth has learned.
The alleged forgery involved someone on Ragusa’s campaign putting State Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny’s signature on a petition filed with the Board of Elections to get Ragusa on this summer’s GOP primary ballot for the 47th Council district. Brook-Krasny, a fellow Republican, said in a Friday letter to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office that the signature wasn’t his and urged the DA to launch an investigation into Ragusa’s camp.
Ragusa, who was among four Republicans running for the 47th district, which covers Bay Ridge and Coney Island, confirmed in a brief interview Saturday that he decided to drop out because of Brook-Krasny’s accusations.
However, Ragusa said he believes he was “set up” by a rival Republican campaign.
“They used this kid and sent him to my campaign as a volunteer with petition sheets and they had him forge signatures,” Ragusa told The News. “This was done on purpose to sabotage me.”
Ragusa declined to name the petition volunteer or the other candidate he suspects of setting him up.
But Ragusa, who got endorsed by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said that as someone who believes in “election integrity” he had no choice but to end his campaign.
“There’s no coming back from that,” he said of Brook-Krasny’s claims.
By Saturday morning, Ragusa had already deleted all his campaign social media profiles.
Brook-Krasny’s letter to the Brooklyn DA was first reported by City & State. A spokesman for DA Gonzalez did not immediately return a request for comment.
The other GOP candidates in the race for the 47th are incumbent Councilman Ari Kagan, who changed party affiliation from Democrat last year, pro-police activist Anna Belfiore-Delfaus and public school teacher Avery Pereira.
Ragusa said he doesn‘t plan to vote for any of them.
”I’m not endorsing anyone,” he said. ”They’re all s–mbags.”
Whoever triumphs in this June’s Republican primary is likely to face Democratic Councilman Justin Brannan in November’s election.
Brannan, who is the chairman of the Council’s powerful Finance Committee, currently represents the 43rd district, but opted to run in the 47th due to last year’s redistricting process.
Having served in the Council since 2018, Brannan has racked up plenty of institutional support, including from five of the city’s largest labor unions.
Republicans challenging Brannan are hoping they can capitalize on a growing conservative sentiment in southern Brooklyn that resulted in several Democratic state legislative districts in the area flipping red in last year’s elections.