Discouraging information — candidates routinely collect three times that many, because signatures can be disqualified for a number of infractions, real and imagined, and there are lots of other rules and formats to comply with, and forms to file.

The system is designed to prevent people, especially those who cannot toss off $thousands for a lawyer, off the ballot. Beware, or get stuffed at Step One. If the incumbents are worried, it is virtually illegal for an unauthorized person to run for office in New York State.

If Streetsblogger is serious about helping people run, it should get one of the experts (Brennan Center perhaps?) to post the real requirements here — the form to use, who can collect, required information (election district?) and where to get it, notarization, binding, titles, certificates of acceptance, campaign finance disclosure, personal finance disclosure, limits (real and fake) on where you can campaign, etc.

And remember who appoints the judges.

To echo what Larry said, it would be very helpful to have stories from people who have successfully and unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Assembly members, both in primary and general elections, so that those who are considering running or backing an insurgent candidate know the full extent of what they’re up against.

You can read about my own Don Quixote attempt here…

http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/are_you_an_american_in_any_meaningful_sense.html

if you want to know what politics is like to an outraged, neophyte, non-politican. It’s a little late to get started, but good luck to anyone willing to try.

I (and I’m sure other S’blog readers) have considerable experience carrying nominating petitions and defending against and mounting ballot challenges. Propsective candidates should consider using SB as resource to recruit help with those efforts.

While electoral races have a certain attraction — and the threat of a primary challenge is particularly distressing to even those with the safest seats — they are long shots at best, as I see you acknowledge above.

The ideal combination is to have a primary challenge and some group working the incumbent to get him to be more responsive at the same time. I know the latter piece has begun to happen a bit in my district (O’Donnell); so far, there’s no primary challenge there. Whoever runs there will get crushed, but it might helpful.