Queens Pol Says ‘Sperminator’ Rival Hijacked His Party Registration

Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi says he logged into his voter file this month and found a political curveball: his party enrollment had been switched from Democrat to the Working Families Party without his say-so. His campaign says the surprise change nearly knocked him off the June primary ballot, and that Hevesi has now filed a criminal complaint with the Queens District Attorney’s office. He is publicly accusing perennial candidate Jonathan Rinaldi of orchestrating what his team calls a deliberate attempt to scramble the race.

Hevesi’s campaign shared paperwork that it says backs up the claim. The voter registration form filed with the Board of Elections left out his phone number and email address and incorrectly stated that he did not have a driver’s license or Social Security number, yet election workers still processed it, according to reporting by the New York Post. The campaign says the party switch was processed in February, and that a Working Families Party official later phoned Hevesi to thank him for enrolling. That call, the campaign argues, confirmed that someone had submitted an unauthorized change in his name.

Jonathan Rinaldi has been a familiar, and often controversial, presence in Queens politics, earning coverage for quirky campaign stunts and allegedly doctored endorsements, a pattern the Queens Daily Eagle has tracked. He has repeatedly appeared on local ballots in recent election cycles, according to official election records. Hevesi, by contrast, has represented parts of central Queens for years and is listed as the Assemblymember for District 28 in candidate biographies and government records dating back to 2005, per BallotReady.

How party switches work in New York

New York voters can change their party enrollment by filing a fresh voter registration form. That can be done online, at a DMV office, in person at a county board of elections, or by mailing in a completed form. To count for a given primary, mailed forms have to arrive by the state deadline. This year, that cutoff was Feb. 14, a date highlighted in official voter guidance and local coverage of the primary calendar. The timing rules and available options are laid out in reporting by the Times Union.

Complaint, denial and next steps

According to Hevesi’s campaign, the criminal complaint submitted to the Queens District Attorney names Rinaldi as the likely culprit and argues that he was “the only person in New York who had the motive, not to mention the means and opportunity, to commit this criminal act,” a claim quoted in the New York Post. Rinaldi has firmly denied having any role in altering Hevesi’s voter registration, the outlet reports. With the paperwork now in prosecutors’ hands, it is up to the DA’s office to decide whether to open a full investigation.

Legal implications

Election law specialists and officials say the central issue for any probe will be intent. Investigators would be looking at whether someone knowingly submitted false information to the Board of Elections in order to change a voter’s party status. If prosecutors determine that fraudulent details were deliberately provided, that could fall under state election crimes or related fraud provisions. The irregularities on the form that were accepted by election staff would almost certainly be examined as part of that review.

For now, the political fight has shifted into the legal arena. Hevesi’s campaign says it has coordinated with local Democratic leaders so that he remains on the primary ballot while the complaint is pending. Rinaldi, for his part, continues to insist he had nothing to do with the switch. The Queens District Attorney’s office has the complaint in hand and will decide whether the facts support bringing charges.