Long Beach City Council candidate Runnie Myles filed a civil rights lawsuit against Nassau Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs and the Nassau County Board of Elections, claiming discrimination.

Myles claims Jacobs unilaterally rescinded Myles' nomination in violation of New York election law. The lawsuit also alleges that Board of Elections employees, under the direction of Jacobs, were sent to intimidate and harass elderly and African-American voters who signed Myles' designating petition.

“There is no party boss, there is no political leader who can tell me or my constituency what we can and cannot do in our own city,” says Myles.

Jacobs calls Myles' lawsuit a pre-Election Day stunt.

“It's got no basis and validity,” says Jacobs. “This is a very political kind of a lawsuit that is meant to distract voters from the corruption that's been taking place in this county.”

Jacobs says Myles was the subject of a lawsuit filed in July that alleged the signatures collected by Myles and two other candidates for Long Beach City Council were fraudulent and collected improperly. A court document shows Myles' attorney conceded that, for technical reasons, they would not have enough signatures to meet the requirement set by the Board of Elections.

“And he himself through his attorney, a Republican John Ciampoli, actually before the court withdrew his nomination petitions because they understood that there was a potential of that being looked at as fraud,” says Jacobs. “You cannot claim that you were harmed when you yourself withdrew the lawsuit and his own attorney stipulated in court that they were withdrawing from the race and withdrawing from any actions on it.”

Myles says he’s running as a write-in candidate and maintains that his lawsuit has merit.

“I'm going to run on anyway,” he says.