In Matter of Gross v. Hoblock (6 A.D.3d 933 [2004]), the Third Department recently addressed the issue of a candidate's standing to challenge the minor party nomination of his opponent when the minor party failed to file a certificate of authorization as required under section 6-120 of the Election Law. In Gross (at 935-936), the Court summarized its view of the standing issue: "To be sure, this Court previously has held that a candidate of one party has no standing to challenge the designating petition of another party's candidate where such challenge is founded upon a lack of compliance with Election Law 6-120 . . . A careful review of these and other cases, however, reveals that the standing issue ultimately turns upon whether the underlying challenge is to the internal affairs and/or operating functions of a political party in its designation of candidates or, rather, to a legislatively mandated requirement of the Election Law . . . Thus, where the challenge is directed to the manner in or methods by which a given party committee votes on or designates a particular candidate, a nonparty candidate will not be deemed aggrieved, as he or she has no interest in whether the formalities of that process have been followed . . . Where, however, the challenge is to a legislatively mandated requirement of the Election Law, such as the content of a designating petition . . . , 'the interests involved . . . transcend the mere regulation of the affairs of a political party' . . . and standing will lie. Inasmuch as the failure to file a Wilson-Pakula authorization 'constitutes a fatal defect rather than a mere technicality' . . . and, hence, represents a challenge to a legislative mandate of the Election Law, we are satisfied that petitioner has standing."