Sunday, September 23, 2007

To Vote or Not To Vote

Vote early and vote often.
--Al Capone (1899 - 1947)

Those of you who have been watching from the sidelines as the Heaney/Nuzzi team has been trying to get themselves re-elected may have noticed that a small monkey wrench has been thrown into that particular plan. Nuzzi is not up for re-election this year but his boss, Heaney, is.

Against the backdrop of corruption and favors-for-votes, the local electorate has started to voice their objections to their business-as-usual. While the Southampton Press and Suffolk Life have started to retreat from their almost slobbering support of "Skip" Heaney, there is still some indecision about how to treat either Heaney or Kabot. One reason for that is the fact that while Heaney lost on the Republican line, he still garnered almost half of the vote and still may have Independent Party line. That may translate into "deals."

Knowing Heaney, as many people do, he is busy trying to buy a position with that electorate behind him.

What neither he nor the other Republicans know is -- what the segment of the rest of the local electorate will do come Election Day in November. Many, many people, especially local voters, have had quite enough of the party that Lincoln would throw-up over. He freed the slaves, the Southampton Republicans want to put the immigrants in jail along with property owners.

It is difficult to tell what the rest of the 20,000 or so registered voters will do, as against what the less than 3000 registered Republicans have already done on Primary Day.

With the election nearing in November, the big question is whether the rest of the voters' revulsion of the Republican Party mirrors the revolution in the Republican Party in general.

This is where the candidacy of Jim Henry becomes interesting.

Kabot is a Republican who ran successfully on the Integrity Party line, as did Nancy Graboski - since their own party - which attempted to ditch them in an aborted attempt to support Heaney, rejected them.

Disastrously, that did not work and the Chair of the Republican Party, Marcus Stinchi is starting to circulate his resume. His landscaping business is probably starting to look like a better alternative.

Kabot and Graboski were known to be rejecting the old-boy network and entrenched corruption of the Republican Party. Despite the currently weak musings of the Southampton Press and Suffolk Life (since they practically drooled in lockstop at Heaney's orders), the voters were able to see what was really going on. The fact that the "news" being reported was driven by ad sales that Heaney controlled through the Republican Party, was not lost on readers who have never had much of a choice when it comes to journalism.

The Town Board is currently a muddied waters of candidates at this point.

The Heaney forces, including Drew and Russo are not out but dampened - with Russo having the better chance.

Russo is a local boy in his thirties who is an A.D.A in the Town and who came out of nowhere after hanging his hat with the Party and Heaney. He did respectably well, but ran behind Graboski.

Anna Throne-Holst is entering the fray now and is one of several candidates who will vie for the two slots on the Board.

Although another slot would open up if Kabot were to win as Supervisor -- she could then could appoint another Board member - presumably, of her own liking.

Jim Henry enters the field now as the opposing candidate for Supervisor on the clearly defined Democratic line. While Kabot still has Heaney on her tail, she is now the Republican candidate as well as Integrity candidate.

Henry remains the Democrats choice.

Henry now comes out center stage to permit the voters a clear choice.

That choice appears to be corruption with Heaney, cleaner status quo with Kabot or a different direction with Henry.

The wild card in this election may not be a candidate but a voting block.

New Yorkers have been disenfranchised and have not weighed in on local politics so far. One, because they have not seen a need to do so.

Two, because they don't have the right to vote.

No candidate has seen fit to mention the elephant in the room.

The fact that there are slightly less than 6400 property owners, New Yorkers, who have homes in the Town of Southampton and who could be eligible to vote is a serious reality. This, of course, does not take into consideration the fact that in addition to that there are also many thousands of émigrés from Manhattan who got out of town right after 9/11 who never went back and others who just decided "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." One too many parking tickets while dropping your child off at school can do that.

While they are not seasoned locals, they bring New York values and a lot of political baggage. And, they are not happy about many things that have been going on.

And, one of the things that have been going on is the institutional racism that has now spilled over in a codified set of laws.

That, namely, is the new rental law which criminalizes the act of renting your house without a permit. Everyone, except local cops, firemen and other favorite people, faces fines of up to $15,000 PER VIOLATION if they do not register their house with the Town as of January 1st. The Town wants to know who is in your house, where they work, what their names are, personal information about them and wants the landlord to give the Code Enforcement Police free access whenever they feel like doing a search and seizure.

The Constitution has been suspended in Southampton Town.

They also want the right to arrest you if you don't give them this right.

Since national policy eliminating the rights of immigrants was a failure, the Republicans decided to create a law that could, de facto, accomplish what they wanted - with a badge and a gun. Only this time, they set it up so that they not only could they fine the property owners but could arrest the tenants and homeowners as well.

And, in the process they could milk the real estate industry. Brokers, agents, management companies, national real estate companies - anyone, and everyone associated with the possible finding of a home for "illegal immigrants." And, all of this has been done with the money from property taxes paid by YOU - to use against you.

Heaney, the Supervisor, Nuzzi, Town Board member from Crookhaven, were solidly for this bill which they introduced - and, in fact, pushed it down the throats of the Town Board. Heaney managed this by giving out Preservaton Fund money in places like Hampton Bays for school taxes. Money that was garnered from transfer taxes on real estate sales that was earmarked for the buying of land for open spaces to remain un-developed.

Russo is on board with Heaney and supports the rental law.

The question is, where does Kabot stand on this issue. She is quoted in Suffolk Life as saying that she is against "Vigilantism" but supports the law.

Graboski, now a Town Board member who is running for re-election voted for the rental law.

Anna Throne-Holst, candidate for Town Board was one of the few candidates who opposed this law at the hearing where it was passed.

Jim Henry is on record as opposing this law and clearly sees it as a thinly disguised form of discrimination.

It may be time for New Yorkers to register to vote in this election and make themselves heard. We will keep you informed on the candidates and the issues.

But vote. Register and vote. Do it now.

Download a voter registration form from www.countryvote.org and mail it in - and, to make the process easier, request an absentee ballot if you have to which allows you to vote from wherever you are as long as you are outside the limits of Suffolk County.

Show up and be counted.

1 comment:

  1. One of the main arguments to give as to why NYers should register here instead of NYC is that their vote counts for so much more here. The choice here has much greater weight than in the City where there is always a choice between a very progressive Repub (LaGardia, Lindsey, Guiliani, Bloomberg) against(usually) a more progressive Dem.
    If NYers had not registered here, it is doubtful that Grucci would have lost to Bishop. If we want a national government that is not a kleptocracy playing musical chairs for the rich, controling the music, the chairs & the players then it is important to change the laws permitting dirty money from corporations & the rich spoil democratic elections. If we want a government run for & by the people, then it is important to vote in progressives. --mo

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