Town GOP saw small gains, big progress

The Island Now

First I’d like to publicly congratulate my opponent, Ms. Bosworth, and all the other local election winners. I wish them all well in their new terms in public office, and wish them and everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. I also had the pleasure of personally congratulating Ms. Bosworth, and receiving her gracious response.

Second, I’d like to thank everyone who voted for me and everyone who helped my campaign and my fellow Republican teammates’ campaigns. You were phenomenal! Together, we achieved the moral victory of demonstrating strong support for the Republican candidates’ sensible policies of lower taxes, more responsible spending, and focusing on specific local needs such as our local roadways. The Republican electoral results significantly outperformed our registration disadvantage – a great step in the right direction. Taxpayers are waking up. Republicans are heading towards victory in future years.

It was wonderful to see that attorney Dina DiGiorgio, the Republican candidate from Port Washington for the Town of North Hempstead town council, won her race. Local taxpayers and citizens will finally have another voice in the Town of North Hempstead government. Up until now, Republicans were outnumbered by six to one in the town government. With Dina, Republicans will only be outnumbered by five to two now. Dina will be a strong voice fighting against costly boondoggles such as the town’s planned purchase of the Roslyn Country Club – a plan which is likely to cost local taxpayers millions of dollars.

I would also like to thank everyone who voted for my opponent for participating in the electoral process.

Win or lose, running for election is a wonderful experience. It was a pleasure to meet and converse with so many more people in our community while on the campaign trail. Importantly, this election gave me opportunities to speak out against the high property taxes that are overburdening our community, and the chance to propose specific spending cuts and remedies. I hope that our legislator and other public officials will pay attention to these critical community concerns in the future.

There were many interesting moments during the campaign – such as debating at the League of Women Voters with laryngitis and a mouth full of throat lozenges. It was encouraging to see the local Democratic town candidates’ election flyer criticizing Obama’s disgraceful pre-1967 indefensible borders Mideast policy. The fact that some local Democrats are trying to distance themselves from Obama’s anti-Israel policies may mean that there is hope for a much-needed Republican presidential victory in 2012!

Sadly, there were a few events that marred the recent election. First, the sign stealers were horrendous. Over two-thirds of my signs were stolen. A local Great Neck homeowner’s security camera caught on videotape two grown men pulling up and jumping out of a car and stealing Republican signs (including five of my signs) from his lawn and his neighbor’s lawn at night. This security tape was posted on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_eTUsd4lKA. I understand that the Democratic crew stole hundreds of additional Republican signs during the same night.

Second, concerns were belatedly brought to my attention about the partisan activities of unauthorized Farsi translators hired by the Democrats to “assist” voters at several key polling places. If you have any further information about these translators’ activities, please get in touch with me.

Third, I understand that Democrats were caught going into the public schools with school officials to solicit paid campaign workers. Public schools are not supposed to be used for partisan political purposes.

Fourth, Karen Rubin’s last minute “hit piece” in this and other newspapers unjustly attacked me and other Republicans, when there was no time to respond. (Ms. Rubin falsely claimed that I only care about national and Mideast issues, and don’t care about local issues. In fact, as Ms. Rubin well knows from my articles in this newspaper, I frequently write about and have demonstrated my concern for both local and national/international issues. Many issues, such as taxes, are both local and national.)

In order to be fair, such “hit pieces” should only be published when the other side is given an opportunity to respond in the newspaper prior to the election.

It takes tremendous time, effort and expense to run a campaign. Our whole American system of fair elections is damaged when some people resort to thievery and unethical ploys.

Regardless of any shenanigans that occurred, I think that it’s important to try to look at the “bright side” of an election loss.

Years ago, an older, brilliant friend of mine was “passed over” (rejected) for partnership at our law firm, after he had worked unimaginably long hours throughout the previous eight years. I thought that he would be devastated by his loss of the partnership sweepstakes. So, I stopped by his office the morning after the partnership results were announced, hoping to offer him a few words of comfort. To my surprise, I found him sitting at his desk, smiling and saying, “Gam ze l’tovah” – the Hebrew or Yiddish expression for “Also this is for the best.”

And he was correct. He went on to have a prominent and happy career at another law firm.

I hope to make this recent electoral loss “all for the best” too. Losing this past election leaves me with more time to continue advocating and writing about local and national issues, including working on the efforts to defeat Barack Obama in 2012.

For the sake of our community, our country and our allies around the world, let’s hope that 2012 will bring Republican electoral success.

Elizabeth Berney, Esq.

Great Neck

 

Share this Article