VGN write-in led to scramble for incumbents

Dan Glaun

The under-the-rader write-in campaign on the day of the Village of Great Neck’s election led incumbent trustees and their allies to scramble for support.

In least one instance, a leader of the opposition said, those supporters overstepped their bounds.

Trustees stood for hours making phone calls outside the polling station to residents, contending with rain as they shored up support against the surprise challenge, according to the officials. 

In one instance, Village of Great Neck Mayor Ralph Kreitzman called former Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Great Neck), who put out a robocall to encourage supporters to vote for the re-election of Kreitzman, Deputy Mayor Mitchell Beckerman and Trustee Jeffrey Bass, as well as the election of Trustee Mark Birnbaum as village justice. 

“It was last minute, good old-fashioned campaigning,” Bass said. “When people realized that there was something going on that was surreptitious… we mounted what we hoped and what turned out to be a successful effort to get out the vote among those we hoped were sympathetic to us.”

Kreitzman defeated challenger Pedram Bral 325 to 232. Beckerman took 316 votes and Bass won 320 votes, with opposition trustee candidates Christine Campbell and Anne Mendelson receiving 226 votes each. And Birnbaum won his race for village justice, with 321 votes to candidate Kambiz “Eli” Akhavan’s 225 votes.

Community activist Rebecca Gilliar, who helped organize the opposition campaign in what was expected to be an uncontested election, said last week that the Great Neck North High School Parent Teacher and Student Association jumped into the race for the incumbents – a charge the association disputed, saying that a get-out-the-vote email was misinterpreted.

Ackerman, who retired from Congress in January, said he was contacted by Kreitzman and made the call as a gesture of support for Kreitzman’s governmental record.

“It was based on the job that he did that I knew about and his ability and dedication,” Ackerman said. “I was happy to do it and glad that he won.”

The last-minute campaign by the incumbents was spontaneous, Bass said.

“We basically called a number of people who are friends of ours in the community literally individually,” Bass said. “We urged people to come out and vote.

Kreitzman asked Ackerman to drum up support, Bass said, as part of an ultimately successful effort to ward off the challenge by mayoral candidate Pedram Bral and his ticket-mates

Bass described the campaign as a “grass-roots effort” and said his party’s victory, after votes were counted into early Wednesday morning, was a mark of public confidence.

“I see it that as testimony as recognition of the work that we have done on behalf of the village on so many levels,” Bass said.

Gilliar does not see it that way. 

The long-time resident, who helped recruit Bral and three other opposition candidates to run, forwarded an e-mail to the Great Neck News from the Great Neck North High School Parent Teacher Student Association that she said showed the group campaigning for the incumbents.

“ITS NOT TOO LATE- PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR VILLAGE OFFICIALS AND GO OUT AND VOTE – TONIGHT!!” read the e-mail, sent shortly after 8:00 p.m. the night of the vote.

The PTSA sent an e-mail to the Great Neck News denying any partisan activity and saying the message was not targeted at any specific village election.

“There is NO political agenda by this organization. We are a volunteer, not for profit group solely for the support of the school (students, parents, administration and teachers.) Emails are intended to inform. Apparently, that email you were forwarded was taken out of context,” the PTSA wrote in the e-mail. 

“We have been very clear and very responsive, our email was a generic ‘get out and vote email.’ No specific village was intended, all village elections took place the same night,” added the group in another e-mail.

The group did not make a representative available for interview, but forwarded another message it had sent out to parents in the wake of the election.

“It has come to our attention that a prior message transmitted via this email box may have been misinterpreted,” the PTSA wrote to parents in an email that included the group’s non-political statement of purpose. “We sincerely apologize for any emails that may have been misinterpreted as having any agenda other than to inform parents of school and related events. We will be more vigilant in the future in ensuring emails are carefully reviewed before releasing.”

Gilliar took issue with the e-mail in a caustic letter to the editor sent to the Great Neck News, in which she wrote that “some stupid, irresponsible parents at North High School” abused their access to the PTSA e-mail list in a way that compromised the school district’s political neutrality.

“You availed yourselves of privileged access to an e-mail list to lobby on behalf of the incumbents, whose names you apparently also do not know. Your behavior, if not actually illegal, was unethical and mindless, and you were indifferent to the repercussions your actions would have for the schools,” Gilliar wrote.

On Friday, Gilliar submitted a letter to the Village of Great Neck Board of Trustees asking the board to seek review of the election results by the state attorney general, citing voting irregularities. The board swore in its re-elected members at Tuesday’s meeting without considering the letter, saying that it was submitted after the village’s deadline for agenda items.

Kreitzman declined to comment for this article.

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