Nassau County and state Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs and Nassau GOP Chairman Joseph Cairo recently cross-endorsed two candidates for state Supreme Court in November.
“We made what I can only describe as a fair agreement to continue the process of balancing out the judiciary and making it as nonpolitical as possible,” Jacobs explained, according to a Newsday report.
One of the candidates who will be elected judge by virtue of this deal was David Gugerty, the Nassau Democratic elections commissioner and the Democratic Oyster Bay town teader.
The second candidate assured election barring an invasion from outer space is Christopher Ostuni, counsel for majority Republicans on the Nassau County Legislature and the son-in-law of former Republican Chairman Joseph Mondello.
Ostuni was selected by Cairo, who served for many years as Mondello’s deputy before taking the top spot in the county party.
In what universe, one wonders, is the Republican chairman negotiating a deal with the Democratic chairman to ensure that two party favorites get elected to the bench nonpolitical?
And if the judiciary is nonpolitical – please hold the laughter – why does it need “balancing out?”
We won’t even bother to raise the question of selecting the most qualified person for the position.
The cross-endorsement of Gugerty and Ostuni is just another example of the horse-trading that takes place between Republicans and Democrats to keep political power in the hands of the leaders of the two parties.
Voters with no political affiliation made up 24 percent of the county’s electorate as of February 2019. Were any of them consulted to discuss the state Supreme Court positions sought by Gugerty and Ostuni?
How about leaders of any other party? Conservative? No. Working Families? No. Independent? No. Any other. No, no and no.
Keep in mind that other countries have seen the rise of third, fourth and fifth party candidates – as at one time has the United States.
You might have heard something about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe or John Quincy Adams. Not a Democrat or Republican among them.
In any other industry, two businesses with a 76 percent market share agreeing to scratch each other’s back in this fashion would be accused of restraint of trade.
But in politics, this is par for the course.
Just look at the county – and state – Board of Elections.
Republicans and Democrats have established a system in which only Republicans and Democrats have authority over state and county elections and who gets hired to run them.
In Nassau County, the two political parties with the most registered voters were each given $7.5 million to dole out in salaries to their members to oversee elections in 2018. And all other parties, as well as unaffiliated voters, received none.
And those same two parties with the most registered voters received 100 percent of the authority to oversee elections. And all other parties, as well as unaffiliated voters, received none.
As Blank Slate Media reported last year, the county Board of Elections is a dumping ground for failed elected officials, relatives of politicians of both parties and, in at least one case, an elected official.
Best qualified for a position? Don’t be silly.
Anthony Santino, for instance, did such a bad job that he became the first Republican in more than 100 years to lose an election for Hempstead town supervisor.
After making sweetheart deals to party faithful in Hempstead, he resigned two days before the end of his term – to take a position as an administrative assistant at the Board of Elections. At a salary of $160,000 a year.
Democrat Robert Troiano, a former senior policy adviser to North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth and county legislator, was Nassau County Executive Laura Curran’s pick for traffic and parking violations commissioner.
Until it was discovered that he had racked up more than $80,000 in federal income tax liens. His punishment? He was appointed to a position at the Board of Elections. At a salary of $140,000 a year.
Former North Hempstead Democratic Party Chairman Gerard Terry, currently serving time for tax fraud, also had a job at the county agency before stepping down when he faced charges. It was one of six politically appointed, taxpayer-funded jobs Terry once simultaneously held.
Some may question the wisdom of a public lacking sufficient knowledge of the law to choose judges who rarely discuss the law during campaigns for office. And in truth, many voters follow party choices in making their decisions.
Let’s set aside the fact that this system gives party leaders enormous leverage over people seeking a position on the bench – and re-election – and focus on the decision-making of party leaders.
Mondello and Cairo presided over a Republican Party that backed former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and ex-Oyster Bay Town Supervisor John Venditto for office. Both were convicted of political corruption. As was Mangano’s top deputy, Rob Walker.
And Nassau under former Republican County Executive Tom Gullota nearly went bankrupt in 2000. The county has remained under state supervision since then.
In North Hempstead, where Democrats held control, voters got Terry.
So an alternative to this brain trust might not be a bad idea.
We know the selection of federal judges by Congress and the president has gotten a bad name, but nominations made by the county executive approved – or not – by the county Legislature would at least be transparent.
That is if the Democrats and the Republicans in the state Legislature would allow it.
