This past Tuesday, Election Day, was a day of monumental disasters for all Republican candidates who ran for office with our Town of North Hempstead government.
While the voting was an unmitigated disaster for all Republican candidates, it was also a day of disaster for all Port Washington residents, but very few of them realize that today.
I will explain that community disaster, in a moment. All Republican candidates lost the election, not by a landslide vote, but by a great tsunami of a vote, that may not be seen again for a generation, or more. That great tsunami was caused by an anti-Trump fervor, that almost borders on religious fanaticism.
Months ago, I predicted to our Republican town councilwoman, Dina DeGiorgio, that that great tsunami was coming and I told her that I hoped that she and her re-election team could plan to avoid it.
No, I‘m not a seer and I don’t have a crystal ball. I based my prediction on what had happened last year, to our former state senator, Elaine Phillips.
Mrs. Phillips, a Republican, was elected to office in 2016 over Adam Haber, and she proved to be an outstanding state senator. However, the fierce anti-Trump tsunami was already moving in 2018 and Mrs. Phillips was defeated in her bid for re-election by a nobody Democrat from Great Neck, Anna Kaplan.
Our community disaster is that we’ve lost Dina DeGiorgio as our representative on the town council and that she’s being replaced on it, by Mariann Dalimonte.
Dina, a Republican, is a lawyer, is independent-minded and she has been in town government since 2011. Because she is a Republican, Dina did not have to rubber-stamp all proposals made by the Democratic Party-controlled town government and I truly believe, that she always made strong efforts to conduct herself on the town council in ways that were in the best interests of all Port Washington.
I cannot say any of that about Ms. Dalimonte. Ms. Dalimonte is not an attorney and she has absolutely no experience in any form of government, at any level. She will not be an independent voice on the town council, advocating for Port Washington. She will be nothing more than a rubber stamp sitting on the town council, agreeing to whatever Judi Bosworth and the Democratic Party bosses propose.
Jon Kaiman and his Democratic-controlled Town Council gave us the Knickerbocker monstrosity that ruined the Manhasset Bay shoreline and that is nothing more than an eyesore, for all Port Washington residents to look at.
Jon Kaiman and his Democratic-controlled Town Council also gave us the “Model Blocks” rezoning of four blocks on Main Street, to build apartment buildings on. The one block that was rezoned on lower Main Street was used by the Scheinmans (Martin and Laurie, wealthy Sands Point residents who are heavy financial contributors to the Democratic Party) to build their unnecessary and unwanted Scheinman House on, to the detriment of the Manhasset Bay area and our community in general.
You can be sure that when other grandiose real estate projects have to be approved of by our Democrat Party controlled town government, which includes the town BZA, that Ms. Dalimonte will be in favor of every project.
If Harry Macklowe, that renowned New York City real estate developer, proposed to build a 65 story tall apartment building on Haven Avenue tomorrow, opposite the railroad station, and he paid the price to the Democratic Party machine for the proposal, you can be sure that Judi Bosworth, Mariann Dalimonte and all the other Democrats now serving in our town government would enthusiastically be in favor of the project, telling our community that the new apartment building is needed to make Port Washington more accessible, more affordable and more walkable.
Democrats Judi Bosworth and Charles Berman were easily re-elected last Tuesday to their respective positions of town supervisor and receiver of taxes. Both are protégés of that Democratic Party kingmaker, Gerard Terry, who is now serving a long-term prison sentence for income tax evasion and other misdeeds.
I had hoped that the Republican candidates for those positions, David Redmond and Ron Rochester, would be successful in unseating Ms. Bosworth and Mr. Berman, so that we would finally be done with Gerard Terry’s maneuverings and so that also, we would have some fresh eyes focusing on government.
Mr. Redmond and Mr. Rochester were each highly qualified to fill those positions. I think that it’s a very bad idea to have one-party control of any government, for an extended period of time.
Cronyism, nepotism, “pay to play” and all of the other possible sins of a corrupt government, seem to develop, when only one political party controls a government, for a long period of years.
Some of those sins were revealed when Jon Kaiman was our supervisor. We have to be watchful for a recurrence of any of those sins, under Judi Bosworth’s leadership.
Joel Katz
Port Washington
