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WPCNR BACKROOM BULLETIN. By Stogie Carmichael. March 10, 2007: It’s Friendly Gathering day today when the county’s biggest Democratic Party unfolds at Good Counsel’s Kearny Gymnasium tonight. In between bites of corn beef, cabbage and potatoes, and the nostalgic wafting of Irish folk songs, Democrats have to be asking themselves, what is going on with the Common Council nominating process?
HAPPIER DAYS: Election Night, 2003 at Democratic HQ at Nick Wolff’s realty offices: when the late Robert Greer, Arnold Bernstein, center and Benjamin Boykin, right swept to their council seats. Now the Democrat duo of Boykin and Bernstein may be in trouble as challengers say they want to run for council instead.
WPCNR has had reports from numerous sources that even though the Common Council has three elected Democratic incumbents ready to run again in November 2007 for reelection to the every growing lucrative part-time job of Councilman – the Nominating Committee is interviewing eight candidates including the incumbents Benjamin Boykin, Jr., Arnold Bernstein and Dennis Power.
Power, of course is on the council by virtue of an appointment to the council in August after Robert Greer died in office. Then Power defeated Cass Cibbelli in November for the remainder of Mr.Greer’s term, as Mr. and Mrs. And Ms. White Plains anointed Mr. Power to serve through December 2007. Now Power must run for reelection again in November of 2007 for the right to give himself to the people of White Plains through 2012.
Mr. Boykin is all set to run for his Third term having been elected by landslide with Mr. Greer and Mr. Bernstein in November of 2003.
Bernstein would be running for his second full term.
However, a number of Democrat insiders have said there are challengers to run for Common Council. Names divulged to WPCNR as lining up for interviews are: Claire Eisenstadt, the architect and long-time open space advocate, Candyce Corcoran, the former candidate for County Legislator for the Republican Party, and a newcomer to the Medicean ranks of the White Plains Democratic Party, Milogros Lecouona. Also throwing his hat in the ring is Robert Stackpole, the former Planning Board member and comprehensive plan activist, and Don Hughes, the operator of White Plains Online, and keen observer of the White Plains policital scene. Mr. Bernstein, Mr. Boykin and Mr. Power are also in the running.
The question is why?
If you have three incumbents in a voter registration pool that is ¾ Democratic, why do people even think they have a chance of being nominated over an incumbent. What WPCNR has heard is the party leadership is very disenchanted with Councilman Bernstein for his consistent support of Mayor Delfino on the issues.
So I do not get it. Are five persons vying to run for Bernstein’s seat? Or Power’s seat, or Boykin’s seat? Or all three.
Do the rank and file members of the party really believe the party would take a chance on losing a seat by nominating an unknown vote getter? Has the Glen Hockley-Arnold Bernstein support of the Mayor really stuck in Democrats’ craws that much?
After all, Councilpersons Boykin Malmud and Roach voted often to support Mayoral initiatives that set off wailings across White Plains: the sale of land on Railside, the purchase of Greico property, the Condominiums on Maple Avenue adjacent Fortunoff, the Pinnacle project and the Avalon Bay project.
There was also the tacit approval by silence of Delfino policies by raising no questions on: the polluted city dump, the miscounting on floors of the Ritz Carlton project, the growing city budget, and failure to support the criticism of 85 Court Street in homage to County Executive Spano.
This council never speaks up for what is right, unless they clear it with high authorities in the Democratic party it seems. I have never seen a councilmember say off the cuff when confronted with an elephant with muddy feat cross across the council chamber.
Just once on the homeless isuue, I would have liked to see someone say “ Hold on, Mr. Mayor, you are right on the homeless, but we have to reach out to them ourselves, not just bash them.” The police stats revealed on that issue alone by the Mayor, moved councilpersons Malmud, Boykin, Roach and Power, not at all. They didn’t respond to the misery that goes on every day in White Plains, in this reporter’s observation. They couldn’t make Andy look bad.,
One observer said that the open interview process by the Democratic Committee indicates the party is looking for new talent and is giving persons a chance to run and is open.
Really?
But are we really to believe the Democratic leadership is going to dump Mr. Boykin and Mr. Bernstein in favor of unknowns? Political leaders have no guts or backbone, and will never step forward and expose themselves to criticism by a courageous decision that costs the party power. Remember the consummate character traits in successful politicians are shrewdness, chutzpah, and no principles.
Running the incumbents again is the smart thing to do.
Now dumping Mr. Bernstein could cause him to primary…or more disastrous, switch to the Republican Party, as is rumored Mr. Hockley is going to do so he can run for Mayor should Mayor Delfino decide not to run in 2009.
The candidate the Democrats love is Dennis Power, parliamentary gaffes and all. He says all the right things, gives you that James Stewart Mr. Smith Goes to Washington earnestness and absorbs punishment like the Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons.
It does not seem to bother any Democrats that Mr. Power was given a county job after running for Mayor on request so Ron Jackson was denied the nomination. It does not seem to bother any Democrat that Mr. Power cannot tell the press what he did on that County job or achieved on that county job, and what he is specifically doing on his new county job with the Department of Environmental facilities on the Andy Spano global warming task force. He’s getting paid $76 Gs for it of taxpayer’s money. Add to that he is getting $36,000 from the Common Council. He is doing very well on a job he cannot tell us about. And we know what he’s doing on the Common Council all too well.
Power’s loyalty to the city of White Plains due to his county employment at the largesse of County Executive Andy Spano, has been questioned repeatedly by Brian Maloney the titular head of the Republican City Committee.
Dropping Mr. Boykin, an African-American, is unthinkably politically incorrect, so this is all about denying Bernstein a chance to run again.
Meanwhile in another part of town, in another backroom far away, the handful of Republicans left in the city of White Plains (I am being facetious, here, folks) are seeing an opening here:
They could, should Mr. Bernstein be miffed at the slap in the face the nominating committee is giving him by not acclaiming their incumbency ticket, invite Mr. Bernstein to run on their ticket. Mr. Bernstein would have name recognition and with the amount of attention Democrats pay to who runs, he might win on a case of mistaken identity.
The Mayor has appointed Larry Delgado to the Urban Renewal Agency this week, and I hear vibrations that the Mayor wants to bring Mr. Delgado back, even though he was defeated in the 2005 election by Mr. Hockley.
Should the democrats go with Ms. Lecouona, who showed practical down-to-earth analytical abilities when she was reviewing the capital project for the school board, they would be rectifying the slap in the face they gave to Eridania Camacho when they did not nominate her in 2003, when she was pushed to run. Mr. Bernstein was nominated instead.
Mr. Stackpole is perhaps the headiest and most dangerous candidate. Watching Mr. Stackpole in action on the Council would be delicious as he asked financial questions in Budget and Management meetings, and queried the Financial Officer, Gina Cuneo-Harwood on the budget. But I do not think that is going to happen. The last thing the Democrats want on the council is someone who is going to make Ms. Malmud, Mr. Roach, Mr. Boykin and Mr. Power look inept.
Ms. Corcoran is a veteran at campaigning and well-known, the effect of her candidacy on the “correct” side of the ticket could mean a win for her.
Who the Republicans would put up as the third member of a Delgado-Bernstein ticket is a mystery: Tim Sheehan, perhaps, or if the Democrats did the unthinkable and dumped Benjamin Boykin, the Republicans could pick him up just like that.
Over the next four years the council has to wake up and smell the coffee and make harder decisions and start making some decision on their own, and hold the administration accountable for a runaway budget.
In order to balance the city budget, they are going to have to either end the city’s assessment giveaways to businesses – or enact a city income tax to balance the budget. They also have the spectre of reassessment another way of balancing the books – if they have the guts to screw the commercial property owners of the town. To date they have been supporting policies that have gored the homeowners for ten years.
Unless you as a homeowner have paid off your mortgage, you will not be able to stay in White Plains and pay the real estate taxes on your home. Thanks to theWhite Plains City Government, County Government and the White Plains City School District the average White Plains homeowner’s taxes are going to go well over $10,000 this year. This looks good to people looking in, but it plays havoc with a family that lives here.
We are told all this is relative by our leaders, and it has always been thus. But it is very relative to income which is not galloping ahead at the 8% rate the way government spending is.
