But once he got elected
His constituents he then defected.
Now we are waiting for Ball to Fall.

You might have misunderstood what I was trying to impart. Mia culpa. The societal changes that have occurred made Brewster and many of the towns “Somers Republican” mentions ripe for illegals to take root. No one regime is at fault, people’s lifestyles and economics have changed from the 1950’s and 1960’s and the population has grown. Efficiency and low cost rule the day. Look at the mall that we have today in Danbury, CT and shopping centers in Carmel, NY. That is where the consumer shops in the area, not in downtown Brewster, there is no parking for one. I could go on.

But I would like to address what Somers Republican brought up:
I think that the project for Brewster’s renewal that Ball proposed in the period before he was first elected was a ruse. It was a way to make him look legitimate as a real estate developer. The firm he was employed by, Exceed, was NEVER licensed to business in the state of New York. It had no projects in the area, etc. What Ball did was have some slick CAD software and built a mock up of what Brewster might look like. For someone with the software and some experience it is very easy to do. Do you see where I am going with this? Phony from the start. “Look at me, I am successful and I bring fresh ideas!” As soon as Ball was elected, Exceed’s office in Pawling closed down. It provided a nice front for his run at political office. The success as a real estate developer was a manufactured persona, and it worked. Unfortunately, lies in politics work, as evidenced by Ball’s ability to get elected in the first place.

Some of us believe that the ends do not justify the means. In Balls case, it goes to character. Dishonest behavior should not be rewarded in any walk of life, especially politics/public service. I may agree with him on the second amendment, or to some degree, on illegal immigration, but I put my state, and my country, above my party. I will take an honest Democrat over a dishonest Republican any day of the week. Ball has demonstrated he will stop at nothing to get what he wants for himself, he lies, distorts, and disparages honest hard working public servants. In his effort to further his vile political life, he has begun to assemble a political machine in the Town of Southeast. Anyone who opposes him, he calls “corrupt” or an “old guard”. Ball and his cronies blame the decline of the village of Brewster on his opponent John Degnan, the former mayor of short tenure. The village has been in decline for 30-40 years, as have many small towns across our nation. If one were to look critically at why these declines have occurred, one would have to come to the conclusion that it is the result of far reaching changes in our society. Main Street cannot compete with the shopping malls, big box retailers, and housing developments that have been built over the last 30 years or so. As to the illegal immigrants on the streets of Brewster, there exists one very large reason they have come, and that is the train station. Ease of transportation, at low cost, to jobsites, up and down the line, is highly attractive. In addition, let us not forget the cost of housing is far cheaper in suburban towns like Brewster, than to the south in Westchester or the city for that matter. If you have any more questions, fire away.

Vote Degnan!

The article raises no questions about Ball’s service, and says nothing negative about it. Let’s put this to rest.

The reasons were miscellaneous/general, from what I have heard it was part of Rumsfeld’s restructuring—nothing out of the ordinary. However that is not a General Discharge. Stop saying it is. It’s getting to the point where you’re making us look bad with the swiftboating.

I am voting for John Degnan, and the rest of your points are valid, but distorting the discharge is wrong. Please, take it from an OIF vet, you are hurting us more then you are helping us.

There is no need to lie and resort to negative attacks to get our guy elected. Ball is as negative as they come, lets not lower ourselves his level.

Ball received a GENERAL DISCHARGE UNDER HONORABLE CONDITIONS.

A General discharge under HONORABLE CONDITIONS is not an HONORABLE DISCHARGE.

Ball did not provide his DD214 to the Putnam County Press.

Ball did not honor his 5 year active duty commitment, no matter how hard you try to claim otherwise.

Ball was discharged suddenly.

Ball’s service was right in the middle of a war, a war on two fronts, yet they let him go early.

Ball served his first year as a ROTC Recruiter at a small college, YET NOWHERE DOES HE EVER DIVULGE THIS. HE SIMPLY STATES HE WAS IN WASHINGTON DC AS A PROTOCOL OFFICER.

Why didn’t Greg Ball want people to know he served at Saint Joseph’s College?

Did something happen at Saint Joseph’s College that he doesn’t want people to know about?

Was he asked to leave Sint Joseph’s College? If so, why?

Why was brand new 2nd LT. Ball permitted to serve his first year as a Recruiter?

How many of his fellow classmates were allowed to serve as recruiters?

Was someone trying to protect him? If so, why?

Why has Ball given 8 different reasons as to why he got out early? Why the embarassment?

REASONS FOR DISCHARGE: G-E-N-E-R-A-L.

You can’t join AMVETS or the VFW with general, OTH, or dishonorable—if Ball had not received an honorable discharge, it would have been news a long time ago. This is not some new discovery, it’s just confusion over the wording from a non-veteran.

But as a Ball-detractor/vet its still clear he was honorably discharged.

Ball did not receive a general discharge as the above poster claims.

He received an honorable discharge. The discharge code was MND, reasons for leaving were Miscellaneous/General.

This is not the same as a “General discharge”.

As the consultant has previously pointed out John can only hurt himself by repeating the wrong information, and failed air force Lt. has the wrong information.

As far as discharges go, he wasn’t scheduled to get out. The reasons for leaving clearly state “REASONS FOR LEAVING: MISCELLANEOUS/General. The TYPE of discharge is General. It’s a General Discharge under Honorable conditions. That means something is wrong with his service, seriously wrong. All veterans should look at their DD214 and see that their DD214’s don’t say that. It doesn’t say MISCELLANEOUS where it asks why you got out of the military.

Greg Ball could have avoided all this stuff by just coming out in the beginning and stating whatever problems he had in the Air Force. He’s absolutely nuts if he thinks for one second that he’s going to attack people the way he does, and not have his military service looked in to. If he uses the military as a basis of his entire persona, then we have a right to know everything about that service, especially if we paid for his education.

I have a very strong feeling that more will be coming out the closer we get to the Primary.

Greg Ball received a GENERAL DISCHARGE UNDER HONORABLE CONDITIONS. He never deployed to Iraq, while most everyone else was serving multiple deployments. How did Greg Ball avoid such service? And why would he even want to avoid such service in a time of war? Isn’t that the place you feel the need to be in a time of war? Leading troops? Or scamming money out of Courage Cup?

The United States (translation: YOU, the TAXPAYER) really got cheated when it gave Ball a free scholarship to the Air Force Academy. A complete waste of money.

Need I say more?

Even if the voters are foolish enough to re-elect Ball, he will continue to be ineffectual, and that is for one basic reason, he has alienated everyone in the legislature. If he can’t work with people within his own party, how can you or anyone else expect him to get anything meaningful done. It’s common sense. Seniority through years spent in the legislature does not give power, the ability to work within and without your party is what brings responsibility, through key positions on committee’s and assignments in the party leadership. Ball has an inability to forge relationships. He will remain a backbencher forever, because of his giant ego and lack of the foundation of trust one needs within the party. Will Stephens built that trust early in his legislative career, which is how he got to #2 in party leadership within 12 years. Ball could be there 30 and he would remain a backbencher.

Now fill us all in on your statement:

“I’d rather have an ineffectual backbencher then an empty suite whose just there to steer contracts to friends & family members”

Care to name names? Care to make specific accusations with your name attached?

Oh, and by the way, an ineffectual backbencher is by definition an “empty suit”.

Willis Stephens: Passed 4 pieces (0 prime) of Legislation in his first term.

And the great Vinny Leibell: passed.. ZERO. A big fat goose egg as a freshman. Way to go Mr. Popularity.

Source: New York Red Book

Comments: I’d rather have an ineffectual backbencher then an empty suite whose just there to steer contracts to friends & family members. It stands to reason that you would strike out at a real maverick conservative reformer. You are part of the failed Putnam patronage machine.

Here is what the district had before Ball went to Albany.

Will Stephens was the Minority Pro Tempore, the second in command of the Republican leadership, and director of floor operations for the minority. He is a skilled attorney, who wrote, personally, much of the legislation that the minority introduced on the floor of the Assembly. He was not a “professional politician” as Ball accused, but was a successful attorney in private practice. Stephens had previously been counsel to the majority in the New York State Senate, and as such was directly responsible for policy and the drafting of legislation related to i t. Stephens, a home owner, is married with three children, and was well aware of the tax burden working families in the district were facing and continue to face. He fought for property tax relief, and was successful in doing so. As second in command in the Assembly minority, Stephens was able to negotiate with the leadership of the majority, and in being a position to do so, advanced Republican legislation and principles. One has to understand that Democrat assembly members out number Republicans by 2-1, of the 150 assembly seats only 42 are Republican. What influence the 99th had at the time that Stephens was the assemblyman was totally lost when Ball defeated him.

Here is what the district got in electing Ball:

Ball now is a “professional politician”; it is his only job, and he is a backbencher. Ball is totally disliked on both sides of the isle, by Republican and Democrat alike. He spent the prior two years to his election working for Exceed International. But even though he was employed full time as an executive of the company, he was able to knock on “10,000” doors running for the job he now holds. It appears that he received a full time salary from the company, but spent most of his time running for election to the assembly. Nice work if you can get it. Sounds like an illegal campaign contribution to me, but then again I may be naïve. Remember he ran the campaign for those two years while being employed by Exceed. He was all over the district, at every event, at every occasion, at “10,000” doors. When did he have time to work for Exceed? What did he do for Exceed? What projects did he direct? What revenues and contracts did he produce for the company? His campaign literature was devoid of such minor things.

Ball states in his current campaign literature that he was sponsor of 17 pieces of legislation that passed during his first term in the assembly. That is easily verifiable, and again he relies on a compliant press to not verify his claims. If one checks, in fact, far less has been passed with his name on it. If a search is run, one will quickly see, that Ball only has 8 pieces of legislation with his name on them. 3 pieces contain every assembly members name as co-sponsor( Democrat and Republican), and 5 pieces of legislation were DEMOCRAT introduced bills. In the minority, and a first term backbencher, Ball is totally ineffectual. His claims are preposterous and foolish, and he relies on an uninformed public to believe him, and a compliant local press to not do their homework.

To the voters of the 99th A.D. please do not repeat the mistake of 2006. Turn Ball out of office. Elect Degnan!