Shakeup at the Board of Elections (updated)
A deputy commissioner and clerical worker were fired from the Westchester County Board of Elections yesterday as part of a retooling of the GOP there, The Journal News has learned.
Steven Levy, Republican deputy commissioner, and Rosemarie Spano-Gannon, a clerical worker and sister of longtime state Sen. Nick Spano, were told late Monday they were out at the elections board.
The firings came a day after the county’s Conservative Party for the second time in two months endorsed several Democrats — notably County Executive Andrew Spano and District Attorney Janet DiFiore — and weeks after Doug Colety, chairman of the Westchester Republican Party was hired by the board of elections as a $64,425 a year voting machine technician.
Levy, 37, said he was “pretty shocked” when he was nixed by the commissioner at 4:50 p.m. and told he had until the end of the day to leave a post he’s held since 2007. (He also held that position from 2000-2003).
“I was completely caught off guard,” he said, adding that he wasn’t given an explanation. “We had a great working relationship.”
Levy earned $103,460 a year, and Spano-Gannon was paid $55,965 a year.
The move is all part of a restructuring of the office, said Republican Commissioner Carolee C. Sunderland.
As all positions at the board of elections are appointed and political, it’s the commissioner’s prerogative to make changes, she said. She said the dismissals had nothing to do with any other party.
“It is not uncommon to let people go or to change people’s positions,” Sunderland said. “I have been thinking about this for a number of months.”
Sunderland has not named a new deputy but is considering several people with extensive political experience. “That person is not going to be a political novice,” she said.
Prior to working as deputy commissioner, Levy served as Nick Spano’s chief of staff in the state Senate. He also serves as executive director of the Yonkers Republican Party.
Spano-Gannon, 47, is married to Chris Gannon, a member of the Westchester County Conservative Party’s credential committee that was involved with that party’s endorsements. She could not be reached for comment.
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The Board of Elections just lost two incredibly talented people. They shot themselves in the foot with this decision. This is outrageous. I hope Steve and Rosemarie go on to bigger and better things!
2 down, 16 Spanos to go. Payback’s a b—, aint it. That’s what you get for jumping ship. Dateline: Mayor Amicone’s office. Gail cleaning out desk as this is typed. Awww. boohoo.
No matter what the political reasoning, the Board of Elections should be ashamed to fire a woman who is the sole provider for a disabled child. My heart goes out to her and her family as well as Steve Levy who, I understand was the nuts and bolts of that place.
every action warrants a reaction. this is real bad news for the gop candidates running this year. real dumb move by coltey and co.
carolee sunderland is a long-time political hack, appointed by-then republican party leader tony colavita, sunderland gets her marching orders from the county leader (colety), she has been a disastor and must go.
We should be concerned about the salaries of these officals at the BOE.
Sam zherka and julio cavalo have now completely infiltrated
the republican party…unfortunately..Colety’s association with the leader of the IND party and a strip club owner
is a primary reason that the conservative party in a revote
overwhelmingly supported both difiore and spano….71% of the delegates is a large amount of delegates…Colety
was outgunned in the field twice and demonstrates by
his continuing interest in doing printing for IND party candidates as well as his own, coupled with his board of elections job that his primary interest is his own
enrichment
It wasn’t the smartest move by GOP. They never heard of keeping you friends close but your enemies even closer. It has been my opinion that Levy has done a good job, but everyone in the know, understand he is a Nick/ Gail operative. So they should of kept him there and watched his duties. But it is a political appointment so the political heads have spoken. I don’t know why people give this Independent line or the Chairman all this credit. Again most people know what Dr. Cavallo is and most political people give him to much perceived power. All I keep hearing is he has threaten party leaders. What type of threat could this man make. As I said before you give him to much perceived power!!! Vote them all out in November go for the new candidates, they at least should have a clearer record,
haven’t had enough time to get corrupt.
Carolee has “been thinking about this for a number of months”???? Who is she kidding???? I can’t stop laughing over that. Everyone knows that she doesn’t make any decisions on her own and every position in that office (no matter what party) is completely at the behest of the party chair. OMG. That is really a funny statement.
Some of you people are Sam Zherka crazy. Maybe you think he shot Kennedy, too? The simple fact is that a few wackos (soon to be displaced) from the Conservative Party and a couple others that no one any more knows with whom they are affiliated day to day, handed out an endorsement to a liberal Democrat. This is plainly anathema to the great majority of conservatives in this county, registered and unregistered, and changes will be made. This is just the beginning, grasshoppers.
I cannot believe the posts here. How can anyone attack Colety? Levy and Spano-Gannon only work at BOE because Nick Spano put them there – they are 100% Spano loyalists. Now that Nick Spano has committed one of the greatest betrayals in Westchester Republican history by using all his power to get the Conservative line for very liberal Andy Spano over a true Conservative like Rob Astorino, how could they expect to stay in those jobs. It was bad enough when Mike Spano switched parties (while criticizing the party that did so much for him), but even friends of Nick Spano now admit that he has finally reached an all-time low in back-stabbing this time. After the Spano family used the Republican as a family cash register for jobs and patronage for about 30 years, it is beyond understandable how their leader Nick could be so destructive to the party that is directly responsible for any success he has had. It is a disgrace. Nick gives politics a bad name. I was a long time Spano supporter, but never again! I now realize that all those people that criticized him over the years were right. It was never about the GOP – it was always about the Spanos.
ditto
ou may say all you want about Nick Spano and those who are in his inner-circle, but I bet at the end of the day Nick and his people will have the last laugh. Nick has been at this game a lot longer then those amateurs running the Republican Party currently. Cavallo, Zherka and Colety tried a power move and they ran into some unexpected bad news, they could not guarantee the Conservative Line and now they are upset. This is the world of politics we live in. Cavallo has been out foxed and he is not happy. Cavallo made some promise about delivering the County Executive seat to Astorino and the District Attorney seat to Castro and Cavallo will lose on both bets. Cavallo has played this game for years and has been exposed and his bag of tricks may have backfired on him. Cavallo now realizes he made a gamble and his horse went lame. Cavallo’s days of dictating in Westchester County are coming to an end.
PJ:
I don’t care about Cavallo and his group. I am a Republican and a loyal one and am furious that Nick Spano has back-stabbed the party that he used as a family piggybank for decades. (And I supported him in all his elections)
Sadly, you are probably right, the Spanos will probably keep winning because they don’t believe in anything, have no principles, will screw anyone to get ahead and only care about gaining political power. Nick and Mike have now proven to all that they only used the GOP because it was convenient when they got into politics, and now will just keep screwing the party at will that provided about 20 pensions to their family. This is why people hate politics – it is due to unprincipled hacks like the Spanos. And this is why Westchester gets worse by the day and why middle class people are fleeing NY State!
Bob is, of course, correct. What boggles the mind, year after year, day after day, when reading this “Politics on the Hudson” blog is the preponderance of posters, presumably representing the various insider factions of local politics, who have lost their way somewhere within the dark forests of small-time political thinking and patronage. Their ignorance reflects the thinking of their leaders and their leaders’ ignorance reflects their own.
someone needs to explain to me why it is ok for the
republican leader to attend a fundraiser given on
behalf of the democratic candidate for district attorney
by the IND party; talking about small time political patronage and self dealing..how can that be justified?
has there ever been a year when a republican has
run without the IND and conservative lines…or at
least one of them…the answer is never…and you cannot
blame that on any SPano…you can however say that
if the leader of the republican party has no qualms
about attending a fundraiser to benefit the opponent
of his own nomineee..that whatever you think nick spano
has done, it pales in comparison
The point is that they almost all drink from the same private well of self-aggrandizement and cynicism. Pointing fingers back and forth and continuing the outrages in the name of “well, he’s doing it, too,” or “he started it,” is childish and unproductive. Our politics and our leadership posts have been, and continue to be, hijacked by slick operatives, position-seekers, and mendacious megalomaniacs.
to the poster who supposedly doesn’t care about cavalo
and his group..do you care at all that cavalo is the
chairman of a party that can cross endorse republicans
and that dealing with him forces you to deal with
a strip club owner under investigation in mahattan
for drug dealing and prostitution..or do you think
thats normal political interfacing…its one thing
to wheel and deal ..its quite another to sell your
soul to the cavalo zherka axis of influence..
maybe the conservative party didn’t like what it saw
and acted to marginalize cavalo and zherka with one
fell swoop by endorsing andy spano..
Edelman, I mean Jeff, why do you post under so many different names?
Does anyone—and I mean ANYONE—really believe that Nick Spano’s sister lives in a wooden shack with a leaky roof?
Or that she will be forced to panhandle in front of the local supermarket for spare change because she lost her cushy job at the Board of Elections?
The rest of us should live as well as she does.
First, of course Sunderland acts at the behest of the Party Chair. Anyone with the vaguest knowledge of party politics admits that, even if Sunderland cannot.
Second, Stevy Levy has spent many years helping and volunteering for Republican candidates at every level in Westchester and New York. By firing him, the Westchester GOP shoots itself in the foot in the long run. Anger by Doug Colety at the Conservative endorsment of Andy Spano is understandable, but firing Steve is ultimately an unproductive move by a party that can ill afford it at this time. And, do you really treat someone who has given a lifetime of loyalty to the Republican Party like this because he is caught up in a larger dispute?
Everyone knows what Colety is all about, he is no different then Cavallo, he is for sale to the highest bidder, Colety is being dictated to by Cavallo and he does what he is told to do. The Republican Party should be called the Cavallo/Zherka party. Colety only cares about using his Chairmanship position to assure that he gets printing jobs from the republican candidates. Colety and the rest of the republican operatives will suck all of Dan Schorr and Rob Astorino’s money away from them and then throw them away like toilet paper. Colety is a business man trying to make money off the back of his candidates. Cavallo is a man who thrives to have power at any cost that is why he decided to partner with Sam Zherka his hated rival from the past. Zherka used to put Cavallo’s picture on the front of his rag news and dog Cavallo. Now they are partners in crime, Cavallo, Zherka, Castro and Lovett. What a sad crew. Please don’t give me this garbage about the Spano’s, they have worked hard and dedicated many years of their lives serving the people of Westchester County. You mention the Spano’s that got jobs and forgot to mention the 1000’s of other people throughout Westchester who benefited from the leadership of the Spano family. Nick Spano brought millions and millions of dollars to Westchester County residents after year which was distributed for all county residents. Much of the money Senator Spano brought back to Westchester went to hospitals, senior citizen programs, mental health programs, police and fire safety equipment, programs for children, civic organizations, schools, community centers, etc……….
Federal taxes, state taxes, county taxes, local taxes, school taxes and voila – NY, evolves (under years of “Republican” leadership) into the highest taxed place in the nation. And RJ praises Nick Spano for bringing back a few slices of this pork tax for his pet projects wherein he can place in tax funded jobs, backers and political hacks. No better than Espada or the rest of that ilk who have no stand other than where they personally sit. Stop the ridiculous transparent shilling.
blake you should worry more about the point being made
than who is making it…this is not going to end
well for zherka cavalo and colety
All these jobs are scam jobs to begin with, nefariously filled- up as taxpayer funded plums by both parties to guarantee reelection or reappointment of those who put them there. Then, when changes are made for the very same reason, the ballyhoo starts with hypocrites calling hypocrites hypocrites. Is there anyone left in this state or county with an IQ over (even) 120, and if so, is it too much to ask that he/she be honest at least 10% of the time?
its to the victor belongs the spoils..if it didn’t work
that way I doubt too many people other than folks like
mike bloomberg would even bother to participate in
politics at the local level..sad but true…
Good. Let them not participate. For the greater part, they are loudmouthed or shadowy shills and drains who have hijacked the already fragile system for their own benefit and to the disgrace of the true tenets of studied democracy, a democracy which should, by communal tide, lift all boats, not just certain ill-gotten yachts by cynical diversion of monetary and legislative rivers. To say this how things are, always have been, and will continue to be is not good enough.
Well said Ed…the day the hacks like the Spanos leave politics will be a happy day for good government. They don’t care about issues – they only care for power. Bloomberg is a bad example Jeff – he is all about issues and does this as public service. The Spanos are in politics because the need to find jobs for family members that could never make it on their own. They treat the government as their welfare program.
What Nick did to Rob Astorino is unconscionable. And the Conservative party has sold its soul and you can be sure there will be a leadership shakeup as soon as possible. I hate that Dems & Reps have to bow down to these third parties, but you posters are way too obsessed with the Cavallo/Zherka folks.
Westchester badly needs a strong and vibrant two party system, but people like the Spanos have been subverting it for decades. Wake up you – we need to support honest and ethical leaders in politics.
how can you say that posters are too obsessed with cavalo
and zherka..cavalo is the chairman of the IND party
and that is one of the reasons the conservatives did what
they did…to make sure that his utilization of the
ability of the cross endorsement policy was not determinative of elections. furthermore zherka used to
think very poorly of cavalo,,then they partnered together
to try and defeat janet difiore by running tony castro
in a primary…so you have a strip club owner under
investigation in manhattan for drug dealing and prostitution
leading the anti tax charge and getting ready to finance
and support the district attorney challenge of tony castro
how is that acceptable in the context of your call for
a strong two party system…where does a cavalo /zherka
partnership with the help of the republican leader
doug colety come off to attempt to control the westchester
agenda…Colety should have delivered both the conservative
and IND nods to astorino…he couldn’t do it…
and he should have delivered the conservative line
to Schorr..again he failed…its not the Spano’s that
are the cause of the problem…they simply play the game
better than most…
is it okay for doug colety and his family to be employed by the board of elections ? colety printing business in which reps use him and dems use his partner frank.
The Conservative Party should be commended for backing Andy Spano and Janet DiFiore, they were able to separate themselves from the lowlife Cavallo. Cavallo and Zherka are a treacherous duo that would ruin this county if there candidates were to get in office. The Conservatives are doing what is best for the residents of Westchester County. The Conservative Party are showing leadership by selecting candidates that they believe will better serve Westchester County. Doug Colety has sold his sole to Cavallo and the Conservative Party is trying to save the county from Cavallo and Zherka. God Bless the Conservative Party leadership.
He sold his sole? Didn’t know he was in the fish business. “There” candidates? It is little wonder that rj has repeated troubles discerning what’s what.
doug should come clean about the allesandro campaign..
what about the allesandro campaign?
Damn, some of you must think you are William F. Buckley, Jr. – do you know how much time it takes to read this post and comments to a retired district leader?
To hell with a martini – I think I’ll go straight for the scotch.
Yonkers Dems Outraged at Cavallo-Vazquez For Aiding Castro-Blanco Behind Lesnick’s Back!
Nick Spano’s Interesting Financial Filings!
Real Conservatives Allege Forgeries In Selection of Andy Spano!
Read all about these and more at the Yonkers Rising Blog: yonkersrising.com!