Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, is running for her 14th term against Republican Bob Cohen, a Scarsdale real estate executive. The 37th District covers parts of New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Rye, Harrison, White Plains, Scarsdale, Ossining, New Castle and North Castle.

Pataki will join Cohen in White Plains Tuesday during a press conference at 10 a.m. outside the Westchester County GOP headquarters. Following the conference, the two will take on a walking tour down Mamaroneck Avenue through downtown White Plains.

Last week, current gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo backed Oppenheimer.

“Senator Oppenheimer has established a stellar record of accomplishment as a true public servant,” Cuomo said in a statement. “...Because of her proven ability to build coalitions and get results, I need Suzi as a partner in making government more effective.”

On Oct. 20, New Rochelle will host a debate featuring City Council Candidates Jared Rice and Peter Parente. Four state Legislature Democrats — Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Assemblyman George Latimer, Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer and Sen. Jeff Klein — will also square off against their respective Republican challengers — Rene Atayan, Bill Reed, Bob Cohen and Frank Vernuccio Jr.

The New Rochelle debates will take place at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in the City Council chamber of City Hall.

On Oct. 21, Lattimer and Oppenheimer will again square off with their respective challengers in Mamaroneck. That forum will also feature the Mamaroneck Board of Trustees race between Democrats John Hofstetter, Toni Ryan and Sid Albert versus Republicans Marianne Ybarra, Gregory Sullivan and Mary Polanco Vozza. Hofstetter, Ryan and Ybarra are the incumbents.

The Mamaroneck debates will take place at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 in the Town of Mamaroneck courtroom.

Cohen filed a complaint with the independent group the Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee, his campaign confirmed this afternoon. The independent group will evaluate the fairness of Oppenheimer’s ads during a hearing on Thursday evening.

Stay tuned as we will update you guys with the results of that hearing as we receive the information.

(UPDATE: Oppenheimer’s camp has launched the attack including this video and this site.)

The state Democratic Campaign Committee said today they’re getting ready to bring forward allegations the Manhattan properties Cohen has run over the years are rampant with building violations, extensive tenant complaints and criminal activity.

“The public record is clear, Bob Cohen is a slumlord whose made himself rich while jeopardizing the lives and safety of children’s and seniors,” said Austin Shafran, spokesman for the state Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. ”...I think if you look at Bob Cohen’s record as a slumlord, it clearly shows he is unfit for office. If Bob Cohen can’t keep drug dealers out of his houses, he can’t clean up Albany.”

The Journal News is investigating the merit of these claims and will be reaching out to Bob Cohen directly on Wednesday to discuss these attacks. In the meantime, Cohen has fired back with a video ad dismissing the allegations that he’s a slumlord.

“Suzi Oppenheimer and Andrea Stewart-Cousins have spent their careers fighting for women’s reproductive freedom and—as some of you may know—freedom does not come cheap,” the coalition’s president Catherine Lederer-Plaskett said. “We need these women! They have put their political capital on the line for us and now we need to make sure they are returned to the New York State Senate this November.”

The 4% tax is on all clothing purchases under $110. Cohen in a release said “The regressive new tax will add a cumulative burden to lower and middle income families with children.”

The event will take place at 1 p.m. Thursday outside the Galleria Mall in White Plains.

Cohen, a Scarsdale real estate executive, questions how can Oppenheimer call herself a women’s rights advocate when she accepted a $1,000 contribution from Bradley’s campaign in 2008.

“Senator Oppenheimer is using taxpayer dollars just weeks before Election Day to appeal to a specific demographic and divert attention from her failure on issues that we all care about,” said Cohen. “The problem here is that she’s aligned herself with the politician most identified with disrespect and violence toward women.”

It should be noted that Bradley’s contribution to Oppenheimer came in 2008 and Bradley didn’t face domestic violence charges until earlier this year.

UPDATE: Oppenheimer’s spokesman Tony Kelso provided this response:

“Once again, mud-slinging Scarsdale Republican boss Bob Cohen is all talk and no substance. Suzi Oppenheimer has been in the forefront of attacking domestic violence. Just this year, Suzi sponsored a new law that prohibits landlords from evicting domestic violence survivors who must leave rent-controlled apartments to escape abuse. She also co-sponsored and supported new domestic violence protections that strengthen the laws on obtaining orders of protection, shield survivors’ locations from their abusers and dramatically increase the criminal penalties for strangulation, an often lethal form of domestic abuse. Suzi is saving lives, successfully passing new laws, even as Bob Cohen engages in mindless distractions. Bob Cohen should be asked to comment on these new laws and whether he would have voted for or against them.”

Joining Oppenheimer during the event will be representatives from My Sisters Place, a Westchester County domestic violence shelter as well as other groups such as the Pace Women’s Justice Center.

The event will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Preston Hall’s Tudor Room at Pace Law School, located at 78 North Broadway in White Plains.

“No evidence was presented to the BOE which demonstrated that Trustee Santoro or anyone acting on his behalf sought to influence the hiring of Nick Santoro by the DPW,” the ethics board wrote in a memo sent to the Board of Trustees late last week.

Santoro’s son Nick works part time for the Department of Public Works cutting grass.  It created some heated discussion at the time and it took the ethics board multiple meetings to come to the conclusion.

The full memo from the ethics board is below the jump.

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Lowey, 72, is one of the U.S. House of Representative’s most powerful Democrats. She traditionally wins re-election bids each time she’s up by hefty margins.

According to records in the Federal Elections Comission, Wasserman had about $254,000 in his war chest compared to Nita Lowey’s $1.1. million. But Wasserman had only raised about $73,000 because $181,000 of his campaign money was from his own fortune.

Earlier this  year, Mark Rosen, a Republican widely seen to be a tough challenger to Lowey, pulled out too after getting deployed to Iraq.

UPDATE: Jim Russell, who ran unsuccessfully against Lowey in 2008, said the Westchester GOP called him today and will be officially backing him against Lowey.

According to the release put out by his campaign, Cohen today will be calling “for an end of brazen abuse of taxpayer dollars for political gain.” Cohen will be holding the event today at 2:30 p.m. outside Oppenheimer’s office at 222 Grace Church Street.

Oppenheimer this fall is seeking her 14th term in the state’s 37th Senate district, comprised of Harrison, Mamaroneck, New Castle, most of New Rochelle, North Castle, Ossining, Rye Town, Rye City, Scarsdale, and White Plains.

I chatted with the mayor and he had this to say about the Village Dems:

“I honestly believe they’re desperate,” Rosenblum said. “They have nothing to campaign on considering we’ve been fairly successful in the last six months by coming out with one of the lowest budgets in village history.”

He went on to say he’s confident of the Republican party’s chances this November.

“I believe there will be a very strong statement by the elected on?Nov. 2,” he said. “When they declare it, it will be to replace all the naysayers.”

I’ll be speaking with the mayor later today and will post his response.

In a release put out this morning, the Democrats asked the mayor to stop the “personal attacks” against them and continued to criticize the mayor’s decision to hire Christie Derrico. Their full statement is below the jump.

The Village of Mamaroneck Democratic Committee is disappointed that Mayor Rosenblum resorts to name-calling and baseless personal attacks rather than engaging in constructive dialogue regarding the Village Attorney.

The Village Attorney, appointed by the mayor to an impartial, non-partisan post, has announced her candidacy for the office of Village Justice on the Republican and Conservative party tickets. The Village Democrats have said that she should resign her current position. The Mayor’s response: name-calling and personal attacks. He offered no explanation or justification for allowing her to stay on in her current post.

In our view, the position of Village Attorney should be filled by an attorney who can provide non-partisan, impartial advice to the Village’s Mayor, Board of Trustees, Village employees and volunteer committees. We believe it a mistake to have filled the position of Village Attorney with a party activist, and a gross error in judgment for her to stay in that position while running for the office of Village Justice. How can any opinion she now offers appear impartial and non-political when she is actively running on the Republican and Conservative slates? We believe her candidacy precludes her from functioning as a nonpartisan counselor to the Board of Trustees.

The Mayor raises the ridiculous notion that if the Village Attorney were to resign the incumbent trustees should resign as well. The Mayor seems unable to see that the incumbent Trustees are running for re-election on the basis of their record as trustees. The Village Attorney, on the other hand, is running for political office on the slate of the Republican and Conservative parties, with Trustee Ybarra as her running mate, while supposedly serving as impartial counsel to Trustees Hofstetter and Ryan who are running for re-election on the Democratic line. This obviously creates an appearance, at the very least, of a conflict of interest.

The larger issue, which the Mayor also chooses to ignore, is whether the Village Attorney should be a political appointee or an independent, impartial employee appointed on the basis of his or her legal qualifications. Is it good enough to appoint an attorney with the appearance of an agenda favoring her political party and backers and her own political ambitions?

The Mayor is correct when he says that in November, the voters will decide whether they agree with the Democrats – including our position that the Village needs a competent, independent professional village attorney committed solely to the welfare of the Village. Voters will decide whether the Village is better off having replaced a professional Village Attorney with a new attorney who announces, less than eight months after being illegally appointed, that she is looking to resign her position if she wins an election for Village Justice. (We note that it was only after she was appointed, that the law was changed to allow for her appointment.)

The citizens of Mamaroneck deserve and need continuity from its Village Attorney. This position is too important to serve as a convenient, eight-month launching pad for political ambition.

The mayor has cited “numerous fiscal and administrative improvements the Village Attorney has instituted.” We, however, have seen nothing of consequence. Indeed, we have noted that the Village Attorney is frequently AWOL when the trustees and volunteer committees need her for counsel. Village Laws are being written by outside consultants and Village employees, none of whom are attorneys. This has meant that Village business is conducted less efficiently and other professional employees are drafted to perform legal work rather than the work that they were hired to perform.

Our positions are clear. We have yet to hear coherent responses from the mayor.
Said Village Democratic Chair Elsa Puerto Rubin, “The Village Democrats look to engage in constructive discussions where differences in opinions and policies are aired openly. We will continue to do so.”

Westchester County Republican Party chair Doug Colety this morning called on state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, to not run for re-election this fall, citing a recent Quinnipiac University poll that found around 80 percent of voters are “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the state.

“Voters have made it clear that they have had enough of the tax, borrow, and spend policies that got us into this mess – and the politicians who enacted them,” Colety said in a statement. “The state is on the edge of financial ruin, property taxes are out-of-control, and we’re still struggling with a weakened economy, but entrenched legislators like Senator Oppenheimer continue to bury their heads in the sand. After more than 25 years in the most dysfunctional legislature in the nation, one can see why.”

Oppenheimer is seeking her 14th term in the state’s 37th Senate district, comprised of Harrison, Mamaroneck, New Castle, most of New Rochelle, North Castle, Ossining, Rye Town, Rye City, Scarsdale, and White Plains. Challenging her this fall on a Republican bid is Bob Cohen, a Scarsdale volunteer firefighter and real estate executive.

The full statement from the Democrats is below the jump.

Today the Village of Mamaroneck Democratic Committee calls upon Christie Derrico to resign her position as Village Attorney. Ms. Derrico has recently announced her intention to run for Village Justice. Her candidacy poses conflicts with her staying in her current position. The position of Village Attorney requires that the attorney be a nonpartisan counselor who can give the Village Board legal advice without personal or political considerations coming into play.

Said Village Democratic Chair Elsa Puerto Rubin, “By appearing on the Republican and Conservative ballot with Trustee Ybarra and the other Republican/Conservative challengers, Ms. Derrico has put herself in a position that could create conflicts of interest as well as the appearance of impropriety which all lawyers are ethically bound to avoid.”

Ms. Dericco’s appointment to the position of Village Attorney created much controversy in December because it was a violation of village law. The Board of Trustees had to amend the law in order to allow the hiring retroactively. Then the village was required to pay $5,000 to the former Village Attorney to settle her claims against the Village.

“A well-respected and experienced lawyer was fired to put Ms. Derrico on the payroll. Now we find that the Village Attorney’s position was not the job Ms. Dericco desired after all. She can’t have it both ways, she must resign” stated Village Democratic Vice Chair Elizabeth Saenger.
If Ms Derrico doesn’t resign the Committee hopes that a majority of the Board will vote to remove her so that the Village legal matters can be handled in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical fashion.

I chatted with Louis Santoro about it Monday before the village’s regular work session. He said his son was hired last week by the DPW for a part-time seasonal job cutting grass for the village. He added his son has gotten seasonal jobs for the village before too in 2005 and 2006.

“He went down, filled out an application and got interviewed like everybody else,” he said. “He’s working to pay his bills. If you want to pick on me, just don’t go after my family.”

UPDATE: Apparently this issue came up last year too and it was deemed a non-issue. Here’s the text from an email Village Manager Richard Slingerland sent to village officials on Monday:

For the record, a similar issue came up last year, with regard to summer seasonal employment, which in my understanding is a part time designation.

I reviewed the issue with then-Village Attorney Janet Insardi, and we determined that a summer seasonal employee is a part time, not full time, employee. They do not have full time benefits or standing. Therefore, we found that an employee working as a summer seasonal employee in the same department as another family member employed as a full time employee was not a violation of the Ethics Law. However, such summer seasonal employee would be ineligible for full time employment.

I spoke with the village’s Board of Ethics chair Charles Mitchell about possible conflicts about the children of elected officials getting municipal jobs. He said “Personally, I don’t see where it is a violation” because Santoro’s son is working part time and without benefits.

“I don’t think the code, from my reading, addresses anything but full time employees,” Mitchell said.

He added the ethics board will collectively review the matter next week during its regular meeting.

Santoro said he did not notify the Ethics Board prior to his son getting hired because he didn’t think it was an issue considering his son has gotten seasonal jobs before. But he did bring it to the Ethics Board  once concerns were raised.

Santoro added concerns about his son getting a job are “political” to him. Currently, Republicans have a 3-2 majority on the Village Board. But party control over the board is up for grabs with 3 seats up for election in November (Trustees Toni Ryan, John Hofstetter and Marianne Ybarra).

Democratic Trustee Toni Ryan said while she doesn’t have anything against Belsito, she’s concerned with how the mayor went about nominating him. She said the Board of Trustees did not get a chance to review Belsito’s resume before the mayor put the appointment on the board’s agenda for Thursday.

“There’s a process in place and the process is if someone is interested in the position, they send in resumes and we review them,” she said. “I think that this not following the procedure.”

She added Nick Allison, a former Democratic trustee in the village, applied to be on the HCZM back in December and emailed the board after Goldstein stepped down to reiterate his interest in joining the committee.

Rosenblum, who was elected last year on a Republican ticket, characterized Ryan’s concerns as her being upset he didn’t pick Allison, her fellow Democrat.

“She was interested in another individual and she can certainly bring it up at the meeting,” he said. “She has plenty of time now before Thursday to review Belsito’s resume and it shouldn’t take too long to read it.”

Belsito’s resume is below the jump.

George Belsito Resume

The protest will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. June 5 outside of Espada’s home at 115 Beechwood Drive in Mamaroneck. Check out the flyer below:

Espada Protest Flyer

The kickoff will take place at 5 p.m. in the restaurant, located at 91 Mamaroneck Ave.

Russell, 56, is a case manager at the New York State Insurance Fund’s office in White Plains. He is seeking the GOP nomination to run for the 18th Congressional District seat. The district covers most of Westchester and part of Rockland.

The GOP has backed Russell only once, when he lost to Lowey in 2008 by around 37 percentage points. Aside from three unsuccessful runs against Lowey, Russell also lost a bid in 1996 for the 19th Congressional District seat.

There’s already been plenty of chatter about Espada allegedly spending $20,000 of the charity’s money on sushi or New Rochelle councilman Richard St. Paul working for him.

St. Paul provides legal work for both Espada’s Senate office and personal management company. What you might not know is Cuomo filed his first major inquiry into Espada’s charity activities back in January, a time when Senate payroll records indicate St. Paul was making $55,000 as Espada’s senate lawyer.

Shortly after the the January inquiry was filed, records indicate St. Paul started making $79,000 — a $24,000 raise. St. Paul said to the Journal News in the past that Espada’s investigation has nothing to do with him, but Cuomo doesn’t think so. He has subpoenaed pay information for St. Paul and nine other of Espada’s employees.

So by now you know about state Sen. Pedro Espada being accused of stealing $14 million from his charity health clinic, buying things such as $20,000 worth of sushi. Today I was curious to figure out how much sushi that theoretically is. Let’s do the math kids.

The attorney general’s office said Espada allegedly spent $20,000 on 200 meals from at the Mamaroneck restaurants Red Plum and Toyo Sushi, both owned by Peter Chen. Last week Chen told me Espada and his wife typically spent around $70-80 bucks each time. He said that’s an average, so lets assume there were times they paid more or less than that amount.

Now this is speculative, but lets pretend each time Espada and his wife ordered ordered the restaurant’s Sushi Combo for 2 and a bottle of wine. The combo gives you 40 pieces of Sushi ($40) and a cheap bottle of wine there costs around $20-30. Add tax and a tip and that falls somewhat in line with the $70-80 Chen estimated.

If Espada and his wife ordered the Sushi Combo and wine each time for those 200 meals, that’s over 8,000 pieces of sushi and 200 bottles of wine.

(The total actually comes out to $16,000 but again lets assume there were times Espada spent more or less than $70-80 bucks).

And this is top of the line sushi, not the cheap stuff you can pick up at Stop and Shop. At most places, 9-12 pieces of sushi could be considered a hearty meal. So what the Espadas allegedly spent on themselves, theoretically, could have fed around 650-900 people. After all, it was charity money he was allegedly using.

One thing you might not know is New Rochelle Republican Councilman Richard St. Paul works for Pedro Espada. As a matter of fact, he was standing behind Espada during the senator’s Albany press conference on Tuesday (see photo below, he’s standing on the left).

St. Paul provides is legal counsel in Espada’s senate office and records indicate he also provides legal counsel to the senator’s personal management company. According to state legislative payroll records, St. Paul made about $55,000 last year working in Espada’s senate office.

To be fair, St. Paul hasn’t been implicated in any wrongdoing in the state Attorney General’s inquiry into Espada’s possible wrongdoings, something St. Paul emphasized when I talked to him. But to also be fair, considering St. Paul is also an elected official up for re-election next year, his connection to Espada is likely to be brought into question.

After we reported Larchmont executive and Army officer Mark Rosen will not challenge U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey this fall, our paper’s editorial page ran a letter from a Mount Kisco resident in support of Rosen.

Rosen “gives me real hope for America’s future,” the resident said as he praised Rosen for his candidacy.

Who is this lovely gentleman saying such nice words about Rosen? William O’Reilly, Rosen’s campaign strategist.

Oops.

Now there is nothing wrong with a campaign strategist writing a letter in support of one of his clients, but it looks like we goofed up in not disclosing that in the letter. All I can say is, I didn’t do it :)

Malpass will first announce his run at City Hall in Manhattan Wednesday morning and is scheduled to come to Mamaroneck at 1 p.m. He is a columnist for Forbes Magazine and op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal. His public service experience includes several posts in both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush’s administrations.

Oh, and he was a chief economist at Bear Stearns. Yep, that Bear Stearns.

Cohen, 55, runs a real estate and construction company in Manhattan and has been a volunteer in the Scarsdale fire department for 17 years. The state’s 37th senate district covers parts of New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Rye, Harrison, White Plains, Scarsdale, Ossining, New Castle and North Castle.

Cohen is going to kick off his campaign at 11:15 a.m. Saturday at the Scarsdale Public Library. More info about him is available on his campaign Web site.

“Obviously that impacts my ability to serve as a Congress person if I were honored and lucky enough to do that,” he said today. “It was an impossible choice and I have to serve in the Army. I love the Army and it’s the right thing to do.”

Lowey, 72, was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1988 and is one of the House’s most powerful Democrats. She serves the 18th Congressional district, which covers most of Westchester County and parts of Rockland County.

Rosen, 48, is a Larchmont resident and a senior vice president at Adecco, one of the world’s largest job recruiting firms. The married father of five has spent more than 15 years in the Army and is serving as a lieutenant colonel and an executive officer.

As several polls suggest a growing anti-incumbent mood in the country, Lowey’s re-election bid this year was widely seen as being tougher for her than past election cycles where she often won by whopping margins. Rosen had hired some of the same strategists Rob Astorino used last year to upset Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, another longtime incumbent.

The remaining candidates publicly declaring they’ll run against Lowey are Paul Wasserman, a Briarcliff Manor venture capitalist seeking office for the first time, and Jim Russell, a Hawthorne computer consultant that is running for the district seat for his fifth time.

Despite being out of the race, Rosen said Lowey is “still very very beatable.” He added he plans on stumping for whichever candidate the GOP backs.

“Presuming we get the right candidate, I will get behind the GOP and conservative candidate and help them win in November 100 percent,” he said. “I don’t know who that candidate will be, but I will certainly support the GOP and conservative candidate.”

Rosen learned about his deployment this past week. The date, location and length of his deployment are still being worked out, but he’ll probably be heading to Iraq or Afghanistan for a combat tour ranging from 6-12 months, he said.

Rosen said he faces mandatory retirement from the armed services in two years, adding he won’t rule out future bids for public office.

“I got engaged in politics only recently but I’m in this for the long haul,” he said. “I’m going to help whomever in November but to me this isn’t about November. This about our long term policies in governance for our children. That goes way beyond 2010.”

“If America is going to re-grow its economy and job base, it must begin reducing taxes and the size of government,” Rosen said in a release. “The policies of Nita Lowey and this Congress are driving a stake into the heart of future job creation in this country.  The debt that Ms. Lowey and her colleagues are accumulating for future generations is unpardonable.  This Congress must be replaced before it does additional harm.”

Rosen, 48, spent 15 years in the army and is currently a senior vice president at the human resources group Addecco. He will be formally announcing his campaign bid on April 15.

Lowey has been in office for 22 years and has already filed paperwork for the 2010 elections. Her latest election filing reports her having almost $950,000 cash in hand.

To run his campaign, Rosen has hired local strategist Bill O’Reilly, who was one of the guns behind Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s successful campaign last fall.

Feld appeared on Journal News columnist Phil Reisman’s radio show today and said the climate is right for someone to unseat Gillibrand, pointing to Scott Brown’s GOP Senate win this week in a traditionally liberal Massachusetts.

Feld said on the show she decided not to run against Gillibrand for personal reasons. Raising children and being married to a husband that commutes often to Boston would be a strain in addition to raising $25-30 million she estimated she’d need for a U.S. Senate campaign.

“Ultimately I had to walk away because the timing isn’t right for me,”?Feld said. “I think the political climate is right and my message is right for New York but I just don’t have the time.”

I asked her before the show if she will run for Larchmont mayor on March 16 considering party caucuses are on Jan. 26. Her lips were sealed.

“There are so few things in life that are a surprise anymore and there’s no suspense in politics that I’m not going to say anything until the caucus,” Feld said.

The Democratic and Republican nominating caucuses take place at 8 p.m. on Jan. 26 in Larchmont’s village hall.

Feld told me this week she won’t comment on her plans yet but she will make them known closer to the caucuses, which will take place on Jan. 26.

Feld, a Republican, ran an unsuccessful state senate race against Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, in 2008 and is consistently getting high praise from GOP officials all over the state. She’s also made no secret she’s floating around the idea of running for the U.S. Senate seat against Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, this fall.

Also up for re-election is Democratic trustee Marlene Kolbert. Democratic trustee Josh Mandell will have to run for his first term after being appointed to the position last year after Jim Millstein stepped down.

Both the Republican and Democratic caucuses will take place at 8 p.m. on Jan. 26 in Larchmont’s village hall.