Politics on the Hudson

Paul Wasserman, the GOP-backed challenger to U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey this fall, announced today he’s pulling out of the race for the 18th Congressional District, which covers most of Westchester County and parts of Rockland County.

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.

State Senate candidate Bob Cohen is holding a press conference outside the Port Chester office of state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck. Cohen is Oppenheimer’s Republican challenger and is a Scarsdale volunteer firefighter and real estate executive.

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.

Earlier today, the Democrats in the village of Mamaroneck put out a party statement criticizing the mayor for calling them “political hacks.”

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.”

The Democratic Party in the Village of Mamaroneck is calling out the mayor for “name calling” in response to the mayor’s complaints about Democrat calls for Village Attorney Christie Derrico’s resignation.

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.

Hey, I guess there’s no harm in asking.

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 Democratic party in the Village of Mamaroneck is calling for the resignation of Village Attorney Christie Derrico, who is running for village justice this fall. Derrico already said this week that she won’t resign, and I’ve reached out to her to respond to the Democratic Party’s statement.

The full statement from the Democrats is below the jump.

There’s been an interesting discussion on our forums about Mamaroneck trustee Louis Santoro’s son getting a job with the village’s Department of Public Works.

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.

Monday I reported village mayor Norm Rosenblum has tapped George Belsito, a former Westchester Joint Water Works employee, to replace Steven Goldstein on the village Harbor Coastal Zone and Management Commission.

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.

A bunch of Democratic groups are planning a protest outside Sen. Pedro Espada’s home in Mamaroneck on June 5 to speak out against the embattled senator’s corruption allegations.

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

Hawthorne resident Jim Russell will kick off his fourth attempt to challenge longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, this afternoon at Nicky’s Pizzeria in White Plains.

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.