Jeff Lewis

Both of Rockland’s major parties have picked the worst time to have internal issues, just as a presidential election, and a bunch of local races, are less than a month away. Rockland County Executive, Republican Ed Day says legal issues that have entangled the head of the party, Lawrence Garvey, and the town of Clarkstown, led by Republican supervisor George Hoehmann, need to be set aside so the task at hand can be the focus…

The county Democrats aren’t having it any easier either, as they are fighting over leadership roles and how those spots are to be chosen. Ramapo supervisor, Democrat Michael Specht, says their ability to move forward is tied up in court…

In addition to the presidential race featuring former Republican President Donald Trump against Vice-President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, there are races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the New York State Senate and Assembly, and a host of local races as well, including town and village-level positions. Click here for a complete list of the races coming up November 5th.

Orangetown’s supervisor has released her preliminary budget for 2025. Teresa Kenny says the nearly $96 million proposal is under the tax cap…

Kenny says labor costs and insurance have gone up so there’s not a lot of room to make cuts, and she says the budget does dip into reserves a little. The proposal is posted on the town’s website, click here for the PDF.

Expect continued road closings due to roadwork in Haverstraw and Clarkstown for the next two weeks on a popular commuter roadway. The New York State Department of Transportation says Route 9W between Short Clove Road in Haverstraw and Route 304 in Congers will be shut down for the road work, which is expected to take place between 7pm and 5am starting today and will run through Friday, October 18th. Detour signs will be posted.

Current congressman Mike Lawler was making headlines once again. This time joining the likes of the Governor of Virginia, The Prime Minister of Canada, and other political officials. No, not for his political accolades, but for old photos of him in blackface surfacing. The New York Times published an article displaying some of the pictures of Lawler while he was in college around October of 2006 that were posted to Facebook. Lawler appears to be imitating the late pop icon Michael Jackson, of whom Lawler is widely known to be a massive fan. Lawler, while being a senior in high school, was even flown out to California to support King of Pop during one of Jackson’s child abuse trials. In the photos, Lawler is wearing Jackson’s signature red Thriller jacket and imitating some of his iconic poses. All that’s perfectly fine, the problem arises, however in Lawler’s visibly darkened face. In a quote to the Times, Lawler stated “When attempting to imitate Michael’s legendary dance moves at a college Halloween party eighteen years ago, the ugly practice of black face was the furthest thing from my mind. Let me be clear, this is not that,” he said, adding that the costume was intended as “a genuine homage to one of my childhood idols. I am a student of history and for anyone who takes offense to the photo, I am sorry. All you can do is live and learn, and I appreciate everyone’s grace along the way.”

Report: Lawsuit Filed to Keep Candidate off Ballot

Not everything is all sunshine and rainbows on the other side of the race for New York’s 17^th Congressional district. According to Lohud.com, a last-minute lawsuit against Anthony Frascone has been filed to get him off the ballot. Frascone beat Mondaire Jones in a primary for the Working Families line after Jones failed to take him off the ballot in a previous suit. Lohud says the plaintiffs in the case include the Democratic Party leaders of Westchester and Putnam counties and four voters from New York’s 17th Congressional District – two Republicans, a Democrat and a Working Families voter. The lawsuit accuses Frascone of attempting to defraud voters and refers to him as a subversive candidate. Frascone could not be reached for comment.

Some November Elections are Uncontested

As we approach election day, there’s more than just the federal elections to pay attention to. Local offices affect your everyday arguably much more so, but in a lot of cases, you may find quite a few offices only have a single option on your ballot this cycle. A trend that appears to be reoccurring year over year. It’s Democrats who seem to be less enthused about offering the competition. Despite defending democracy being a consistent theme for Dems, according to the New York Times, during the 2022 midterms, they failed to offer up a candidate for half of all partisan offices across the country. This election seems to be turning out even worse as, according to Ballotpedia, only 25% of all offices are being contested. New York State Assemblyman Karl Brabenec, a Republican, of the 98^th Assembly District happens one of the candidates free of competition…

Campaign finances are a big aspect to it. The Democratic party seems to be a lot more selective about where they want to spend money on elections. Another is of course gerrymandering which New York is certainly no stranger to. Parties aren’t enthusiastic about putting candidates up for so called “doomed” elections. This leaves most of the choice taking place in primaries. Is the problem able to be fixed? Isn’t that the million-dollar question.

RCC Appoints New Board members

Rockland Community College has some newly-appointed officers on its Board of Trustees. The new officers, all of whom have previously served as trustees, assumed their leadership roles for a two-year term during the board’s annual meeting last week. Attorney L’Tanya Watkins was named Chair, new Vice-Chair is Dr. Dana Stilley, Ileana Eckert was re-elected to her role as Secretary, and Elana Yeger was named Community Outreach Liaison.