A Tea Party

After being placed squarely in the gun sights of the so called “reformed” Democrats and their Conservative contractor allies for more than a year, Councilman Alan Michaels has apparently had enough. Yesterday’s Sand Lake Advertiser published a letter by the councilman chastising former Town Board candidate Louis Desso as ethically challenged.
Mr. Desso has been assailing the Democrats on the Town Board for their perceived lack of ethics. Trouble is, Mr. Desso’s ethics might have caused him to be tossed into Boston Harbor with the British and their tea!
The North Greenbush Pipeline has discussed Mr. Desso in and earlier edition. He ran with the developer’s candidates in the 2005 election as an endorsed Republican and now is the Vice Chairman of both the Contractor owned Conservative Party and the so called “Citizens Club” which calls lobbyist Lou Cotrona, a “reform” Democrat, its Chairman.
To call these political alliances bizarre would be an understatement. But it is clear Mr. Desso would love to get the so called reformed Democrats who took control of the regular Democratic Party to endorse him for another shot at the town board. Imagine the Democratic Party endorsing the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and the so called Citizen’s Club for Town Board!
The fact is Mr. Desso has ethical and legal issues which he feels have no place in the public discussion. He failed to disclose his arrest and conviction record when running for town board in 2005 and was apparently insulted that anyone dared question his background. But even more ominous is the more recent conduct Mr. Michaels touches upon in his submission to the Advertiser. Mr. Desso along with candidates Robert Ashe and Leon Fiacco personally handled more than one hundred absentee ballots related to the Conservative and Independence Party primaries in 2005. Approximately 140 of these ballots were impounded in State Supreme Court. The court allowed the ballots to be opened and incredibly, all of the ballots, including a ballot by Conservative F. James Germano were voted for the entire GOP slate at the town and county level.

What are the odds that every one of the ballots handled by these candidates would go entirely for them? Astronomical! The fact is absentee ballots mirror the tallies on the machines themselves in each and every election district. On the machines, the GOP candidates lost with one exception in the Independence Party primary. Yet these absentees personally handled by these candidates and apparently turned into the Victory Lane crew that was running their campaign, were 100% for the Republican slate. Vegas odds on that return ratio have not been calculated!

All of this past conduct makes it all the more incredible that Democrats like the Town Clerk and Conservatives endorsed by the Democrats like Supervisor Evers and Councilman Kern, are now in the same political bed with the people who ran against them.

So as the 2007 town elections approach, look to make sure who is walking into the voting booth with you. Because allowing a candidate to take your absentee ballot is like having a candidate standing in the voting booth watching your every move. That’s ETHICS as defined by consumers of the ‘green tea” which grows only in North Greenbush.