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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Primary Day Arrives



Today is Primary Day and voters in the Democratic, Conservative, Independence and Working Families may go to the polls in North Greenbush in 6 locations. Districts 1 and 7 are combined at the Town Offices Gym. Districts 2 and 6 are merged at the Bloomingrove Reformed Church. All other locations are the same.

About the only great controversy emerging from this primary season comes from the campaign for County Legislature in the City of Rensselaer. There the campaign manager for our own Lou Desso and Leon Fiacco is immersed in a controversy involving use of a forged instrument, a signature, on a campaign endorsement mailing to benefit one of their running mates, Mike Stammel of Rensselaer.

There is a new article on the subject which you can read here in the Record. A press release from Democratic legislators including our representatives Hammond and Harrington is reprinted in the Times Union which you can read here. They are correctly calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the use of a forged signature of a union leader to "endorse" Stammel. The idiot who allowed the forged signature to be used then sent the postcards out through the mails was smart indeed. Not only does this campaign manager earn $90,000 a year but Legislative staffer Richard Crist should also earn a degree in advanced stupidity. His deeds may qualify him for multiple counts of Mail Fraud under Title 18 of the US Code. The Mail Fraud would likely be referred by the DA to the US Attorney in Albany since they are Federal violations.

The forgery aspects of this one are clearly the jurisdiction of the District Attorney, Richard McNally. He has been asked to request a Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter which would remove his office from any charges of politics in resolving the very serious charges being leveled at Crist and potentially Stammel who has been protected from answering any questions from the press regarding his role or knowledge of the forgery mailing which bore his name and benefited his candidacy. Hey Mike, they say you can run, but you can't hide. Either have the guts to acknowledge your role or publicly rebuke your campaign manager's actions. Hiding from the press is for cowards.

Our guess is that it would be difficult for the District Attorney to ignore this one. He'd be sending a message that forgery is an acceptable practice for politically connected people when utilized in a campaign. While he may wish this didn't take place on his watch, he has a clear obligation to enforce the law and like it or not, forgery is a serious crime whether utilized in a political campaign or a ponzi scheme. Surely if Crist had forged the Governor's name on a campaign mailing, law enforcement would be swarming to prosecute the culprit. That's why we think Mr. Crist will finally be placed under a well deserved legal microscope for his anything goes methodology for winning elections.

2 comments:

Interested Party said...

While the Special Prosecutor is at it- he or she can look into the absentee ballot nonsense that Rich, Lou and Bob pulled in 2005. Signing up people who aren't home or under duress is no way to run a campaign, fellas, or is it, Lou??

Anonymous said...

THAT'S WHY HE'S CALLED "WRONG WAY LOUIE"