Trumpism on a Town Level

It's been a while since we last posted anything of substance and that's partly due to the departure of Lou Desso from the political scene and from the town itself. Not that his departure has left us without controversy, for there is plenty to get into as town elections proceed in 2021. 

It is uncertain if there will be primaries this year, especially those created by so called opportunity to ballot petitions, as it is not known if the Governor will sign a bill like last year that eliminated OTB's as they are called. Realistically, the Governor should allow OTB's this year as the pandemic issues that justified their cancellation are no longer apparent.

But to the issues of controversy, it's hard not to compare the conduct of at least one town politician with that of Donald Trump. Trump left a lasting impact on politics, forever changing the acceptable norms that had governed our democracy. He used the same techniques as President to govern as he used in business. The general practice involved deceit, misstatements, outright falsehoods uttered and spread to counter reality and inconvenient truths about his conduct. You can read a well done synopsis of his techniques here.

Running for re-election to the Town Board this year is Mary Frances Sabo whose divisive primary for the Democratic nomination for town Supervisor in 2019, split the party and introduced her own brand of Trumpism in town politics. As Republicans are split between the pro and anti Trump forces, many Democrats in town see an elected official who misled not only her friends and fellow Democratic Committee members, not to mention voters, as to her eligibility to run for Supervisor while holding her State job.

At a meeting arranged by the County Chairman in a good faith effort to resolve the problems and avoid a primary fight for Committee seats, neither the Councilwoman or her husband volunteered the fact that the State had ordered her not to run because of the conflicts presented with her State responsibilities. One of those documents is presented here for our readers. There is also a lengthy ethics opinion to be published in the future that details the conflicts of interest Sabo had with her State position.

In essence, she lied to her friends, misled party leaders and voters and continued to insist party committee members who opposed her eligibility to run for Supervisor had to go. She and her husband, now party chair, initiated primaries for committee seats in order to remove anyone who stood up to her.

Now this candidate will face all the voters, not just the Democratic Primary voters she deceived when she ran for Supervisor in a primary ultimately loosing to Joe Bott in the general election.

So now all voters get to decide the issue of character. Do they want on the town board someone who deliberately lied to the voters about her eligibility to run for Supervisor while holding a particular State job? Do they want someone on the Town Board that misled her close political friends? 

In essence, do they want someone who uses the Trump model in business and politics to win at any cost? Don't worry though, we don't expect a January 6th incident at town hall.