Let’s be clear: You don’t “elect” an unopposed candidate! “Elect” in the campaign sign is a LIE!
When you see a campaign sign that asks you to “elect” an unopposed candidate in an uncontested election, think
The legal definition of election is a selection process: In an election voters are presented with at least 2 candidates and choose one of them. Candidates may be “endorsed” by one or more parties but for an election or a selection process to take place, you need at least two candidates. One candidate is not a choice and is not an “election.”
It is the duty of the so-called political parties to present voters with a choice. There has been a disturbing recent trend in our so-called American democratic process — a trend that is becoming very conspicuous in Greene County and the Town of New Baltimore — of presenting voters with a single, unopposed candidate in uncontested “elections.” This is not a new trend and has been concealed from voters in at least 38 states for decades and has been permitted by state election laws, laws that deprive voters of their right to choose who governs them.
As many of our readers know, each election year we study the candidates and make our picks. We share them with you because we have done the research and have asked the questions. When, IF the candidates respond, we let you know what they had to say. Here are our picks and recommendations for November 6, 2018:
First of all, we’d like to start our election choices with a positive:
Peter J. Markou
for
Greene County Treasurer.
Peter Markou is a Five-Star Choice for Greene County Treasurer.
Experience, Integrity, Committed
Peter Markou is a five-star candidate.
Mr Markou is intelligent, a gentleman, honest, and so different from the bottom-feeders that are left on the ballot. Mr Markou has been Greene County Treasurer for several terms and there’s no one who can say anything negative about the man. Vote for Peter Markou for Greene County Treasurer; he’s honest, competent and has proved he can do the job like a real professional, not like a politician.
Greene County Coroners
Bob Gaus (D) and Joshua Lipsman (D)
(Democrats endorsed by the Independence Party)
opposing
Richard Vigilio (R) and Paul Seney (R)
Gaus and Lipsman have kept their Democrat affiliation a bit under wraps, and have touted their endorsement by the Independence Party. That’s a bit sneaky in our opinion but HEY! we are reporting about much, much worse in this article.
Not many voters really understand what a county coroner does but many may at some time in their lives have to deal with one, so we’d like to make certain it’s the right one.
We have written several pieces on coroners in the past and our basic opinion is that it is an outdated office, political, and really should be made obsolete in favor of the medical examiner’s office. That having been said, and already having raised important questions about the ethics of funeral directors or physicians being involved with the politics of death investigations,we object only to the general ethics and the history of the office of coroner, and why it should be done away with and replaced by a competent, qualified and non-political medical examiner.
There are already two incumbent Greene County Coroners: Richard Vigilio has been Greene County Coroner for 24 years and a funeral director (Richards Funeral Home) for 63 years. We think it’s time for Vigilio to retire before he becomes a coroner’s case himself. Paul Seney is the second Greene County Coroner, and is a funeral director at Richards Funeral Home and Brady Funeral home.
As for the two individuals running for Greene County Coroner: Bob Gaus, a funeral director, and Joshua Lipsman, a physician/healthcare policy promoter, we can say but little about them in terms of competence or character. We’d lean more towards Gaus, given the necessary skills of a funeral director and his experience with death and deathcare on a daily basis. Lipsman? Well, he’s more qualified in the politics of healthcare and probably has much less experience with death and deathcare than Gaus. Could they do the job? Our bets would be on Gaus in terms of effectiveness. Given Lipsman’s history and training, we don’t think he’d be the best choice. Death is something physicians try to avoid (unless you’re a pathologist, which Lipsman is not)and you’ll have a tough time changing a physician’s attitude towards death and with it his attitude towards the survivors. Go with Gaus.
As for the second candidate, we’d go with Seney for a couple of reasons: First, he’s experienced and has had the benefit of Richard Vigilio, with whom he’s worked for several years. Second, he’s a funeral diretor and, although we still object to the ethics of a funeral director in the coroner’s position, if we must have a coroner, then the funeral director is intimately familiar not only with death but the paperwork and laws concerning death, and how to best deal compassionately with survivors. So, while we wish Richard Vigilio all the best in his retirement after this election, we think that Paul Seney would be a good man to partner up with Bob Gaus.
Gaus and Lipsman are both 61 years old; Lipsman is from downstate. Both are Democrats. It may seem odd putting a Democrat (Gaus) in office and running the risk of adding more corpses to the list of voters registered Democrat but dead, but Hey! Vigilio is getting close to being a corpse and is Republican; Gaus may have a few years of life left in him, and may be able to complete at least one term of office. What about Lipsman? Too political, too full of himself (he’s a Democrat, a doctor, into public health policy, etc. We all know what happens when a Democrat gets involved in health policy; even if only the dead are affected!) Let’s leave him to his interests in public health policy and his overly liberal politics; he’d be too much of a political prima donna in the coroner’s office. Head’s too big. Lipsman’s from downstate and doesn’t know local culture or people. Not a good choice.
Now we’d like to handle the
Real Scoundrels List
We’ll have to wait til next year to go after New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, but we’ve got enough on him already to put someone else in the Supervisor’s office. He won’t be able to save himself with anything worth mentioning in the coming year. He’s dead in the water already.
But we’d like to concentrate on this year’s failures:
Alan VanWormer
Running UNOPPOSED (Denying Your Voice and Wasting Your Vote)
So Why?!?! did the Republicans spend so much money on so many campaign signs for a guy who is running unopposed. In an uncontested election ONE campaign sign and NO votes would hand the election over to him since he’s already legally considered “elected.” Seems that wasting taxpayers’ money is still the way to go in New Baltimore!
This time he’s running on the Republican ticket, Unqualified, Gutless, No Training, No Education. We’ve already published an article dedicated to the problems we have with Alan VanWormer and you can read that article at The Problem with Alan VanWormer. We also are solidly against giving away a vote to any unopposed candidate and not having a voice in who gets into office. We have written a very well-researched article on the problems of unopposed candidates and uncontested elections and Why! they are a violation of our rights. You can read the article at Unopposed Candidates: The Denial of Your Vote!
Alan VanWormer just stood by and kept his mouth shut while Denis Jordan did his tricks in the New Baltimore Highway Department. Alan VanWormer was part of the corruption and didn’t do a thing to stop it. No Integrity! Alan VanWormer’s brother, Scott VanWormer, was hand-picked by Denis Jordan to be his Deputy Superintendent. No one lifted a finger. Dellisanti, Ruso, vanEtten, no one said a word. But New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso, the chief financial officer of the Town, and the New Baltimore Town Board approved sending Scott VanWormer to Ithaca, New York, for a three-day meeting — the Cornell Local Roads Program — all expenses paid plus his salary. The money and the time was wasted since Scott VanWormer doesn’t have the background or education to have understood what was going on. Furthermore, Alan VanWormer (Scott’s brother!!! And also employed by the New Baltimore Highway Department) is the one who is running unopposed for New Baltimore Highway Superintendent. Unopposed means he’s already got the job, so Why? didn’t they send Alan VanWormer to the Highway Meeting, if anyone? That’s the way Jeff Ruso and the New Baltimore Town Board thinks: They DON’T!!!
Question: Why are we still electing unqualified, dumbasses, with no training to the position of Town Superintendent of Highways. Most of them can’t even read!!! Yet New Baltimore still keeps them in a job and hands them hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, perhaps even millions of taxpayer dollars to play with and squander and no one seems to care. The job should not be up for election in the first place. The position of Town Superintendent of Highways should be a non-political, professional position filled on a competitiive application basis, with the successful hiree having the right qualifications and subject to discipline and even termination! Putting a professional in the position would more than pay for itself because of proper fiscal and human resources management and administration. That’s the Town Board’s job that they’re not doing. They’re a bunch of dumbasses sitting there thinking of ways to keep our Town Hall packed with political dumbasses and friends.
The Alternative: You don’t have one!
Let’s move on…
Patrick “Pat” Linger (R)
Out of Touch (except in an election year), Doesn’t Care, a Political Fixture/Tool, No Accomplishments, a Wasted Vote.
We have already published an earlier article to Pat Linger and Greene County DA, Joe Stanzione. You can read what we had to say to them at Open Letter to County Legislator Patrick Linger and Greene County DA Joseph Stanzione.
Linger just didn’t think it important enough to tell voters what his accomplishments were during his last term — obviously he had none — but now he’s begging New Baltimore voters for another term. Take a hike, Patty! You ran and hid when residents needed you. You refused to respond to questions regarding your performance in office this past term. You handed New Baltimore Highway Superintendent Denis Jordan hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, and Jordan pissed them away, doing more damage than he was worth. Now the balless Republicans on the New Baltimore Town Board and New Baltimore Town Supervisor Jeff Ruso is following in the shite tracks of his mentor and now Deputy Supervisor Nick Dellisanti. We’re sick of the same old-same old and the dog and pony acts in Town Hall and in the County Legislature. Take a walk Patty. Your double-talking friends in Town Hall will be following you out the door!
The Alternative: Jim Eckl
Joseph “Joe” Stanzione (R)
Running for re-election to the Office of the Greene County District Attorney
Joseph “Joe” Stanzione.
Pantywaist or Panty-waste?
Unaccomplished, Avoids Commitment, Violates his Oath of Office
Just like Pat Linger, Joe Stanzione is a dud, a panty waist. We have enough duds and panty-waists in Greene County and in New Baltimore. Stanzione goes into hiding when the real issues come up. Did he defend New Baltimore taxpayers and residents when they asked for his help to get compensated for damage done to property by former Highway Superintendent Jordan and his gaggle of monkeys? NOT! Did he go after the New Baltimore Town Supervisor Dellisanti or after Jeff Ruso and the Town Board when they ignored residents’ and taxpayers pleas for relief, compensation for damage to their property? NOT! Does Greene County need a panty-waist District Attorney like Stanzione? NOT!
Back in we published an open letter to Joe Stanzione. It’s worth a read at Open Letter to Greene County District Attorney Joseph Stanzione. Since then he’s done zilch but now wants to continue doing zilch. No way, José Stanzione! It’s the highway for you, dude!
The county district attorney is the county’s chief law enforcement officer. So Why? is Greene County nicknamed “Cold Case?” Because so little is being done by the Greene County District Attorney in terms of keeping local government honest and criminals prosecuted. That’s Why!
The Alternative: ??? We had a tough time finding out who is opposing Stanzione. We’re waiting for a reply from the Greene County BOE.
George Amedore
Republican, Irresponsible, Indifferent, Bullshitter.
You know it’s an election year when you see or hear him.
A pink-eared jackass!
George Amedore shows up every election year to beg for the NYS Senate seat, 46th District, and to appear with his Republican cronies at the New Baltimore Republican Club rally to tell everyone fairy tales of what he’s done for New Baltimore and his district. Of course, the gullible back-woods politicians, committee people, and some misguided voters show up to listen to the mealy-mouthed promises never to be kept. In fact, Amedore was complacent and irresponsible when he was handing out state highway monies to Denis Jordan to burn up. We published an article about his legendary generosity with taxpayer dollars and his total lack of accountability. Denis Jordan is under investigation and had to resign; we think Amedore should do the same. He has some nerve asking for New Baltimore’s votes!
Read our article George Amedore, NY State Senator for 46th District, Needs to do Some Homework to learn more about what we told Amedore about New Baltimore and the New Baltimore Highway Department.
The Alternative: ??? Pat Courtney Strong, another woman-wanting-to-be-a-man from Kingston. OMG! That’s a choice??? (Note: Strong is from Kingston, like Amedore, a businesswoman. Problem: Strong knows about as much as Amedore about what New Baltimore and Greene County needs: both know nothing!)
Antonio Delgado
Democrat, Racist, ex-Rapper, Anti-American.
The Racist Rapper and the Democrat Candidate.
The same face, different outfit.
Is that the best the Democrats can do for Upstate voters?
Delgado is filth, a racist, ex-rapper whose rapping celebrated sex with porn stars and anti-American, racist lyrics. He might be the hero of give-it-all-away Liberal Democrats. And he might be able to attract votes in mostly minority New York City, but he’s a big dirty ball of crappola to Central and Upstate NY. He might be popular with low-class, inner-city minorities and illegal immigrants with a name like Antonio Delgado, but he’s a clear reject when it comes to people with values and morals. His skin color would get him the downstate minority vote but among people who look deeper than skin color when we vote, he’s a total reject.
We’ve already wasted too many words on a loser like Antonio Delgado. If that’s the best the Democrats can offer New Yorkers, we don’t wonder that they are going to hell in barf bag.
You’ll need this when going to the polls and seeing what the Dems have picked for you.
The Alternative: John Faso
James “Jim” Eckl
A multiple-loser but our only alternative to Patrick “Pat” Linger, a loser and a scoundrel.
Well, the New Baltimore Democratic Committee made up of Janet Kash, Eileen Vosburgh, Doreen Davis , Beth Schneck. and district committee members Janet Foley, Richard Guthrie, Judith Felsten, Anne Walsh Mitchell, Lee Davis (Yes. That’s the former loser town justice! Another Democrat loser scraped up by the New Baltimore and Greene County Dems!), Jim Eckl (Yes. That’s the same Jim Eckl the Dems are running against Patrick Linger). New Baltimore and Greene County Democrats have not only failed to give voters candidates, they can’t even get people to serve on their district committees! So they have to keep running losers from past elections.
James “Jim” Eckl, Democrat, Recycled Goods, Democrats’ Last Resort. Give him a chance to fly or fail. Anything’s better than Linger!
His party handlers, the New Baltimore Democratic Committee, Janet Kash, Eileen Vosburgh, Doreen Davis , Beth Schneck., couldn’t tell us why he should get your vote. We found that a bit odd because normally the political party committee members would be over the moon to tell us why their candidate should be elected. Not the New Baltimore Democraps! They didn’t want to say a word about Jim Eckl. Well, there’s not much to say about Jim Eckl, we guess.
The Alternative: Voters in New Baltimore are in a real predicament. You can chose between the Louse (Linger) and the Loser (Eckl).
In the Town of New Baltimore and in Greene County, we don’t have much to work with. We residents, taxpayers and voters have so much garbage being handed to us You’d think we had a recycling plant or a transfer facility in the neighborhood; we get the dregs from the Republicans and the Democrats can’t even dig up a candidate from the many cemeteries in the area.
New Baltimore & Greene County Elections.
What we have to choose from.
Recycled Garbage.
None of the majority of candidates running are really worth a vote but where there’s at least a choice, that is, when the candidate on the ballot isn’t running unopposed, it would pay to cast a vote for either candidate. They’re garbage but at least you have a choice of which garbage.
When a candidate is running unopposed or in an uncontested race, New York Election Law has already “declared him elected,” and your vote is wasted; you have no voice in who gets the position. As in past elections we say don’t give them the numbers. Don’t cast a vote for that candidate (in New Baltimore, for example, that would be Alan VanWormer) because if you don’t cast a vote, you send the political party and the candidate an important message: You are offended by the fact that you were denied a voice in who to put in that office. If you vote for an unopposed candidate, you are wasting your vote; if you refuse to vote for that candidate, he’s already elected but at least he won’t get the numbers and you will have sent an important message to the parties.
DON’T WASTE YOUR VOTE ON AN UNOPPOSED CANDIDATE!
If you’re trying to figure out who is running for what office, and you’re having a hard time getting the information, you’re not alone.
We are pretty good at getting information but when it comes to our fine Board of Elections and our Political Party Committees, you just can’t get anyone to say anything or cough up some names or information. If you are having the same problem, you might want to give your Greene County Board of Elections a call or send them an email. If you’re really lucky and they’re having a good day, you might actually get a response. Here’s the contact information:
411 Main Street, Catskill NY, 12414
Telephone: 518-719-3550
Republican Commissioner: Brent Bogardus, bbogardus@discovergreene.com
Democrat Commissioner: Marie Metzler, mmetzler@discovergreene.com
The Golden Turd Award
For Political Excellence
