Op-Ed: Can Someone Ask Paul Phelan to Get Off My Lawn?
An ode to Monroe's Town Board candidate, who apparently cannot follow the directions given to him by Monroe residents, and the national Democratic Party. They deserve each other.
Pictured above: Paul Phelan’s entire campaign for Town Board is that “There’s too much infighting” and “Let’s fix the Water District Problem I’ve Demonstrated a Fundamental Inability to Understand.”
Not: There is limited EMS service to provide for an elderly population. Not Tony Cardone refuses to release his tax returns to show us how much he’s making from the Town of Monroe. Not: The Town of Monroe does not have an emergency plan despite facing environmental emergencies in both 2023 and 2024. Not: that taxes are going to go up 30% over the next three years to fix the damage Tony Cardone did. Not: Orange County Sewer District 1 will potentially saddle homeowners in Monroe with a nearly $1,000 annual bill for the next thirty years. Not: There is a poisonous gas being released on a playground that both Tony Cardone and Steve Neuhaus have done virtually nothing to address until The Monroe Gazette started writing about it. Not: We’re going to fix all the potholes on 17M. Not: We’re going to stand up for Monroe-Woodbury School District against the Trump Administration. Not: We should get our EMS and firefighters paid.
Instead, Paul Phelan’s ENTIRE campaign platform is: “Hey, I don’t understand Water Districts and think the Town Board fights too much.”
Behold. Paul Phelan. The hand-selected choice of James G. Skoufis to represent Town of Monroe residents. Tremble upon his works ye mighty, and despair!
I have to be honest. I wanted today's headline to serve as the entire article; and just leave this space here blank.
Then, I realized that would be a cop-out, and we don't do things half-assed here at The Monroe Gazette. Nope. We use our whole ass and the taint.
That’s why you got two posts today.
What’s A Paul Phelan, And Is He a Supervillain With That Name?
No. Because that would make him interesting.
So, if you don't know who Paul Phelan is, he is a candidate for councilperson on the Monroe Town Board. Nobody wanted him. Nobody — except literally and only State Senator James G. Skoufis, asked him to run — and nobody needs him. But he's going to run for Monroe Town Board all the same.
The Monroe Town Democrats, feckless imbeciles all, have endorsed him. It took a couple of meetings. Mr. Phelan did so poorly he was asked to come back, just like with the Working Families Party, but Mr. Phelan got his answers passable enough to be endorsed. And here we are. Endorsed by the Democrats. Likely to be endorsed by the Orange County Working Families Party at the behest of Mr. Skoufis too. (That's just a guess. For now. Not fact. But if I’m right, someone owes me some weed. A nice indica, I think.)
And speaking of weed, Mr. Paul Phelan's got "ideas" man. The kind of bad ones you get when you’re high, but think are genius.
The same kind of "ideas" that would rattle around in the head of Woodbury Village Trustee James Freiband. You know the ones. They include classic hits like, "Let's put the water and the sewer in the same sleeve," and "Let's fight with the Village Attorney for two hours." In case you missed it, at the most recent Woodbury Village Board meeting, Freiband's latest hit was "I'm going to try to entangle the Village of Woodbury in as many lawsuits as I can. This way I can run on a platform saying the Village of Woodbury is dysfunctional and only I can fix it." Seriously. That's his plan. Watch for yourself:
It broke. Me fix.
Listen. I know I make fun of these people, and it's fun. But sometimes I feel bad because they're not smart. They're just not. We have a bunch of dopes, fascists, and weirdos running things in Southern Orange County. So yes. I know Mr. Freiband's plan factually. Not because I am a mind reader but because he is very stupid. And very stupid people who repeatedly run for office throughout most of their adult lives (see: Skoufis, James G.) only want one thing: Power. And they're going to get that power by any means necessary because they are deluded enough to believe they really can fix it all themselves.
That's James Freiband. That's Matthew Fabbro and his mother. That's Paul Phelan. That's Brandon Bernard. That's Fossil Fuel Loving Freak, David Rabbitts. That's Tony Cardone. That's Dorey Houle. That's Steve Thau. That's Convicted Felon, Tim Mitts. That's Kathryn Luciani. That's Teresa Luongo. That's Brandon Calore.
These are not the best and the brightest. These are the dregs.
So what can you do about it?
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This Is NOT As Good as It Gets. It Gets Much Worse
Until you do something about it, this is not as good as it will get. If you don't like this crowd, I promise you, the people they got coming up behind them are going to be even worse.
Paul Phelan is the Monroe James Freiband. He’s just another power-hungry narcissist, running on behalf of a party that is out of ideas and has no clue who it is and what it wants. You do not run for office when you have so little to offer for any other reason than this.
The Republicans know who they are. They’re Fascists. It's simple. Democrats aren't anything other than a giant scam played on the working class by big corporations who want you to think you have the illusion of choice. You don't.
And if you think, "Say, that James Freiband chap is pretty good," you have not talked to a single resident of Woodbury who has watched or listened to Trustee James Freiband's "Weekend at Bernie's" his way through every meeting. I encourage you to go back and watch these Woodbury Village Board meetings. I didn’t put those two videos in this article today just for fun.
Nobody thinks this guy is good. Nobody. Not even his wife, whom I always thought was a smart person. She has to come to Woodbury Village meetings because every member of the Woodbury Democratic Committee prays when James Freiband opens his mouth. They pray to Hashem that Freiband doesn't make it that much harder to impress the very few members of the community (comparatively speaking) who come out and vote in local elections. So she’s gotta keep him in check.
Every time. Every meeting. Because the Woodbury Democrats see what you see, they see a zombie who votes no for no other reason than he felt the need to justify his existence in that very moment. This is someone who does very little work, cares even less, and then expects everyone else to have done the homework for him. That's Paul Phelan too.
Paul Phelan is a Jim Freiband Democrat.
So why am I telling you all this?
A Monroe Gazette reader told me a story involving Mr. Paul Phelan this weekend.
And if this is how Paul Phelan is going to behave, I think Monroe Democrats registered to vote have a moral obligation to come out and vote in the upcoming primary and make sure Phelan, Brandon Bernard, and Fossil Fuel Loving Freak David Rabbitts are never heard from again.
No more Corporate Democrats. Send them all home.
Then you can do something else. After the primary, you can exercise your power and leave this dead party in the dirt. Because the Democrats have demonstrated, repeatedly, on a local, state, and federal scale that they do not care about you. So fuck it.
Everyone should go independent.
It's a small thing, but that's the point because, in this capitalist hellscape we live in, we're constantly being told we have no power. (And if the Working Families Party in Orange County wants to do what James Skoufis tells them, you know what? I was wrong. They’re not a viable alternative. It’s just more of the same bullshit under a different name, taking action to stay relevant in a system that has completely and failed.)
Change your voter registration to independent AFTER the primaries.
Leave both parties behind. This goes doubly for my Republican friends. Vote in the primary. Then, go independent. Fuck 'em. They don't care about you. They're about to take away your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, veteran benefits, and your fundamental rights granted to you by the 14th Amendment. At this point, you're either not cool with this shit, or you're a Nazi. And if you're not a Nazi, it's time to prove it. Your party affiliation matters. Being a Republican and driving a Tesla is no different now than wearing an armband with a symbol hijacked by someone very bad at art.
Now, we've already discussed how Paul Phelan is spreading misinformation about Kiryas Joel on a popular Facebook group. Doing so to rally votes from that "We're Sexually Curious About Nazis" crowd that exists in Southern Orange County.
We've also already discussed how Phelan is pronounced Felon, and if you wanted to vote for a felon, you could try Tim Mitts. But Convicted Felon Tim Mitts is currently imploding because the word is out, and nobody wants to sign his petitions. Maybe don’t attack everyone and anyone in your drunken Facebook posts, Tim. Just a thought!
Finally, we've also discussed how this guy (Phelan), who is running around claiming to be Mr. Ethics, is doing so even though he was a big Tony Cardone booster back when United Monroe was a thing.
Really? Now you care about ethics in local government? Because that dysfunctional Town Board you’re complaining about is dysfunctional specifically because of Cardone.
It's funny how we've rarely, if ever, seen Mr. Phelan at a Monroe Town Board meeting, or bring up his strong ethical principles concerning the routine corrupt behavior exhibited by Tony Cardone on a twice-monthly basis.
I haven't seen any letters, strongly worded or otherwise, to the editor in any of Straus News's papers recently. Have you? They’re too busy running shit from Warwick and hoping nobody notices.
Suddenly, we got a guy out here running on a “platform” — and we use that term loosely — of ethics reform who's had very little to say about the ethics of a man he supported for Town Supervisor
So what did Mr. Ethics do? He lied.
You can only sign one petition. Just one. Mr. Phelan informed at least one resident — and potentially more, we'll find out when he gets sued —that you can sign more than one petition for a candidate. So, have you signed with Maureen Richardson? First, good for you. Second, you can't sign for anyone else. You're done. Mr. Phelan, as he did with Kiryas Joel, is again spreading misinformation, just like James Freiband does.
That's not politics. That's being a dick. Especially during a national crisis where we need our elected officials, and those who want to be elected officials, to be absolutely transparent and honest with their constituents.
And to make matters worse, when this resident told Mr. Phelan that they would not sign his petition, Paul Phelan got belligerent and angry.
Whether or not he has a problem with women remains unknown.
But the fact is, Phelan was told to literally get off someone’s lawn, and he didn't do it.
Maybe belligerence and anger are the hot new trend with the local Monroe and Woodbury Democratic Committees. The Woodbury Democrats keep threatening to cross-endorse Local Bigot Brandon Calore, even though, as I write this, Calore is putting out ads attacking his primary opponent for … endorsing a Democrat. Yes. For real. You cannot make this shit up. See for yourself:
Pictured above: Brandon Calore, who may be cross-endorsed by Woodbury Democrats, is currently putting out ads attacking his primary opponent for... endorsing a Democrat. We cannot make this shit up.
Also: “Real results not, Not Rhetoric” is a slogan from the James G. Skoufis campaign team. James Skoufis used that EXACT slogan in Assembly candidate Gaby Madden’s campaign. It failed, much like Calore’s campaign will.
I guess not only is James G. Skoufis utterly devoid of good ideas, but he also recycles his bad ones.
Is Paul Phelan someone you really want to sign a petition for, let alone vote for? No.
But you got this candidate specifically because he was State Senator James G. Skoufis's choice. That is an incontrovertible fact. Calore too. You don’t like a potential Proud Boys member, and confirmed January 6th Truther, running for Mayor? Well guess what friends, take it up with State Senator Skoufis. Calore and Phelan? Those are his guys.
So I don’t want to hear anyone say, “BJ. What’s your problem with State Senator Skoufis.” We have cataloged all those issues for you, but if it’s not enough, check out these candidates.
Doesn’t sound right, does it? Woodbury residents should go talk to Martha Lopez. There is a good candidate for Woodbury who her own party did not endorse because Supervisor Kathryn Luciani and Teresa Luongo told the Woodbury Republicans not to.
So you’re not even getting candidates you want anymore. You’re letting the dregs pick them for you.
You. And I mean you reading this, gotta take this country in your bare hands and hold on for as long and as hard as you can. Because if you don't, all of these power hungry morons are going to take it from you, and you're not going to have anything left.
And that starts by exercising your power. So go do it. It’s a nice country, if you can keep it. And right now? It ain’t yours.
After publishing this article, I was sent a fun photo related to Local Bigot Brandon Calore.
As it turns out, James G. Skoufis is behind his campaign for Mayor in Woodbury. Here’s a picture of Calore at Chris Eachus’s swearing-in ceremony. The man between Eachus (center) and Calore? Yup. James G. Skoufis.
Isn’t politics fun?