Skoufis Vs. Houle is Orange County's Alien Vs. Predator
While the lawyers figure out what, and how many, crimes might have been committed at last night's Monroe Town Board meeting by Supervisor Tony Cardone and Dorey Houle, let's talk about who to vote for
I was going to do a write-up about last night’s Town of Monroe Board meeting, but the number of lawyers I needed to speak to about it got out of control.
Let’s just say, the Town is going to find itself on the receiving end of an Article 78 if it doesn’t take immediate and corrective action over its censorship of Councilwoman Maureen Richardson and the letter MANY of you emailed and asked her to read concerning Clovewood.
Mr. Cardone freaked out last night because he needs the support of the developers if Mrs. Dorey Houle has any shot at defeating State Senator James G. Skoufis.
This was predictable — I mentioned earlier that he, Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, and State Senator James Skoufis all work for the developers — but the way Tony Cardone did it may have constituted a crime.
So … More on that soon.
Until then, a lot of you have been asking me about how to vote in terms of the local elections, given that both Democrats and Republicans around here are in the pocket of the developers.
Here’s my answer for whatever it’s worth. This is an email I sent to someone with that very question.
Dear (Redacted)
Thank you for reaching out. I've been asked this question a lot lately, by both Democrats and Republicans.
So, this email might be a bit long, but I hope it gives you a good enough answer.
(Honestly, I may copy and paste it and use it as a short blog post.)
For local elections, often the question we have to ask is …
Who’s Going To Hurt Me Less?
Especially when given two bad options (like Dorey Houle vs. James Skoufis, which really feels like Orange County’s answer to Alien vs. Predator.)
That's really the test I use to decide who to vote for: “Who’s going to hurt me least?”
I don't care about party affiliation at the local and state level. I care about the record of someone's actions and whether or not they do what they say they will do.
For that reason, I can't endorse Mr. Timothy Mitts (Houle's conservative line opponent) because he has no political record to speak of, and plenty of people who want to tell you that he stole money from them.
I don't know how much of that is true, and it doesn't really matter to me because ... If someone is running for state-wide office without first serving at least one term at the local level, I can't and won't support their candidacy. I hope you don’t either.
If you’re going to ask people to vote for you, the least you can do is show an interest in government in its most basic form.
The personal stuff about Mitts, to me anyway, isn't a deciding factor. I would honestly vote for one of those Cave Trolls from the Lord of the Rings if I knew that, whatever they may be when representing the Dark Lord, that when they are voting and making decisions on behalf of the people who elected them, they're doing so thoughtfully and in good faith.
(There's one exception. We'll get to him in a minute.)
That is not at all what we have in The Village of South Blooming Grove, the Town of Woodbury, and the Town of Monroe (with the exception of Mrs. Richardson and Mrs. Bingham.)
Which One Is Alien & Which One Is Predator?
So, when it comes to Houle (Alien) vs. Skoufis (Predator), my suggestion in that specific race is for people to hold their noses and vote for Skoufis, but on two conditions:
1. That you vote for him on the Working Families Party Line, not the Democratic Party line, and that you write to NYS Democratic Chair, Jay Jacobs, at chair@nydems.org to voice all of your concerns about Mr. Skoufis concerning his verifiably deceptive behavior.
Skoufis is no longer an adequate or acceptable representative for this district given his behavior in Woodbury — which resulted in a New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying investigation into him and his Chief of Staff, Emma "Frederick Douglas is Not a Journalist" Fuentes — and in South Blooming Grove where Skoufis repeatedly lied to residents when he chose to answer them at all.
(More often than not, the only answer his office could give, when they gave any at all, was “we’re working on it.” Well that’s great, schmuck, but people have brown drinking water, air filled with PM2.5, and traffic problems caused by speeding buses who think the Department of Transportation was something God made up to scare children.)
For example, Mr. Skoufis took $10,000 from Keen Equities's frontman, Joel Stern, and just lied about having done so in a recent edition of The Photo-News.
I don't know if Mr. Jay S. Jacobs is aware of this, or even cares, but the fact that Mr. Skoufis repeatedly claimed that all he could do was advocate for Orange County residents who the Clovewood development will adversely impact, and then time and time and time and time again repeatedly failed to advocate for them are sufficient grounds for him to be "fired" (not endorsed) by the party in any subsequent election cycle.
So, the request to the State Democratic Party would be to decline to nominate Mr. Skoufis for this or any other future political role.
His career is over. He just doesn't know it yet.
2. The second condition is that the people who vote for Skoufis on the Working Families Party line communicate with NY WFP at newyork@workingfamilies.org
WFP has said that their nomination is not a rubber stamp, and that they will work to ensure that candidates who have received it do what they say they will.
I am a registered member of New York's Working Families Party, and that is how I voted for Mr. Skoufis.
After I received my absentee ballot in the mail, I filled it out for Skoufis, and then I immediately wrote to the WFP explaining to them everything that Mr. Skoufis has said and done in Woodbury and South Blooming Grove, and requesting that they do what they say they will do and watch Mr. Skoufis for the duration of his final term in office with the vigilance required for someone who so casually lies to his constituents.
What About The Other Local Races?
In terms of the other candidates, I'm happy to say there's at least one normal democrat, Chris Eachus, who is on the ballot this Fall. He has my full support. Mr. Eachus has not sanctioned or endorsed any of Mr. Skoufis's buffoonery, and has served his community admirably.
His opponent, Tom Lapolla, is my one exception that I mentioned above. This man has actively killed people through his constant and willful repetition of lies and disinformation concerning the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.
I know there are a lot of antivaxxers in the region, but I don't care. That's a hill I will happily die on: If you told people not to get vaccinated during a world-wide emergency where millions of people died, you can get fucked.
Hundreds of Thousands of people are dead specifically because of disinformation willfully spread by people like Mr. Lapolla.
I would say the same for any elected official spreading vaccine disinformation too, which should tell you how I just voted for president.
(Also, everything I said about Skoufis applies to Congressman Pat Ryan - I voted on Working Families Party, and I believe like Skoufis that Mr. Ryan deserves a strong and vigorous primary challenge in the next cycle.)
In Woodbury you have two men, John U. Keleman, and Tyler Etzel, who are running entirely on the behalf of the developer, Wayne Corts. What worries me is that people will go to the polls and just vote Democrat all the way down, which would include Etzel and Keleman. That again is where the Working Families Party saves the day, because people can vote for Harris-Ryan-Skoufis on the Working Families line, and not vote for Mr. Etzel and Keleman.
That would be my recommendation there.
Just vote straight WFP and avoid even accidentally voting for Keleman and Etzel.
Neither man has any ideas or suggestions for Woodbury, just repeated BS from Mr. Corts about the Falkirk Golf Course. In a recent campaign video, Mr. Keleman just bragged about how good the traffic conditions are surrounding Woodbury Common.
Above: In addition to just totally glossing over a young women being struck, and nearly killed, while crossing Route 32 to get to Woodbury Common, Tyler Etzel Jr. (Left) and the Ghost of Lyndon Johnson (Keleman, right) mislead Woodbury residents about how much the Commons gives them in taxes.
Here’s the factual breakdown:
You’ll notice that the Village of Woodbury barely gets more than the Town of Woodbury Police Department, and nowhere near what the Town of Woodbury gets. Another reason to take the credible accusations of pension fraud with the Woodbury PD seriously.
The fact that Mr. Keleman made his statement after such a terrible event shows he either isn't aware of what happened, demonstrating that he only cares about himself and Mr. Corts's money, or he was aware and decided to callously overlook the harm that came to a member of our community.
It's upsetting to me that both men are Democrats, but unfortunately, in Orange County — and much of New York State — being a Democrat seems to mean working for the wealthy real estate industry.
(Look up how much Governor Hochul and NYC Mayor Adams have received in campaign funding from the real estate industry sometime you'll see what I mean.)
I believe we can change this.
But it's going to take time, patience, and organization not seen in this area in a very, very, long time. If it’s ever been seen at all.
Until then, look for the people with a voting record that you can verify, avoid those with no record at all, and if you have to decide between two difficult choices, ask yourself, "Who's going to hurt me less?"
Until we get money out of politics, which CAN be done, that's the best we can do.