Vecchio's Got Friends And Support In High Places

On May 4th,  when Patrick R. Vecchio stood on the steps of Town Hall and declared his candidacy for town supervisor he was surrounded by Republican elected officials. Town board members Tom McCarthy, Lynne C. Nowick, Lisa Inzerillo, Legislator Rob Trotta, Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy represented both himself and Legislator Leslie Kennedy, NYS Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick, Congressman Lee Zeldin, unable to attend, sent a representative as did NYS Senator John Flanagan. Superintendent of Highways Robert Murphy who was appointed to fill the remaining term of Glenn Jorgenson. Those officicals who spoke and their representatives praised Vecchio’s leadership and the fiscal policies that according to speakers made Smithtown the best run town in Suffolk County. 

Electeds spoke about Smithtown’s economic stability, it’s famously low debt, its leadership on environmental issues. They praised Vecchio’s mindset of fiscal conservatism. On Tuesday, May 30th, the Smithtown Republican Committee denied the 40 year incumbent the Republican endorsement to run again. In addition, the Smithtown Republican Committee turned their backs on Councilman McCarthy and Councilwoman Nowick. In a bait-and-switch move they replaced candidate for supervisor John Zollo with Councilman Ed Wehrheim and jettisoned the incumbent councilmembers for newcomers Robert Doyle and Thomas Lohmann. 

Vecchio with friends and supporters at Commack Quick StopWhat’s next? Supervisor Vecchio, Councilman McCarthy and Councilwoman Nowick have promised to go directly to Republican voters and challange the Republican slate in a primary which will take place in September. 

Smithtown Matters has reached out to some of the electeds who were with Supervisor Vecchio at his announcement and asked if they are standing with Vecchio. All of those who were contacted, Assemblyman Fitzpatrick, Legislators Kennedy and Trotta, Suffolk County Comptroller Kennedy have reaffirmed their committment to Vecchio. 

Smithtown's Animal Shelter Is Getting A Dog Park!

 A message from Councilwoman Lisa Inzerillo:

With Gratitude, today we met with Harlan Fischer, CEO of Branch Financial Services, Inc. in Smithtown, NY,  who will be donating towards the fence to secure the future dog park. We also want to thank Victoria Feuerstein and Debi Maier for all their hard work and effort to get this to fruition! 

Our Parks & Highway Department will begin in a few weeks (to be announced) and we cannot be more excited to give our dogs a place to run and play with their volunteer walkers! The incredible team work between Elected Officials, Department Heads, Shelter Employees & Residents has made this a unique project. 

Absent from the photo, Joe Arico & Chief of Public Safety John Valentine who have the vision to see this through!

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - The "Original" Otis G. Pike

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“He was an original!” said Joe Quinn last week about Otis G. Pike, the longtime congressman from Suffolk County. Mr. Quinn, a school administrator from Smithtown, was a top lieutenant to Mr. Pike.

Otis G. Pike (photo NY Times George Thames)Democrat Pike represented the lst Congressional District of Suffolk in the House of Representatives for 18 years—the longest tenure, by far, of any member of Congress from the lst CD since William Floyd of Mastic Beach, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, became the first person elected to the lst CD seat in 1789. 

The lst CD when Mr. Pike represented it, and still now, is made up of all of Smithtown and Brookhaven Town, the five East End towns and part of Islip. 

Recently, I came across an article I had kept, from The New Yorker, published exactly 50 years ago, about Mr. Pike and his winning ways, for which the magazine devoted 53 pages, enormous length for a New Yorker piece. (Many of the pages had ads, still a 53-page story in  The New Yorker is extraordinary.) In the piece by New Yorker writer Richard Harris, Mr. Pike and his top aides, attorney Aaron Donner and Mr. Quinn, detailed how Mr. Pike was able to win…and win…and win. 

There are many lessons in the article, I thought, for politics today.

What were some of lessons of Pike’s success as detailed in The New Yorker?

Persistence  He first ran for the House of Representatives against two-term incumbent Stuyvesant Wainwright of Wainscott. He lost. Mr. Wainwright was a formidable opponent. He was from a family of wealth—financer Jay Gould, a railroad magnate considered one of the “robber barons” of the Gilded Age, was his great-grandfather—and he had solid Republican Party backing.

Mr. Pike, of Riverhead, dealt with the defeat by high activity in the next two years moving around the lst CD and speaking at every venue that would have him. “Otis put together one very funny, very good speech, and went out and spoke everyplace he could,” noted Mr. Donner in The New Yorker piece. “He got to be very much in demand, and by the next election a lot more people had heard of him—and he was a lot more expert as a campaigner.”

Hitting Hard  As Mr. Pike told The New Yorker: “My basic approach is that you should go on the offensive and stay there, and that you should have no more than three issues. The public will stop listening if you rain issues on their heads.”

The key issue in the second campaign against Mr. Wainwright was the incumbent’s attendance record. “We studied it and found that he been absent during about a third of roll-call votes,” said Mr. Donner. So “everyplace Otis went, he would” ask audience members “wouldn’t you go to work” if they were getting the pay of a member of Congress. “That put Wainwright on the defensive” and Mr. Pike kept pressing on this “for the rest of that campaign.”

Spending Little Money  “Another unique thing about our campaign is how inexpensive they are,” said Mr. Donner. “We don’t believe that money wins elections. One reason we feel that way is that we have to, Pike being the most frugal man on Long Island. I once told him he was the only person I’d ever known who drove into a gas station in a Volkswagen and got only the emergency tank filled.”

The entire Pike campaign budget for the second and successful campaign against Mr. Wainwright, Mr. Quinn noted last week, was $12,000. Mr. Donner told The New Yorker that “we put on the original shoestring campaign—by selling red-and-white shoestrings for a dollar a pair.” 

Mr. Quinn laughed last week about the campaign selling these shoe laces for $1 each. And he spoke about having dinner with Mr. Pike a few years before he died in 2014 and Mr. Pike expressing outrage about the multi-million dollar budgets of contemporary Congressional campaigns. “He said, ‘It is a disgrace,’ and that he “would never participate in this.” (Mr. Donner of Bay Shore has also passed on but Mr. Quinn, 83, who also became Smithtown Democratic Party leader, is still fortunately with us.)

Don’t Hire PR People  Public relations people are involved in all Congressional races and in other political campaigns these days. But never in a Pike campaign. “We found very early that we could save a great deal of money and avoid a great many headaches by staying away from public-relations men,” said Mr. Donner. “They cost like hell, and they are likely to ruin when they rule. P.R. men have a very tenuous regard for the truth. They always want to soup things up until all resemblance to reality is lost. And in politics a lie that’s exposed can kill you.”

Integrity and Wit  “We run a unique kind of campaign,” said Mr. Donner. “It’s uniquely subtle in the way Pike projects himself—as a man of integrity and wit. It’s not just that he has these qualities, it’s the way he’s able to convey an impression of them to an audience within a few minutes. Once he has spoken to a group, I doubt if anyone there forgets him.”

Mr. Pike decided to retire from Congress in 1979 and became a syndicated newspaper columnist. So popular, he could have stayed on as long as he wanted.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.

Republicans Toss Out The Supervisor And Incumbent Council Members - Keep Conservative Town Clerk

L-R Vincent Puleo, nominee Thomas Lohmann, nominee Robert Doyle and Edward WehrheimThe Smithtown Republican convention Tuesday evening resulted in Councilman Edward Wehrheim garnering more votes than long time supervisor Patrick R. Vecchio becoming the 2017 Republican candidate for Smithtown Town supervisor.

Councilman Wehrheim, employed by the town for 45 years, spoke briefly promising to continue serving the community with “honor and integrity.” Wehrheim’s comments were interrupted by very angry Vecchio supporters who accused Bill Ellis of betraying the committee.  Committee members supporting Vecchio allege that Ellis accepted proxies from absent committee people without informing them that John Zollo, the only announced candidate running for the office other than Patrick Vecchio, was being replaced by Ed Wehrheim. Ellis denied these charges. The anger was palatable. 

Also being side lined by the proxy votes were Councilman Tom McCarthy and Councilwoman Lynne Nowick. Both candidates screened before the nominating committee and were not informed by Bill Ellis that they were being dropped by the ticket. The Republicans, by proxy, replaced the incumbent councilmembers with two political newcomers Robert Doyle a retired detective sergeant, and Thomas Lohmann a retiree of the NYPD currently a Suffolk County district attorney. 

Town clerk Vincent Puleo, Conservative, is the only incumbent to be endorsed for re-election. Current superintendent of highways Robert Murphy was appointed two years ago replacing Glenn Jorgensen. Murphy received the Republican nomination to run for his first full term. 

Supervisor Vecchio, Councilman McCarthy, Councilwoman Nowick have promised a September primary. Conrad Chase, current planning board chairperson, is planning a primary against Town Clerk Vincent Puleo.

Smithtown Author Jeb Ladouceur Introduces Novel The Southwick Incident

Photos by Debbie Lange Fifer 

Jeb Ladouceur Introduces His Twelfth Novel To an Enthusiastic Smithtown Library Audience

This big crowd is typical of the heavy turnouts that Smithtown author Jeb Ladouceur has drawn at more than one hundred book signings for his dozen thrillers over the past ten years.

Dr. Louis Greenblatt, a longtime friend of Smithtown’s favorite writer of fiction, attends all of Ladouceur’s signings. THE SOUTHWICK INCIDENT is dedicated to the Nissequogue M.D.

One of author Ladouceur’s earliest supporters is Hofstra English professor Chuck Anderson. Like the Smithtown writer, Anderson is also a prolific novelist. He lives in Bellport.

Renowned writer, actor, and director of Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, Jeffrey Sanzel, shown here with his friend, noted actress Linda May, is a strong supporter of Ladouceur’s literary work.

Author Jeb Ladouceur’s zest for writing exciting fiction virtually leaps from the podium as he describes the creative process as he sees it. “I’m only half alive when I’m not writing,” he says.

 

A longtime friend of Jeb Ladouceur, and the author of four children’s books, Smithtown’s popular entrepreneur Marguerite Zangrillo is said to be branching out into adult fiction writing. ‘Muggs’ is a regular at Jeb’s several book events.

Jeb’s great-grandson, Jackson Kamp, seems inclined to follow in Papa Ladouceur’s footsteps. According to the four-year-old’s parents, the boy loves nothing more than to read and write. He’s shown here with his aunt Kim Ladouceur, who always assists at her grandfather’s book signings.