The way in which the North Hempstead town board and the Hempstead town board recently handled similar situations is, in my mind, a testament to the true distinction between the GOP machine and the North Hempstead Democrats.
Faced with the need to appoint a town clerk in the wake of the Republican town clerk being convicted of harassment charges involving employees in his office, the GOP-controlled Hempstead town board took the typical politics route – appointing the individual currently running for election as a Republican to the position of town clerk.
This gives their candidate a tremendous advantage as an incumbent, with the full power of the office, as she runs in the November election.
In North Hempstead, faced with the resignation of Supervisor Jon Kaiman (who was chosen by Gov. Cuomo to take a position with state government), the Democratic-controlled North Hempstead town board chose the good government route and appointed a highly respected former judge as interim supervisor through the end of December.
The board could have easily taken the “politics as usual” approach of appointing Democratic supervisor candidate Judi Bosworth to the post – giving her a leg up in her race for supervisor.
Instead, the four Democratic town board members (over the complaints of the two hyper-partisan Republican members – one of them herself running for town supervisor) did the right thing by leaving the decision of who should fill the full term of office for Supervisor to the voters in the November election.
This is one of the many reasons why I plan to vote for the entire North Hempstead Democratic team in North Hempstead.
They continue to place the emphasis on good government before political gain.
Deborah A. Sable
Great Neck
