The Sept. 9 Democratic primary isn’t just about Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee’s race against Town Clerk Christian Sampson. It’s also about control of the town committee, with more than 200 canidates for seats in 31 of 90 election districts.

Ramapo Democrats for Change, the group challenging the status quo, said in an e-mail this week that it was out to fix “a local party broken by self-serving incumbents, special interests and patronage.”

Its organizers include County Legislator Joseph Meyers, D-Airmont, who’s also been a committee member since 2004, as well as Preserve Ramapo members and others sympathetic to that group’s opposition to multifamily housing in single-family neighborhoods and large-scale development without infrastructure upgrades.

The deciding factor will likely be how many voters Ramapo Democrats for Change can get out to the polls.

Sooooo, are you going to vote? Which slate are you supporting? Why?

Two incumbent Democratic trustees will likely be for up re-election next year – John Meehan and Andrew Haggerty.

Last year, a mayoral election year, the Democratic ticket ran unopposed.

Does one-party government work well enough for Suffern? Are there issues on which the incumbents – the entire village board and mayor – could be challenged? Have the village Republicans given up because there are more registered Democrats in the village?

Rockland Democratic Committee Chairman Vincent Monte is holding a press conference tomorrow to announce the party’s new position—but we ain’t waiting.

Kenneth Ingenito, former County Legislature chairman and chief of staff to the late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski, will now work for the party (in an unpaid position) as the executive director of strategy and policy.

Ingenito said today that he was approached by party leaders with the thought that the county party needed to have more unity within its ranks.

A lot of division has grown within the party, Ingenito said, evidenced by the many primaries held earlier this month.

Instead of working together, he said, “it’s just individuals who are seeking out some personal or private agendas.”

“It ends up creating a worse situation in your own party,” he said.

So Ingenito, who has been active with the party and in Democratic politics for decades, will act as a spokesman for the party on these issues. Monte was unavailable for comment this afternoon.

Rockland County Legislator Connie Coker is doing something a little bit different to promote herself in the upcoming election. Instead of doing the palm card, glossy mailing, bumper sticker or pen-with-her-name-on-it bit, Coker’s drawing on a bit of life experience.

She’s handing out scrubs. Yup- as in the medical kind. But I guess it’s only natural given her career as a nurse midwife.

(Photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News)

The cranberry-colored scrubs, which she showed me at a recent candidates’ forum, say “Midwife Legislator Connie Delivers” on the front and “Rx: Vote for Legislator Coker” on the back.

Coker said she got the idea from the California Nurses Association who designed similar scrubs to promote filmmaker Michael Moore’s most recent movie, “Sicko.”

Coker, D-South Nyack, is being challenged by Republican businessman Paul Valentine.

Coker supporters can buy the scrubs for $15. Call 845-348-1525 for more information.

Bert Jean-Louis, a candidate for the County Legislature’s District 13, has gotten the boot from the Democratic primary.

He was the only candidate from the 17 Legislature districts to have his petition invalidated through objections to his signatures.

Ann Marie Kelly, Democratic commissioner for the Rockland County Board of Elections, said today that Jean-Louis had gotten 290 signatures, but 117 were invalidated leaving him short of the required 198.

Kelly said most of the signatures were unacceptable because the signers had put their names on the petitions of other candidates before Jean-Louis’. Others were invalidated because the signers printed their name instead of writing in script or because the signers lived outside the district.

Bert Jean-Louis still holds the Working Families Party line. I haven’t gotten in touch with him yet (cell phone goes right to voice mail) but I’ll update later when I find out what his plans are.
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UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Bert Jean-Louis (it’s Tuesday, at about noon.) Bert said he and his campaign workers are inspecting each challenged petition before deciding his next move.

“If it’s uncalled for, we’ll go for the appeal,” he said.

But no matter what happens with his Democratic petition, Jean-Louis said he’ll continue to run for the seat on the Working Families Party line.
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There are still three candidates for the Democratic primary in that district: Jacques Michel, Yitzy Ullman and Vilair Fonvil.

Most of the people who filed general objections last week didn’t follow up with specific objections. Kelly said that’s not uncommon as many objectors find after they file a general objection that it’s either too time consuming to file specific objections or that there isn’t enough to sustain an objection.

She and Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Joan Silvestri spent the day at the office Saturday going through petitions and catching up on work.

“It was good with no phones ringing,” Kelly said. “We didn’t get overtime for it, but it was a lot of comfort to get it done.”

This morning, Rockland County Legislature candidate Alden Wolfe held a news conference to tie his opponent, Legislator Bruce Levine, to the Spring Valley mayor’s hiring of illegal immigrants for a government public works project.

Reporter Steve Lieberman attended the news conference. Here’s his account of the news conference and a discussion afterward with Levine:

Levine, the village attorney, called Wolfe’s accusation false, saying he had no role in the hiring of illegal immigrants and was on vacation when it happened.

During the news conference in front of Spring Valley Village Hall, Wolfe said Levine should explain what role, if any, he played as village attorney in Spring Valley Mayor George Darden’s decision to hire illegal immigrants and to discuss the advice he had given the mayor.

At one point, Wolfe asked, “What other advice did he give the mayor to cover up the illegal hiring?”

Wolfe denied that he was accusing Levine of committing a crime. He also said his demands that Levine explain himself were not political.

“This is about good government,” Wolfe said. “This is about accountability. … As an elected official [county legislator] … Mr. Levine needs to be held to a higher standard.”

Wolfe said Levine had been silent for more than a week since The Journal News reported that Darden had shelled out his own money to hire 10 people from Route 59 for a urban renewal job.

Wolfe also charged that Levine’s job as village attorney conflicted with his being a legislator — a charge he has made previously. He said Levine was voting on issues that might be good for the village but not necessarily good for the county and all his constituents.

Reached by telephone, Levine said when he learned about the illegal hirings, he told the village treasurer not to reimburse the mayor. When he was told that already had happened, Levine said he told Darden to return the money until he could resolve the issue.

“When someone in government makes a mistake like this,” Levine said, “it creates a complex legal situation.”

He called Wolfe’s accusations “Nixonian” in nature.

“It’s classic for people in political campaigns to make false accusations for the purpose of the trying to divert the people’s attention from the real issues,” Levine said, adding that he believed people were more interested in taxes, the county’s fiscal problems, affordable housing and environmental issues.

Wolfe said the key issue was that Levine couldn’t serve two masters—Spring Valley as village attorney and residents as a county legislator.

“This is not a political issue,” Wolfe said. “Rockland taxpayers deserve the highest level of service from their elected officials, but when scandal clouds the air, we need to know that our elected officials can stand above.”

This is the second campaign between Levine and Wolfe.

Wolfe was appointed to the Legislature in 2006 to replace Robert Berliner after the latter won election to the bench as Surrogate Court judge. Levine, a former legislator for 10 years, decided to seek the seat last year after an 11-year hiatus.

Wolfe won the party’s nomination for re-election with the support of Ramapo’s political leaders.

Levine forced a primary and soundly defeated Wolfe. Wolfe and Levine each gathered enough signatures to force a primary, during which Levine soundly defeated Wolfe. Levine won election in November for the remainder of the term, which expires at the end of this year.

It’s not unusual for rumors to start swirling about Ryan Karben’s candidacy any time a political seat is up for election in the district he lives in.

Such was the case with the vacancy on the Ramapo Town Board, created by Saturday’s death of Board Member Harry Reiss.

But while the former assemblyman fully denied any interest in challenging Legislator Phil Soskin for his seat (another rumor), he’s not taking the same stance with the Ramapo opening.

“The answer isn’t yes and it isn’t no,” he said today.

“It was not something I had planned for at all,” he said. “I think we all hoped Harry would make a recovery.”

Reiss suffered a stroke in March 2006 and hadn’t attended a Ramapo Town Board meeting since.

I figure Ryan’s got another month or so to be coy (never his strong suit, by the way.) He’s having a barbecue in August—seems likely he could be doing more there than tending to the grill.

UPDATE:

Looks like the Free Political Forum found this blog and added its own information.

Click here to read their take and some info on Karben’s fundraising.

The Daily News also reported Ryan’s considerations in this blog.

Oh yeah—and the invitation to his barbecue came in the mail today. They better be serving up cheeseburgers!

UPDATE PART II:

Looks like I’ll have to grill my own cheeseburgers at home. Ryan just e-mailed to let me know they aren’t kosher. Bummer.

Jay Hood Jr. may be jumping the gun a bit. He sent out an invitation today for his swearing in as the District 3 Rockland County legislator.

But to be sworn in, you need to have been voted in.

In all fairness, the Democrats do hold the majority on the Legislature and are likely to vote in the Democratic Haverstraw Town Board member, who would fill the vacancy created by Roman Rodriguez, D-Haverstraw. Rodriguez resigned today.

But I wouldn’t completely count on a clean sweep of the minority-party legislators.

We try very hard to stay away from cliches here at The Journal News (at least the really obvious ones) but maybe Hood shouldn’t count his chickens before they hatch?

Haverstraw town’s Democrats are likely to have a primary election as a recently retired police detective plans to declare his candidacy this evening for a seat on the Town Board.

Hector Soto, 60, of Pomona, said he would make an announcement at 6 tonight at the Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library on Route 202 that he planned to run for Town Board.

Two seats are up for election on the Haverstraw Town Board this fall, and the town’s Democratic Committee has nominated incumbent Isidro “Papo” Cancel and John J. Gould, a lieutenant with the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, to run on the party’s line.

Town Board member and Democrat Jay Hood Jr. is not seeking re-election because he expects to be appointed next week to the County Legislature representing District 3. The seat will soon be vacant because Legislator Roman Rodriguez (and his wife, Evelyn, a Haverstraw village trustee) are moving out of the area.