Islip town board member Pamela Greene has gotten the endorsement of The Independence Party in her race for supervisor against Democrat Philip Nolan, despite the long time alliance of the the minor party leader with Greene enemy former Supervisor Peter McGowan.
Frank MacKay, state and Suffolk party leader, signed the authorization allowing Greene to run on the minor party line early yestereday and the papers were filed with the Suffolk Board of Elections in Yaphank at 3:25 p.m. In 2003 supervisor race, the line was worth 1,503 votes.
Nolan assailed the endorsement as a “particularly sleazy...bait and switch” because the party eased out their original supervisor candidate, James Quinn, last weekend with a Bronx GOP nomination for Supreme court. “Pam Greene is showing her true colors playing ‘let’s make a deal’ with another political boss and a McGowan ally,” said Nolan. “...This deal definitely deserves a Bronx cheer.”
Rick Brand
MacKay, a close ally of McGowan until his conviction earlier this year for misuing campaign funds, said there was no deal and he talked to Nolan at length before making his decision. "I’ll always call Pete McGowan a friend but it's not responsible to Islip to avenge a friend’s political enemies.”
The party leader called Greene "capable" and said she had grown in the past year from her battles with party leaders. "Pam's problems have never been with constituents, only party leaders," MacKay said.
But his decision miffed Islip Independence Party chairwoman Fran Siems who favored Molan. “What happened to local autonomy?” she said calling Nolan “the better candidate.”
MacKay said the endorsement was an executive committee decision and that Siems term as Islip leader ran out Sept. 12 and she has not yet been reappointed.
“This is pro-Greene move, not an anti-Nolan move," saaid MacKay who said decision came in part because he did not want Democrats to become too powerful. “A Nolan victory would leave only one Republican supervisor in all of Western Suffolk which would skew the political balance.”
And Greene herself said she was pleased. "I think they recognize that I emulate the qualities of independence the party speaks to," she said.
Comments (4)
Adios, Fran. Some party. One guy putting his finger to the wind and deciding.
He is bad and is so tight to mcgowan
The reason why MacKay's party will never grow any more than it has is because of the stuff he does like to Fran Siems. You can't have a party of one. A party is supposed to be a group where people's opinions matter.
I don't think this story will end here!