Spin Cycle

State Sen. Caesar Trunzo said he is looking for a "sign of good faith" from critics before he will even consider stepping down as Islip Republican chairman.

The Brentwood Republican made the statement from Albany after about 90 party activists gathered at the East End Republican Club in Sayville Monday for the second time in the past month, trying to revive the moribund town GOP.

Frank Tatone, one of the dissident zone leaders who met with Trunzo Saturday, said that "not much progress" was made and that Trunzo wanted to put off any transition until after candidate petitions are filed in mid-July. "The outcome with Caesar was to wait," he said.

Critics have maintained they want Trunzo, who has a year left on his term, to step down immediately along with his party vice chair Jeanette Messina. In return they say they will back Trunzo's bid for re-election as Senate Republicans try to hold their majority, now hanging by a thin two seats.

Trunzo said he wants dissidents to "meet me halfway" and show their "good faith" by walking petitions and raising some money for the party before he begins a transition process. Trunzo, 81, said he told Tatone "I don't trust some of you guys to follow through on what you'll say you'll do." Trunzo also said he would not agree...

Rick Brand

Peace talks among Islip Republicans broke down over the weekend.

Those who want state Sen. Caesar Trunzo, 81, to step down as party leader and concentrate on his re-election were miffed that the Brentwood Republican was not ready to go.

The party faction headed by John Schettino and Philip Goglas were scheduled to hold another meeting Monday night at the East End Republican Club in Sayville where those involved in the town's five GOP clubs were to convene to plot their next step.

Rick Brand

Islip town board member Christopher Bodkin, a Republican turned Democrat, has withdrawn from the race to take on 34-year State Senate veteran Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood), pictured above.

“I’m out, and that is all I want to say,” said the 14-year town board member who last year defected from the Republican to Democratic.

Sources say Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman, asked Bodkin to withdraw about two weeks ago.

Initially, Bodkin was reluctant. But that was before the departure of Gov. Eliot Spitzer who was engineering a major push to take over the Senate. Sources say Bodkin had hoped the governor might intervene to force out Democrat Jimmy Dahroug, who has already lost twice but wants to take on Trunzo, 81, again. With Spitzer gone in scandal, those hopes were dashed.

Rick Brand

Islip’s Democratic Supervisor Philip Nolan (right) has hired Victoria Ryan, wife of Republican Assemb. Philip Boyle (left), in the $75,000-a-year post as the director of Islip’s Foreign Trade Zone at Long Island MacArthur Airport.

Nolan said that politics played no role in Ryan’s hiring and it was her background doing economic development work in Albany County. “We were very impressed,” he said. “Clearly she had the skill set in which we were interested.”

In the early 1990’s, Ryan headed the eeconomic development efforts for the Albany county executive office, during which time she forged a public-private partnership with the local chamber of commerce to help finance business development efforts. For the past five years she has done business development for Beach House Communications.

While her husband is a Republican....

Rick Brand

Islip’s Republican-turned-Democratic town board member Christopher Bodkin (photo, left) was in Albany Monday, being wooed by Senate Democrats, who want to see him take on Republican State Sen. Caesar Trunzo.

Bodkin was one of four Democratic incumbents from around the state who met with Senate campaign officials about taking on veteran GOP senators as part of Senate Democrats’ bid to wrest control from the majority Republicans who'd lose control with a net loss of two seats.

While Bodkin would be taking on Trunzo, 81, a 36-year Senate veteran, two other downstate Democrats -- New York City Councilmen Joseph Addabbo and James Gennaro -- are looking at taking on a pair of Queens Senate heavyweights. They are Serphin Maltese of Middle Village, who won re-election only narrowly in 2006, and Frank Padavan of Bellerose.

Bodkin confirmed that he attended the session and expects to make a decision about the race in the next several weeks.

Rick Brand

Islip Republican Philip Goglas is planning to run. He's just not sure for which offiice.

The Central Islip lawyer is considering either a primary for State Sen. Caesar Trunzo or a challenge to Democratic Assemb. Philip Ramos, who is already under fire in his own party from County Executive Steve Levy.

While his target is still to be determined, Goglas held his first fundraiser last week where he raised nearly $10,000 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Central Islip, attracting more than 100 supporters including former GOP Rep. Rick Lazio and former Islip town board member Pamela Greene.

Goglas, 48, who works as an assistant town attorney in Smithtown, is also talking to GOP consultant John Zaher about handling his campaign. Zaher last worked in the campaign of Republican Legis. John Kennedy of Nesconset who was dumped by the Smithtown GOP, was cross-endorsed by Democrats, and then won the party primary.

Rick Brand

A Suffolk legislator’s complaint has led LIPA to pull the plug on lighted parking lot signs for the pricey eatery Tellers, next door to Islip Town Hall.

A LIPA investigation showed the Teller signs at both ends of the town parking lot behind the chophouse were unmetered, shortchanging the public power agency as much as $2,000 over the past six years, with another $2,000 to pay for the cost of the field investigation.

Legis. Cameron Alden (R-Islip), pictured here at left, claimed to town officials that the restaurant was involved in a “theft of services” and should be sued. “Tellers has to do the right thing,” said Town Supervisor Philip Nolan, but indicated he does not expect the town to go to court. He said the town attorney met with owners Friday to discuss the problem.

The historic former bank building, an abandoned eyesore when Tellers moved in, has become an anchor of the downtown area. The restaurant, once a favorite haunt of convicted former GOP Supervisor Peter McGowan, got permission to use the town parking lot in return for paving and keeping it clean. The town required electric signs, to respond to neighborhood residents who feared customers would park on their streets. But cleanup crews have angered Alden by blowing dirt and debris into his house behind the lot.

“No one should be subsidizing them,” said Alden, “Not with the prices they charge.”

Rick Brand

State Senator Caesar Trunzo has changed his mind about leaving as Islip Republican chairman. “Earlier he told everyone in a room he was stepping down,” said a party official who declined to be identified. “But in the last few weeks he’s telling people individually he’s staying,” because no sucessor emerged who’d rally and unify the party.

Rick Brand

Suffolk Legis Thomas Barraga has offered himself as a potential candidate as Islip Republican chairman should state Sen. Caesar Trunzo step down from the post.

Barraga made his “serious interest” known through emissaries when the town GOP’s executive committee met last week to discuss succession to free Trunzo, 81, who has been leader for 19 years, to run for re-election next year. The executive committee made no decision but is expected to meet again within the next several weeks.

Barraga, who who thrown his name in for a variety of posts in the past, said his conservative values would help "revive and re-energerize the town GOP."

The only problem is that county law bars Barraga from taking the post unless he steps down as a county lawmaker. The law bars elected officials, department heads, and members of county boards from simultaneously serving as town or county political leaders.

Barraga at first said he was unaware of the law but after reviewing it....

Rick Brand

Acknowledging that Republicans took a “shellacking” on Election Day, State Sen. Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood) said he is considering giving up his post as town GOP chairman.

Trunzo said he will raise the matter Tuesday at a meeting of the town GOP executive committee. “I’m going to be discussing it with them. Maybe it’s about time,” said Trunzo, the town party boss for 19 years.

Trunzo’s move comes in the wake of the re-election of Democratic Supervisor Philip Nolan and the Democrats’ town board sweep that gives them a 4-1 edge on the board starting in January.
Lest anyone think the 35-year state senate veteran is getting ready to retire, though, think again. Trunzo said shedding his party role could help him prepare to run for his 19th term. “I’m sure Sen. Bruno wants me to go again,” said Trunzo, referring to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick). “I haven’t told Joe definitely, but I’m leaning very strongly in that direction.”

By the time Trunzo gets the GOP nomination next May, he will be 82. Trunzo mentioned no potential.....

Rick Brand

Islip Democrats are winning a majority on the town board for the first time since 1968 when they had control for less than a year. Before that the party was in power for two years beginning in 1931. Leading in the best two of four race were Democrats John Edwards and Gene Parrington.

Clara Datre, the Republican running to unseat Democratic Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan, got her figures wrong in a campaign ad she took out in Newsday on Oct. 15. "Under Phil Nolan, in one year, MacArthur has lost $1.2 million," she says, referring to Long Island MacArthur Airport. "If the airport continues to lose money… your taxes will go up!"

Actually, town records show that the airport turned a $331,000 profit last year -- not that Nolan had much to do with it. He took office in mid-November.

Datre’s spokesman, John Zaher, said the $1.2 million figure came from an Islip task force report issued in September. The report said that profits at the airport had dropped....

Jennifer Maloney

Bad enough that Michael Datre, an Islip town worker, got caught driving a town-owned van to the Chase Bank on Main Street two weeks ago while on the clock.

But the orange 1993 Ford vehicle driven by Datre, a custodial worker, got stuck underneath the portico of the bank's drive-through window - which shut down that part of the bank's service for about three hours, starting around 9:30 a.m., while town employees worked to free the van.

Datre - who happens to be a nephew of Clara Datre, the Republican candidate to unseat Islip's Democratic Supervisor Philip Nolan - couldn't be reached Friday for comment.

The police accident report did not indicate how much the repairs would cost, but noted damage to both the van and the bank's portico. It's not clear whether Datre, who was using the van to deliver supplies on Aug. 31, will face disciplinary charges, said Catherine Green, a town spokeswoman. The matter is under review.

Chau Lam

Richard Tufareillo, the South Shore Press columnist who filed an affadavit challenging Suffolk Legis. Kate Browning's voter registration and citizenship, denied any political motivations in the move.

He said he's been asking Browning for months to clear up her status for him.

"I asked her four months ago, 'Are you a naturalized citizen? She refused to answer," Tufareillo said. "My readership, there were some people who wanted to know of her naturalization. I have the right to ask an elected official these questions."

The Irish-born Browning (WFP-Shirley) told Newsday she was naturalized in Brooklyn in 2000 when we asked her about it on Thursday, and accused Tufareillo of working for her GOP opponent, Betty Manzello.

Islip's Democratic supervisor, Philip Nolan, had the support of the Long Island Builders Institute last year when he first won office. But he says he was "taken aback" when the chairman of this year's screening committee turned out to be his opponent's husband.

The July 31 letter signed by Thomas Datre, chairman of the BUILDERS PAC, and two of its committee members, invited Nolan to appear for an interview and to fill out the group's questionnaire for possible endorsement. Datre's wife is Clara Datre, the Republican nominee for supervisor. Thomas Datre is also a member of the town plumbing board - and a town official for whom Nolan successfully pressed to end free medical benefits.

Nolan said he plans to answer the questionnaire and appear before the builder's political action committee, but added, "It certainly raises a red flag."

Although Datre signed the letter, Robert Wieboldt, the political action committee's secretary-treasurer, said the committee chairman will recuse himself from candidate interviews, and removed himself from committee discussion and the vote itself. "He won't be at the meeting or influence in any way the determination," Wieboldt said.

Rick Brand

State and Suffolk Independence Party chairman Frank MacKay has sided with Democrats in key races in two towns — backing Brookhaven Supervisor Brian Foley for re-election and Islip’s Democratic town board contenders John Edwards and Gene Parrington.

MacKay, who made the move Friday, said that Foley has “made changes for the better” and that Parrington and Edwards “impressed” him as more like “civic activists than politicans.”
For Foley, who was backed by the minor party in his first supervisor race, got 2,324 votes on the Independence line in a race he won by 6,100 votes. In Islip, Parrington two years ago got 1,209 on the Independence line.

Jesse Garcia, Brookhaven GOP chairman, said that he thought his candidates “had a shot” at the line and is “disappointed” by MacKay’s decision. But even without the line, Garcia said “I’m confident in Bob DiCarlo waging a successful campaign for supervisor.” Islip GOP officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Rick Brand

Islip Town Attorney Pierce Cohalan, son of the former county executive and now State Supreme Court Justice Peter Fox Cohalan, has handed in his resignation but said he has no interest in running for town supervisor or county executive.

Cohalan, who has been on the job about a year, filed his letter late Friday with the town clerk and he will leave the job on May 23, the eve of the Suffok GOP convention. While ruling out a run for either the top town or county office, Cohalan declined to disclose his plans other than to say there are “lots of opportunities.” Cohalan’s father and grandfather also served as Islip Supervisors and later became judges.

Cohalan’s resignation came on the same day that his top deputy Mea Knapp, former Suffolk OTB president, was going through her last day on the town job. She had resigned earlier. The power to appoint a new town attorney rests with the 4-1 Republican town board.

“I enjoyed working with him and I’m very disappointed he’s leaving,” said Philip Nolan, the town’s Democratic supervisor.

Rick Brand and Juliet Chung

Republican Pamela Greene's surprise decision to not seek re-election to the town board seat she has held for 17 years roils the electoral landscape in Islip. It creates two open seats on the 4-1 Republican board, with GOP member William Rowley deciding earlier this month not to run again.

Pamela Greene, Islip’s maverick Republican town board member, has sent a letter attacking her party’s executive committee for trying to force incumbents like her to screen for renomination.

Noting that past incumbents including Assemb. Philip Boyle (R—Islip), party chairman State Sen. Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood), and Sen. Owen Johnson (R-West Babylon), did not have to undergo repeated screenings, Greene said: “I find this break in recent tradition to be divisive to the party interenally and externally as it sends a bad message to those outside our party.”

Greene, in the letter, said she submitted to screening as a supervisor candidate last year only to be “treated with a complete lack of respect,” in an atmosphere of “hostile interrogation.”

Rick Brand