Another false statement by the political left. John Poalino and company okayed the contract to allow the reval to be done. Tommasone and company looked into trying to stop the reval and would have had to sue to try and break the contract signed by Poalino and the Dems. It was decided it was a losing battle so they didn't pursue the issue. The left must really be worried about losing this election to sling the mud that's been thrown so far in this campaign.

Shadow, you are absolutely correct. The reval was soley the responsibility of Paolino. If Tommasone try to stop the reval, it would have cost the taxpayers a ton in legal fees. Tommasone had no choice but to ride this reval through! Are we to believe that the same political party that initiated the reval is now saying that it perhaps wasn't such a great idea? Isn't that just like the dems! For once they make a decision on something like the reval, and then 'bam', they give the reps full credit for it and go as far to say that it was a bad idea! What a bunch of idiots!

Where do we start with this deceptive advertisement sent by the Schenectady County Democratic Committee?

Should we discuss the timing of Jasenski's departure from the Rotterdam Town Board in relation to crucial decisions made regarding the tax reassessment?  Shall we discuss "Watch Dog" Godlewski's record while on the town board?  More accurately described, Godlewski was the Sleeping Dog with no accomplishments to his credit.  He was an obstructionist without vision or conviction.

Should we defend Lazzari's legitimate application for and receipt of a grant to restore her pre Revolutionary War era barn that is on the National Registry of Historic sites?  The grant that she was awarded was not akin to the considerable cash giveaways by the Democratic controlled Metrofx Authority to their politically aligned friends.  

Perhaps, we should ask why there are no candidates' names associated with this mailing.  This literature amounts to a smear campaign being waged by the Democratic party candidates in lieu of an intelligent debate of the important issues that face Schenectady county, that the tax and spend Democrats could not win.

Bumble some of the facts stated in that poster are out and out false, they imply that Tommasone approved the $750,000 to pay for the reval when it was Paolino and the Dems who approved the money for the reval b4 John left for his lucrative job in the city. This is a clear attempt at smearing the Reps for something that they had nothing to do with.

Can anybody give the time period when the re-eval was agreed on by the town board?  I think now is the time to request a copy of the record through the FOIL and get it out before the election.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

ROTTERDAM
GOP official fights Democratic fliers
Tommasone making accuracy complaint
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net

   Brian Quail vowed in August that county Democrats would be aggressive in getting their message out this election season.
   And in Rotterdam’s contests, the committee chairman is making good on his promise. Over the past two weeks, town residents have been peppered with mailings and handouts from the Democrats, all taking swipes at the town Republicans.
   The town and county Republicans claim the campaign is spreading misinformation to malign their candidates.
   Republican Supervisor Steven Tommasone said “They’re basically lying about their positions and then deflecting the attention on me for their failures in managing the town.”
   The tone of the literature prompted Tommasone to prepare a grievance Tuesday for the League of Women Voters’ committee on campaign fairness.
   Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region is an organization before which candidates from Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties can air election grievances to a board, which then issues an opinion. Decisions by the committee are meant to raise public awareness about false campaign claims and are not legally binding.
   Tommasone singled out a mailer two weeks ago from the Schenectady County Democratic Committee, which features the image of a firing pistol and titled “the smoking pearl-handled revolver,” but doesn’t endorse any particular candidate. Instead, the mailing alludes to Rotterdam’s now-disbanded police commission and Tommasone, implicating them both as engaged in a plot to undermine the police leadership.
   Before its dissolution last year, the commission promoted an officer who was under investigation following an allegation he removed valuable pearl hand-grips from an antique pistol in the department’s evidence room and gave them to a custodian at the department. Upon review of the case, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney found the officer had indeed violated department rules governing evidence, but didn’t cause any damage because the grips were returned.
   Quail said he stands behind what was stated in the mailer, including charges of nepotism and interference by Rotterdam’s Republican majority, He cited published reports about the flap as the primary sources for the flier.
   “This is truth and you have an obligation to tell the voters this truth,” he said. “It’s their record and its the truth and they’re running from it.”
   But Tommasone said the mailing falsely alleges criminality, when Carney clearly stated there was none. With regard to the inference of nepotism, he said the connections between town employees and elected officials has more to do with the children and in-laws of local residents seeking to work and serve in their home town.
   “Many of them follow their parents or their in-laws into these lines of work and that should be commended,” he said “The Democrats apparently don’t like that.”
   Tommasone also took issue with campaign literature recently handed out by supporters of William Cooke, who is running on the Democratic ticket against Tommasone. He said the leaflet, which poses seven questions critical of the town Republicans, contains a number of factual errors.
   “They’re putting literature out that is false and fraudulent propaganda,” he said. “What they’re saying about my record is completely false.”
   For instance, Tommasone pointed to a segment of the flier claiming the Republicans were behind passing the recently completed revaluation, when he and fellow Republican board member John Mertz voted against the resolution passed in 2005. If anything, he said it was Cooke who came out in support of the revaluation during his unsuccessful run against Tommasone two years ago.
   Cooke on Tuesday said it was the vote of then Republican board member Holly Vellano that moved the revaluation forward; she voted with Democrats John Paolino and Diane Marco for the revaluation.
   Though acknowledging Tommasone’s vote, Cooke said the question posed in the flier is viable because the Republican majority could have prevented the revaluation from passing in 2005.
   “All the while they were blaming people, they were the majority party,” he said. “It was a Republican that cast the deciding vote, so basically we’re saying you’ve got to take some responsibility.”
   Officials from both parties said they expect campaigning to get more furious and the literature to become more venomous as November approaches. County Republican Chairman Tom Buchanan said the county Democrats are focusing a tremendous amount of money and energy on Rotterdam in an attempt to unseat Tommasone.
   “That’s obviously the case because all the mail is coming from the county Democrats,” he said.
   The other candidacies at the town level are Democrats Richard Leet and John Silva for town board, against Republicans Michael Della Villa and John Denny III.  

  
  
  

This is a repeat of the last supervisor's election when Mr. Tommasone and Mr. Cooke ran for this office. The democrats ran a soley negative campaign then as they are now. Then as now, the democrats have yet to reveal their platform.

Although I don't have a "dog in this race" (as I am not a resident of the Town of Rotterdam), I must state that I did not detect much of a platform of position on issues from Mr. Cooke when he appeared at the Meet the Candidates forum that was sponsored by the League of Women Voters at the Rotterdam Town Library.  Each of Mr. Cooke's responses to the questions that were posed to him amounted to an attack on Mr. Tommasone.  During Mr. Cooke's closing statement  he spewed venom toward his opponent, but didn't provide a vision of the direction that he would take Rotterdam.  It was personally uncomfortable for me to witness the incivility of political campaigns.

The Dems haven't got a platform and that's why we haven't heard of any. The campaign this year is particularly ugly and I think it'll hurt the Dems in the long run. Most of the voters in Rotterdam know what happened involving the reval and can see thru the lies being spewed by the Dems. It really makes one want to run for a political office when this is what happens every election. The Dems do have a platform this year [ it's if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance baffle them with your BS].

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The Dems do have a platform this year [ it's if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance baffle them with your BS.

Right on there Shadow. Cooke didn't have a platform in the last supervisors race either. You'd think they'd learn, huh?

Quoted Text

The tone of the literature prompted Tommasone to prepare a grievance Tuesday for the League of Women Voters’ committee on campaign fairness.
   Fair Campaign Practices for the Capital Region is an organization before which candidates from Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties can air election grievances to a board, which then issues an opinion. Decisions by the committee are meant to raise public awareness about false campaign claims and are not legally binding.

And it is about damn time that the reps did something about these false campaign claims!

The dems at all levels are totally out of countrol, from the govenor on down. And I agree shadow, that this is really hurting the dems! And yes the residents know that the reval came from the past administration. The residents may complain TO Mr. Tommasone, not AT him.

OPP'S...guess the Rotterdam conserv's endorsed the wrong candidate, wouldn't ya say?

Quoted from BIGK75

Can anybody give the time period when the re-eval was agreed on by the town board?  I think now is the time to request a copy of the record through the FOIL and get it out before the election.

The reval was voted upon in the first half of 2005 (somewhere between May and July?). That record will show that Republican Holly Vellano cast the deciding vote to go ahead with the reval. It should also be noted that Tony Jasenski also favored the reval but didn't have the cahunas to cast what he believed at the time would be the deciding vote - so he quit at the last town meeting before the next agenda for the next meeting-knowing the reval would be on that agenda. Then, as now, Jasenski will not take a position on ANYTHING. He will only jump on what he determines to be politically popular. Some things never change...

Quoted from bumblethru

Oh, I think we can find something good and bad in each political party. We just find one that fits our idiology and go with it.

My question is when we have political parties that differ on all issues, and yet both parties will endorse the same candidate. Now, I don' call THAT bipartisan....I call it something fishy!

As far as what Cicero posted, I read it as the Conservative party just walks the line between the dems and reps. But in the case of Rotterdam,  it may appear to some that it walks the line with the RPD/PBA. Why else would the conservative party endorse Bill Cooke who is clearly a dem who ran against Tomasone in the last election and lost. And if memory serves me correctly, Tomasone received the conservative endorsement during the last elections. What  could have happened to change the mind of the conservatives?

The minds of GENUINE conservatives has not changed, only the leadership of the Conservative Party. Bill Cooke should have been endorsed by the Conservtaive Party last time. There is no doubt that Cooke will be a far more skillful and FAIR negotiator of the police contract, for which there is no choice - it must be done. Tommasone will not even discuss it with them. And anyone who has taken the time to get to know Bill Cooke would soon discover that he is in fact a conservative who has nothing in common with his party.
It should also be noted that the Tommasone administration has been on a hiring wave with the "Independence" Party (which is anything but independent) - he now has the Independence endorsement he couldn't secure in the last Supervisor election. Tommasone bought that line with the hiring of their party members, while Cooke has promised the police nothing-or anyone else for that matter.
And let's not forget that not only did the REPUBLICANS endorsed a DEMOCRAT in the Town Board race, they staged a failed primary for Denny to KEEP the Krat line!

gadfly,

I can't ignore the fact that the Rotterdam police chief Hamilton sits on the conservative executive board.  I also can't ignore that the only reason the conservatives endorsed Tommasone last election was because the republicans were going to fill the seat vacated by Tommasone if he won, with a representative from the conservative party Joey Guilarelli.  Bill Cooke couldn't make that same promise since he didn't hold a town board seat to offer them.  That is further proof that the current Rotterdam conservative party is a quid pro quo party.  The conservative party doesn't endorse a candidate unless they are going to recieve something in return.  Whether it's an appointment on the town board(Guidarelli), or somebody to negotiate a favorable police contract.(Finacially favorable for the police of course, not the taxpayer)

The fact that police chief Hamilton, a conservative party executive, allowed personal information about officer Robert Denny to be leaked out of his department for political gain, and then allow the SCDC(schenectady county democratic committee) to send out a "smoking gun" political flyer without any condemnation, let's me know who controls the Rotterdam conservative party and their motives.

If the dems sweep the elections in Rotterdam, the majority goes back to the dems.  If the conservatives/cops are able to show they hold the power as to who gets elected and who stays elected in Rotterdam, that will give quite a bit of leverage to those conservative party executives who stand to gain in areas such as,,,,,,,,,,, police contract negotiations.