Frank Spotorno Makes Run For Council President

By Dan Murphy

Yonkers Rising welcomed Frank Spotorno to our offices to discuss his run for City Council president. Spotorno, an elevator manufacturing business owner and a national supporter and founder of Bring Our Jobs Home Campaign, is seeking the Democratic Party line to succeed Council President Chuck Lesnick, who is term-limited from running again.

Spotorno began the discussion with a story: A first-time candidate, Spotorno recently attended the Westchester Independence Party dinner, where party Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo questioned him in front of the crowd of 400, asking: “Are you a Republican or a Democrat.”

Spotorno responded “I’m an American.”

Frank Spotorno moved to Yonkers from Queens in 1999. “A friend of mine (PAL Board member Sal Corrente) told me about a beautiful house for sale in Yonkers. I fell in love with the house and love living in Yonkers,” he said.

Since 2007, Spotorno has been focused on his business and his call to bring jobs that have traveled overseas over the past 30 years back to America. His website, The Alliance of Americans for Americans – www.aoafa.org – works on a national level to push Congress and the president to support American jobs efforts, and to support good paying jobs.

While some say the issue is a national one and does not affect Yonkers, Spotorno disagrees.

“Our country is $17 trillion in debt, and it’s because we lost most of our good-paying jobs,” he said. “When there is no money on the federal level, there is no money from the state and no money for Yonkers.”

Spotorno said the people of Yonkers should vote for him because he will fight to bring jobs home to Yonkers, and will use his national experience to benefit Yonkers. Further, he said he wants to use the Office of Council President as a bully pulpit “to ask corporate American to bring some jobs home to Yonkers, or somewhere in the State of New York so we can start generating revenues to pay for our police and firefighters and educate our children.”

“I will work with the mayor to contact IBM and Apple and ask for jobs for Yonkers residents, instead of exporting all of our jobs to Mexico, Canada and China,” said Spotorno. “We don’t need GM or any company to bring backs all of the jobs, but brings 10,000 back. Apple employs half a million people in China, but if America goes broke we won’t be able to afford to buy an iPhone.”

He said Yonkers has a great history, with the industrialization as a country born and bred in Yonkers – going all the way back to Adrian Van der Donck.

“If you aren’t collecting revenues from our empty factories, you need to invite a company in. If you are collecting zero in revenue, give them incentives to come to Yonkers,” he said. “Many people in Yonkers need a good job. We aren’t a city of takers, we want jobs but were sold out by companies who abandoned our communities for more profits by taking those jobs overseas. It’s affecting every city in the country including Yonkers … If you think we can bring good paying jobs back to Yonkers, then I ask for your vote. I’m an advocate for labor and to provide jobs to those who need it and allow businesses who want to expand to come to Yonkers.”

Spotorno wants to use his business experience to finds cost savings in the city’s $990 million budget.

“Looking to lay off firefighters and first responders is the wrong answer when money is being wasted on a $15,000 computer and $22,000 desks, and a $15 million project to redo all of the windows in City Hall,” he said. “I know we can do better. We can cut $15 million from the budget without laying off anyone or closing fire houses.”

Spotorno believes that the free trade agreements signed over the decades – the North American Free Trade Agreement signed by President Bill Clinton, the Central American Free Trade Agreement signed by President George W. Bush, and the Asian Free Trade Agreement signed by President Barrack Obama – were bad deals for middle-class Americans.

“President Obama said the Asian Free Trade Agreement would generate jobs when in fact we lost another 1.2 million jobs,” he said. “I’m for free trade and for the right of any company who wants to move their company overseas to have that right. I could have moved my company to Mexico or Indonesia, but I don’t want to be a part of selling-out our country … If we don’t have jobs for our people in Yonkers, then how can we expect to have the revenues the city needs to pay for a quality education in modern schools, and youth and seniors programs. The issue of bringing back jobs to America has everything to do with Yonkers, and that’s why I’m running for council president.

“I’m passionate about Yonkers, I love this city and I’m bringing something different to this election: a positive message about how can turn it around,” he said. “Yes, I’m a political outsider but I think it’s time for a newcomer to give the people a choice.”

Spotorno will not likely seek the Yonkers Democratic Party’s nomination for at its May 17 convention, and will attempt to collect the 1,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot for a Democratic primary in September.

The only other announced Democratic council president candidate is businessman Mike Rotanelli, but many still expect another candidate to come forward.

Former City Councilman Republican Liam McLaughlin announced his council president run last month, and realtor Grace Borrelli has also announced her run.

Anyone running for council president or City Council in the second, fourth and sixth districts, or for the four Yonkers seats on the County Board of Legislators, can contact Yonkers Rising for an interview.

DA DiFiore Vindicated; Gets Dem Nod for Re-election

By Dan Murphy

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore weathered a political storm over Nannygate issues concerning her live-in housekeeper when she was cleared last week of any wrongdoing. DiFiore, twice elected DA, also easily received the Democratic Party’s endorsement for re-election at the county’s Democratic convention last week.

DiFiore was challenged at the convention by Mayo Bartlett, a White Plains attorney and former chief of the Bias Crimes Unit of the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, but easily won the nomination.

There is currently no announced Republican candidate to challenge DiFiore, although former County Court Judge Rory Bellantoni has been rumored to be one possible opponent.

DiFiore, who won election as DA as a Republican in 2005and as a Democrat in 2009 after she switched parties, remains popular in Westchester and will be extremely difficult to defeat. DiFiore recently resigned her post as Chair of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to concentrate on her re-election bid.

The only cloud hanging over DiFiore’s re-election were allegations made that she tried to influence a decision of granting benefits to her former housekeeper, Marina Buchanan.

However, a confidential report and investigation by the Westchester Department of Social Services found no wrongdoing on DiFiore’s part in Buchanan’s three attempts to secure food stamps and Medicaid benefits, according to published reports. Buchanan, who worked for DiFiore’s family from 1988 to 2009, applied for benefits three times from 2001 to 2009 and was denied for earning too much income.

In 2010, her fourth application was approved, and the DSS report found that errors in the first three applications were the reason for Buchanan’s denials, and that no effort was made by DiFiore to win Buchanan benefits, which she eventually received.

DSS Deputy Commissioner Philippe Gille helped craft the report vindicating DiFiore.

Other questions regarding Buchanan’s immigration status and whether taxes had been paid by DiFiore and/or her husband, Dennis Glazer, for Buchanan were addressed by DiFiore spokesman Lucian Chalfen, who said that “all the appropriate federal and New York state tax forms were filed and required payments were made in regards to Ms. Buchanan’s employment,” and that Buchanan has been a “qualified alien” since 1988, and a permanent legal resident since 2007.

Chalfen also reiterated what DiFiore has said all along about Nannygate, that “this was a politically-motivated attack.”

The allegations point to Dhyalma Vazquez, a DSS fraud investigator who has been pushing the allegations against DiFiore for years. The story was finally picked up by the New York Post and other Westchester media outlets.

Vazquez is also the vice-chair of the Westchester Independence Party, which under Vazquez and Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo has tried to stop DiFiore from winning election after a falling out, and did not endorse her or give her the Independent line in 2009.

Vazquez, whose allegation that Buchanan’s claim was improperly reopened, has now been found to be false, called Gille, a former county legislator and Republican from Yonkers, a “liar” and called for a federal probe.

DiFiore’s refusal to comment on any pending investigation before the DSS report now appears to have been the right decision. She waited out the storm and now, without any pending investigation, the real issue in her re-election campaign is who is the best candidate for Westchester DA.

Bramson to Challenge Astorino For County Executive

By Dan Murphy

Westchester Democrats held their county convention last week and nominated New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson to face off against Republican incumbent County Executive Rob Astorino in November. The 2,000 delegates who attended the convention, held at the County Center in White Plains, also nominated incumbents Janet DiFiore for district attorney and Tim Idoni for county clerk.

But the race for county executive was the hotly-contested race at the convention, with Bramson, Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins and County Legislator Bill Ryan vying for the nomination. Both the Bramson and Jenkins camps were confident that they would win the night.

Fifty percent of the voting delegates present were required to win the nomination. Bramson almost won the convention on the first ballot with 49.53 percent of the weighted vote, totaling 217,000, compared to Jenkins’ 42.49 percent and Ryan’s 7.97 percent.

Ryan was eliminated from the second round of voting, which went 54 percent for Bramson and 45 percent for Jenkins. After the vote, Jenkins endorsed Bramson and county Democrats left in the wee hours of the six-hour convention united in their desire to defeat Astorino in November.

“We want to make sure County Executive Astorino goes into early retirement,” said County Democratic Chairman Reginald Lafayette

“The choice in this election is between a plan of action that honors the mainstream values of Westchester, or a record of neglect that honors only the extreme agenda of the Tea Party,” said Bramson, who thanked the delegates.

Astorino campaign spokeswoman Jessica Proud said: “We congratulate Mr. Bramson on his nomination tonight and look forward to a healthy debate in the fall election season, based on the issues.”

Bramson’s victory was an effort over the past three months to pry the nomination away from Jenkins, who had a built a record of disagreement over county spending with Astorino over the past two years, and thanks to the support of Congresswoman Nita Lowey, New Rochelle Democratic Chairman Artie Klugman (who one Democrat told us was the best Democratic chairman in Westchester), Sen. George Latimer and Council President Chuck Lesnick, to name a few.

Westchester Congresswoman” Nita Lowey’s support was huge, and titled the balance for Bramson in the many Westchester communities she has represented over four decades. Many of the votes from the mid- and northern Westchester Democratic Committee came in with near 100 percent of delegates for Bramson.

Jenkins did well in Yonkers, with 27,000 of the weighted vote, with only 3,000 for Bramson. Five-thousand possible Yonkers delegates did not come and vote at the convention. Mount Vernon split its votes between Bramson and Jenkins, with supporters of Mayor Ernie Davis with Jenkins and supporters of former Mayor Clinton Young with Bramson.

The word before and after the convention was that Bramson was “more electable” than Ken Jenkins. What “more electable” means is up for debate.

Bramson has raised, and can raise considerably more than Jenkins could have, and about $2 million is the figure that both Bramson and Astorino will likely raise and spend in this race.

Jenkins had also turned off some Westchester Democrats with his combative style with Astorino over the past two years. And while Jenkins’ record on the county board of amassing contrasting views about how county government should fund and protect county residents will be used by Bramson, some believe Jenkins went too far in his opposition, and this opposition is why Bramson decided to get in the race.

We hope that “more electable” does not mean that an African-American cannot be elected in a county-wide race in Westchester, because we do not agree. A far more important decision will be who the Independence Party decides to endorse for county executive than the race, gender or sexual preference of any candidate. Westchester is well beyond that.

Many Democrats and Independents in Westchester will not vote for any Republican. Astorino got 8 percent of the vote on the Independence party line in 2009 against Andy Spano, and it was his margin of victory.

Jenkins must now decide what he will do next. He can run for re-election to the county board, or run for Yonkers City Council president. Many had hoped for an answer from Jenkins at the Yonkers Democratic breakfast last weekend, but Jenkins said he needed a couple of weeks to decide.

County Clerk Tim Idoni was unanimously nominated to run for re-election.

Let the campaign begin! Much more in the months to come.

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Hello Loyal Followers,

After a year’s hiatus, we have returned to bring you up to date coverage of the most important news in Yonkers and throughout Westchester. We would love to hear you input and have created a section just for discussion on today’s hottest topics in news. We are also now on Twitter at twitter.com/YonkersRising and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/YonkersRising. We look forward to the future of our newspaper and the coverage we can bring through our  improved medium.

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