Conservatives Led by Gail Burns-Deny Astorino Line Again!

On July 20th, Westchester Conservatives met again, in an attempt to rectify what 90% of the rank and file county conservatives thought was a miscarriage of justice-when the Conservative line was handed to Democratic-Liberal County Executive Andy Spano.

But County Conservative Chairwoman Gail Burns, through her control of the majority of proxy votes, was able to keep the line for Andy Spano. Here’s Burns’ press release and then my comments:

“once again, the Westchester County Conservative Party overwhelmingly endorsed the incumbent Andy Spano for re-election as Westchester’s County Executive with 71 percent of the vote at a special meeting this afternoon.  In addition, the Westchester Conservative Party also endorsed for District Attorney candidate, Janet DiFiore, and County Clerk candidate, Robert Morabito. 

“Andy Spano has championed programs to keep Westchester residents safe. His aggressive stance on getting drunk drivers off Westchester roadways is unparalleled and he continues to demonstrate strong dedication to keeping dangerous sex offenders of the streets.   He has fought at the state level for increased penalties for sex offenders, and at the local level he has worked with the courts to put forth a program to place bracelets on sex offenders so their whereabouts can be monitored.  Under his leadership, Westchester County is still one of the only county municipalities in the nation to enjoy a triple-A bond rating.

    “The Westchester County Conservative Party fought back a procedural motion to control the process today by an insurgent group of Republicans.  It was a failed attempt to take over the party,” said Conservative Chairwoman Gail Burns. “The Westchester Conservative Party stands by its decision to endorse the best and qualified candidates for elected office.  Today’s actions reaffirm earlier decisions made by our party,” said Burns.

The hypocrisy of Burns statement is shocking. There’s no mention of Andy’s property tax increases over his 12 years in office, nor mention of Andy’s increases in county jobs to political hacks year after year, not to mention Andy’s support for abortion and for gay marriage, both Conservative no-nos.

Drunken drivers and sex offenders? Are you kidding? What jurisdiction does the county exec have over either one of these issues. Yes we will give you the AAA bond rating, but its not thanks to Andy’s tax and spending ways.

Burns points to “a procedural motion by an insurgent group of Republcians”. Gail-this group of insurgents that you reference are actually the real die in the wool Conservatives, lifetime members who live by a moral code different than most, and who hold the complete oppositve beliefs than Andy Spano and perhaps yourself.

In the end, the result is bad news for real conservatives and for Rob Astorino, who wanted and needed this line in his battle with Andy in November.

Astorino and his supporters will now have to mount a very difficult write in campaign in a Conservative primary, if possible.

so it looks like Andy Spano won, thanks to Gail Burns.