City Hall Split Over Who to Support in 4th District Council Race

Dennis Shepard—–John Rubbo

 

The race to replace Liam McLaughlin as councilperson in the Fourth District has gotten more interesting over the past week. At the Yonkers GOP convention last week, Dennis Shepard won the nomination of the party, narrowly defeating Dr. Ron Volino, with Geri Esposito a distant third.

John Rubbo, a former assistant to Mayor Phil Amicone, entered the race late, and did not place his name in nomination at the convention (see previous post). Amicone and others in the mayor’s office advised Rubbo not to run, but he declined the recommendation and resigned from his job at City Hall.

But there is a split in the mayor’s office over who is the preferred candidate in the fourth — with the mayor and his top staff preferring Shepard and the younger staffers wanting Rubbo.

Rubbo shouldn’t expect the public support of any of his young turk friends on the 2nd floor of City Hall — all have been advised not to do so and they have agreed.

All signs point to a GOP primary in the Fourth in September between Shepard, Rubbo and perhaps Esposito and Volino.

Waiting in the wings is the Democratic candidate Mario Degiorgio

A Ghost from the Past Returns — Zehy Jereis Back in Business in Yonkers

We have received several contacts from our friends in Yonkers who report that Zehy Jereis has returned from an 18-month exile in Brooklyn, where he allegedly owned and operated a couple of car washes. Jereis, the former Yonkers GOP chairman, has a shady and tarnished political career, which eventually resulted in his stepping down as chairman in 2006.

Shortly after his resignation, Jereis disappeared from Yonkers. Months later, the car wash explanation surfaced. Jereis’ departure from Yonkers coincides with U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia’s investigation into political corruption, in Westchester and in Yonkers, began picking up steam. Garcia subpoenaed ethics disclosure records on Jereis.

A law enforcement source explained that Jereis’ departure is exactly the way that the Feds handle a cooperating confidential informant, or RAT. There is no real proof yet that Jereis sang —  just connected the dots here.

What really threw me for a loop was when I heard that Jereis was back in the business of politics in Yonkers, to the point in which he held a fundraising event for a prominent Democrat, yes a Dem, and reached out to a Yonkers Republican interested in running for a council seat in the fall. We are trying to get confirmation before we list the names of the Dem and Rep.

Clearly, Yonkers politics neither needs nor wants a return of Zehy Jereis. The best way to see this is to see how smoothly the Yonkers GOP is running, with John Jacono as chairman, and Steve Levy and Justin Tubilulo underneath. While there have been no election wins for the new Yonkers GOP lately, at least we aren’t hearing on a daily basis calls for the chairman to resign.

That’s why Zehy needs to go back to buffing cars.

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