Independence Party Candidates ‘Encouraged’ to Collect Signatures for Castro

We have heard a few complaints from Democratic candidates who also have the Independence Party line throughout Westchester, about the arm twisting they are receiving from County Independence Chair Dr. Giulio Cavallo, strongly encouraging them to collect signatures for Tony Castro, Democratic candidate for district attorney.

Castro has the Ind line, thanks to Cavallo and Sam Zherka, but he also wants to run in a Dem primary against Janet DiFiore and needs to collect a few thousand signatures in order to get on the ballot.

Dr. C has made it known that all Dem candidates with the Ind line need to help Castro get on the ballot. This puts these Dem candidates in a bad situation because the leadership of the party, and the rank and file, have nominated DiFiore.

Also what right does Cavallo have in telling the Dem Party how to conduct their primaries?

Another fact that points to serious involvement by Dr. C and Sam Z in the political elections this year in Westchester.

Dr. Giulio Cavallo

Cavallo and Independence Party Denies Yonkers Amicone Republicans: Why? — Sam Zherka

Dr. Giulio Cavallo

 

In our previous post, we printed the press release from Westchester Independence Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo, who made his endorsements for Yonkers City Council. Cavallo gave the Independence nomination to Ted Winnicki in the Sixth District, John Rubbo in the Fourth District, Virginia Perez in the Second District, and Chuck Lesnick for council president.

Cavallo denied three Republicans the Independence Line — John Larkin in the sixth, Dennis Shepard in the fourth, and Jim Castro-Blanco for council president. Dr. C also denied Democrat Wilson Tererro, who is the Dem Party nominee in the second.

While all four candidates endorsed by Dr. C are worthy of his endorsement, Cavallo usually mixes up his endorsements with Dems and Reps to hedge his political bet. This time in Yonkers, he chose all Dems and two long-shot picks in Rubbo and Perez.

Why? Cavallo’s relationship with Sam Zherka, publisher, Manhattan DA target, etc.

Zherka’s top three most wanted politicians are, in no particular order:

I- County Executive Andy Spano

II- District Attorney Janet DiFiore

III- Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone

Zherka’s distaste for Amicone stems from the city’s removal some of Zherka’s Westchester Guardian boxes. So Cavallo, as a favor to his friend Sam Z, denies Amicone his picks for the Independence line.

Cavallo is also annoyed at Amicone for denying him a job placement for his #2, Deputy Dhyalma Vazquez, who was being chased out of her job with the County DSS.

It is sad but true that Dr. C and Sammy Z. are deeply involved in this upcoming Westchester election.

Westchester GOP Chairman Doug Colety on the Hot Seat!

doug colety

Our blog has been heating up lately, and increasing our numbers of viewers and posters, thanks to all of you — we appreciate it. Keep it coming!

Lately, a lot of focus has turned to Westchester County Republican Chairman Doug Colety. I will reprint them at the bottom of this post, but here’s my take:

Colety is very close to Westchester Independence Party Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo. The two frequently travel to poltical events in Albany together, and have also formed a political alliance of sorts over the years, which has benefitted Republican candidates, who were able to run with the Republican, Independence and Conservative (an overwhelming majority of Republicans get the Conservative line, or used to) party lines, giving them a chance against Democrats, who hold enrollment edges countywide by 100,00+.

For many years Republicans benefitted from this friendship, but things changed this year. This year, Cavallo has found another friend, Sam Zherka, publisher of the Westchester Guardian, and admitted target of the Manhattan District Attonrey criminal probe.

Zherka is backing Rethinking County Government, and wants to shake things up in Westchester politics. So Cavallo, to appease his new friend, agreed to back some of Zherka’s fave politicians, most notably Tony Castro, running for DA.

But the old arrangement with Colety and Cavallo takes a back seat to the new friends — Dr. C and Sammy Z. And Republican candidates get screwed in a number of races, (a lot in Yonkers) and don’t get the Independence line.

Colety puts all of his chips in one race — county executive. He asks for the line from Dr. C, and he gets it, because its a natural fit for Sammy Z, because it denies Andy Spano, a Zherka enemy, of the Ind. line.

But most of the other Republicans who want and need the Independence Party line are being left behind by Chairman Colety, and they’re pissed.

While I need time to determine if the allegations by the posters are true, I will say that I have heard about the printing for a long time, and have had discussions with Doug about our newspapers and a possible print job, mailings etc., all completely legit.

But in my opinion, I would agree with the anonymous post that there is a cloudy line being crossed with the chairman of the Repulican Party in Westchester getting print contracts for any candidate.

Even if there is no wrongdoing, which I think is the case, just the appearance of impropriety makes it best to stop this practice.

#1-ANONYMOUS-if fresh thinking is needed in yonkers, how is it
that the IND party could possibly endorse chuck lesnick
the answer of course is that zherka’s fine hand is in
all of this…remember that zherka is now in league with
cavalo..and zherka does not like amicone or anyone who
is remotely associated with him because of the taking
of the guardian boxes…you may recall there is still
a defamation lawsuite pending against amicone by
zherka…now when you couple that with the fact that
colety sold everything he had to get astorino the IND
line…colety was left with nothing at all….and cavalo
did what zherka wanted him to do…its another reason
why these minor party cross endorsements have to be
eliminated

#2-ANONYMOUS-colety gets paid for what he does..check the number of candidates that give him printing …..bet that all the candidates endorsed by the ind party give colety their printing whether or not they have republican support….does anyone think that the republican county leader should be doing printing for a candidate not a republican….check morabito’s printing for county clerk…and castro’s printing bills….bet colety is doing them all…because its not about rebuilding the republican party its about how much money he can make

#3-Captain America-That poster earlier had it right. When are republicans going to realize that Cavallo is Colety’s pimp? Covallo controls the Westchester Independence Party AND the Westchester Republican Party. Colety is only doing Cavallo’s bidding when he double crosses Amicone. Colety shouldn’t be trusted by real republicans.

The Independence Party Lost in Space in Yonkers Council Races

 

  Dr. Giulio Cavallo-strange bizzare behavior in yonkers council races 

Who will be the nominee’s of the Yonkers Independence Party for Council President, and City Council in the second, fourth and sixthDistricts? The answer remains a mystery, thanks to the shady operations of the Ind Party in Yonkers, led by Chair Dhyalma Vazquez.

First, let us clarify that as of now, nobody mentioned below has the line, and that’s the way Dhyalma and her #1, Dr. Giulio Cavallo, want it.  

For council president, all signs lead to Chuck Lesnick getting the endorsement over Jim Castro-Blanco, with Lesnick the safer choice, and Castro-Blanco, a former US Attorney, not willing to beg or offer anything to try to take it away from Chuck.

In the Sixth District, look for Democrat Ted Winnicki to get the line over Republican  John Larkin.

In the Second District, we are hearing that Virginia Perez will get the Independence line. This is another coup for Perez, who could have the Ind and Cons lines in her battle against fellow Democrat Wilson Tererro in this overwhelmingly Democratic, and Latino district.

In the Fourth District, things have gotten out of control. Dhyalma and the Ind party offered the nomination to Mario Degorgio and he accepted. We were informed of Degiorgio’s nomination and put it up on the blog.

After reading our blog, Dhyalma blew a gasket, saying that she didn’t want any information out until she issued the release, so she took the line away from Degiorgio. We actually think that Vaquez used our blog as an excuse to take the line away from Mario.

Vazquez and Cavallo are currently at odds with Nick Spano and Mayor Phil Amicone, for reasons unknown, but likely to do with the rejection of a job plea. So any candidates supported by either Nick or the Mayor are persona non grata with the Ind party.

Degiorgio, although a Democrat, is being perceived as having the support of Nick Spano, and Dennis Shepard having the support of Amicone. This is the real reason why Degiorgio got the line yanked from him and why Shepard isn’t getting the Ind line.

So who do the dynamic duo of Cavallo and Vazquez turn to? — John Rubbo. See the next Rising Times post for more.

Andy Spano Campaign Manager Says “We Did Not Seek the Independence Party Line”

We recently spoke with Paul Bader, campaign manager for Andy Spano’s re-election for county executive. Bader challenged our coverage of the Independence Party’s role in the county executive’s race.

Recently, the Independence Party endorsed Rob Astorino for county executive, and numerous sources have told us that the Spano campaign was actively seeking the nomination, including using the $100,000 county DSS job of Dhyalma Vazquez, Yonkers Independence Chair, as a bargaining chip.

Bader called our coverage “totally erroneous.” “We were not interested in the Independence Party this year. It wasn’t a question of a choice being made we were never interested, and no effort was made.”

Possible reasons why the Spano campaign wasn’t interested in the Independence Party include the relationship betwee West Ind Chair Dr. Guilio Cavallo and Sam Zherka, publisher of the Westchester Guardian and an admitted target of a Manhattan DA criminal probe.

Zherka is the driving force behind Rethinking County Government, which aims to ablolish county government and the office of County Executive. Zherka also pulled out of obscurity Dave Spano, son of Andy, who railed against county government and tried to run for his dad’s job, clearly irritating Andy and Co.  “We didn’t want the line because of the relationship with strip club owner Sam Zherka. It’s not an association that Andy wanted to have,” said Bader.

“The Independence party endorsed Astorino, and there appears to be a relationship between the Independence Party, Astorino, and Sam Zherka-he’s supporting him,” said Bader.  

This is a clear indication of how the Andy Spano campaign, and others, will run this fall’s campaign-They intent to highlight the link between Zherka and any candidate he endorses.

This strategy was used in the race for Yonkers mayor two years ago, with Democrat Dennis Robertson gettting the support of Zherka, but having it backfire and used against him by Mayor Phil Amicone.

While all of Spano’s reasons are rational, we remind our fellow bloggers about the stories we have all heard about Dr. Cavallo looking for a job for Dhyamla around Westchester. Why would Cavallo do it if Dhyamla’s county job was safe?

Regarding the Conservative Party nomination for county executive, to be held on Thursday, Bader said “there is an interest and a willingness from us and is a line that we would welcome.”

“Andy has had the Conservative line in the past, and one of their biggest issues is fiscal constraint and under Andy Spano Westchester has a AAA bond rating. I hope we do get the line,” said Bader.

Bader’s comments on Andy’s conservative record may be seen as a stretch to some, but point to a real possibility that Andy gets the Conservative Party line tomorrow night, which is a big problem for Astornio, who needs every line he can get in his challenge to Andy.

Cavallo Leaning on Dems to Support Tony Castro for DA at Dem Convention on Wednesday

 

The upcoming Westchester Democratic convention tomorrow has one race that everyone is talking about. Who gets the nomination for district attorney?

Incumbent DA and former Republican Janet DiFiore, as well as Tony Castro, are the two vying for the party nod. DiFiore has received the endorsement of the County Democrat Executive Committee and many of the local party endorsements throughout the county.

But there are pockets of Castro support that we have heard about. This support comes from Dems who worked on Castro’s two prior races for DA in 2001 and 2005.  Other Castro support comes from diehard Democrats who believe that Castro is the real Democrat in the race, and DiFiore a Republican in disguise.

It gets interesting here — we have heard from several Democrats in different Westchester locales that Westchester Independence Party Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo has been “lobbying” Democratic district leaders to support Castro.

How can Cavallo, chair of the Independence party, attempt to intervene in the Democratic Convention, to be held on Wednesday at the county center? By using his party’s line to Dems running for office this fall.

We know who these few Dems are but don’t want to name them because they have not accpeted Cavallo scurrilous invitations.

Dr. Cavallo is pushing hard for Castro, which is an indication of his ever-closer political friendship with Sam Zherka, Westchester Guardian publisher, and admitted target of the Manhattan DA.

We have it once again folks, and we should be ashamed. Cavallo is working his black magic on another important county election.

When will it end and when are the Feds coming?