By Dan Murphy
With Election Day only 31 days away, the race for Yorktown supervisor has gotten heated, with both sides accusing the other of an unwillingness to debate and dirty politics. Democratic Supervisor Ilan Gilbert is being challenged by Republican Matt Slater, with republicans in northern Westchester hoping to retake control of a town that elected republicans for more than a generation.
First, there is the matter of debating over debates. In recent years, this has become a classic way for competing campaigns to disagree and attempt to point the finger at the other campaign for not being willing to discuss the issues.
The Yorktown Republican Party refuses to participate in a debate moderated by an impartial group, the League of Women Voters. The Chamber of Commerce will only participate if it can act as both sponsor and moderator of a debate among local candidates on the November ballot. Five Republican candidates for local office either sit on the chamber’s Board of Directors or Executive Board, or are members of the chamber.
The Yorktown Democratic Committee issued the following statement about a debate invitation from the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce: “The Yorktown Republican Committee has accepted the Chamber of Commerce’s debate invitation despite the conflict of interest that having current candidates also sitting on the Board of Directors presents, thereby making it impossible to present a fair debate that Yorktown residents can trust.
“To avoid this conflict, Yorktown Democratic Committee Co-Chair Elliot Krowe asked the League of Women Voters to moderate the debate, instead. The League of Women Voters is an organization dedicated to promoting informed civic participation, and it retains distinguished and impartial debate moderators across Westchester County and the nation,” continued the Yorktown Dems.
“A representative of the League of Women Voters contacted Yorktown Chamber President Sergio Esposito with an offer to moderate the debate. Mr. Esposito rejected this offer, as did the Yorktown Republican Committee.”
“An organization with four Republican candidates on its board and another as a member does not belong in the debate business,” said Yorktown Democratic Committee Co-Chairman Ron Stokes. “A judge who knows a party recuses himself. A juror who knows a party is not seated. But the chamber sees no conflict with four Republican candidates on its board and neither does the Yorktown Republican Party.”
Krowe added: “Our candidates are eager to debate in a fair forum. The League of Women Voters runs fair debates in virtually every community in the county. There is no reason they should not be doing one in Yorktown. The league’s commitment to integrity is reflected in its debate rules, which are designed to scrupulously ensure there is not even an appearance of impropriety. It is recommended that debate moderators are not identified with a political party, do not have any connection with the candidates in the debate, and are from another community.
“The Yorktown Democratic candidates stand with voters in calling for a credible debate, in a fair forum, on the issues. Therefore, the Democratic candidates, Yorktown Town Supervisor Ilan Gilbert, Town Clerk Diana Quast and Town Council candidates Patricia Sullivan-Rothberg and Sheralyn Goodman, must respectfully decline the invitation for the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce to both sponsor and moderate a debate for the upcoming 2019 Town Board election.”
The campaign of Yorktown town supervisor candidate Matt Slater issued a statement of its own, saying he has formally accepted an invitation to participate in the debate held by the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 23.
“In a letter to candidates and party leaders, Yorktown Chamber of Commerce President Sergio Esposito offered to incorporate appointed monitors by local political parties to ensure a fair and bipartisan forum for the public,” said the campaign.
“I look forward to participating in the Chamber of Commerce’s debate and to share my vision and plans with the residents of Yorktown,” said Slater. “I hope my opponent joins me on stage so residents can make an informed decision about the future direction of our community.”
Slater has received broad support for his first bid for elected office. In June, he won a contested write-in primary to earn the Green Party endorsement, and last week he was endorsed by the SAM Party of New York. In addition, Slater has received support from state, county and local organizations, including the New York League of Conservation Voters, the New York State Police PBA, Westchester-Putnam Central Labor Body, the Building & Construction Trades Council of Westchester-Putnam, and the Lake Mohegan Professional Fire Fighters Local 2956.
It now appears local politics have become so hyper-partisan that some republicans are not inclined to debate with the League of Women Voters, who they claim have a liberal-leaning bias, while democrats are now not inclined to debate before their local Chamber of Commerce, which they claim has a conservative tilt. If true, this is a sad state of affairs for our public dialogue and discourse.
Supporters of Slater in Yorktown have been active in sending in letters to our papers. One letter of interest, from Douglas Ofner of Yorktown Heights, reads: “Last week, I watched two videos posted on the town’s website where Supervisor Gilbert spoke out against anti-Semitic symbols at one of our local parks in Shrub Oak. As a Jewish member of our community, I was very upset to hear of such behavior in the town I am raising my kids. Ironically, I ran into Councilman Lachterman shortly after and asked for details on the incident.
“I was shocked to learn there was no official record of any recent episode of anti-Semitism at the park in question. In fact, a police report shows when officers responded to local reports of syringes and drug paraphernalia at the park, they did not observe any of the hate symbols our supervisor claims was there. Upon further investigation, the last documented report of such behavior at this park was more than a year ago, which resulted in a police investigation.
“I am just baffled and disgusted that we have town officials who are peddling fake news and clearly doing so to score political points with an election around the corner,” continued Ofner. “It is inexcusable. The videos of Supervisor Gilbert should be immediately removed from the town’s website and replaced by a video of an apology for waiting a year to address this abhorrent behavior. It’s bad enough I personally caught him putting political signs on private property without approval, now he stoops even lower? This is just unacceptable through and through.
“Yorktown is a respectful community that rejects all forms of hate. Supervisor Gilbert should stop engaging in the current national political playbook of the extreme left that continues to divide our nation and neighbors.” (End of Ofner letter.)
The election is Nov. 5.
