Rep. Lawler Calls for Rep. Santos to Resign
By Dan Murphy
The Westchester County Board of Legislators is considering passing a law to prevent, or make it more difficult, for a candidate like Congressman George Santos from holding elective office in this county. Rep. Santos has embarassed himself and the country with his lies, and in his defiance in refusing to resign, even as most republicans in Washington and in New York want him out.
“Your Committee has considered “A LOCAL LAW amending Chapters 107 and 110 of the Laws of Westchester County to Require Truthful Disclosure by Candidates for Elective Office,” reads the introduction and explanation of the proposed law.
“following recent high profile misrepresentations of personal experience and qualifications among those seeking higher office, additional measures are necessary in order to ensure that members of the public can be confident that their elected officials have the experience that they profess to have obtained. Thus, the proposed Local Law would require candidates for County Legislator and County Executive to complete a Candidate Disclosure Form that provides biographical information, including the candidate’s educational, military, and employment histories. The Candidate Disclosure Form will also require the candidate to certify that the information contained in the form is true and correct. This form shall be open for public inspection,” states the explanation of the proposed law.
“Your Committee believes that these legal changes will not place an onerous burden on candidates, and that these changes will allow the public to hold more confidence in the skills and personal expertise which these candidates have worked to obtain throughout their career or life experiences.”
The proposed law, titled, “Require Truthful Disclosure by Candidates for Elective Office,” would require candidates for the Westchester County BOL and County Executive to submit detailed personal disclosure forms, about their professional career, education, military service, and more.
Those forms will be kept on file with the Westchester County Board of Ethics, and will also be filed with the Board of Elections along with a candidates campaign financial disclosure forms.
The County Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed law in the near future.
Westchester’s lone republican member of Congress, Rep. Mike Lawler, has called for Santos to resign earlier this month. It is clear that George Santo has lost the confidence and support of his party, his constituents, and his colleagues. With the extent and severity of the allegations against him, his inability to take full responsibility for his conduct, and the numerous investigations underway, I believe he is unable to fulfill his duties and should resign.”
Media reports prove that the NY Republican Party knew that Santos, who had run for Congress in 2020 and lost, was a troubling candidate before he won election last November. Andrew Guiliani and Curtis Sliwa were two prominent republicans asked to challenge Santos in a GOP primary in early 2022 in an attempt to get Santos off the Nov. ballot. Both refused to run.
The other reason that the Westchester draft legislation is timely is that George Santos could be Westchester’s member of Congress. Early last year, the proposed district in NY-3 included parts of Long Island and Westchester.
Note: Our newspaper had endorsed Robert Zimmerman, who we found to be a moderate, credible candidate. The courts required that the district boundaries for NY-3 be redrawn, and the result was that it became a Queens and Long Island district.
Santos defeated Zimmerman in the general election. Our conversations with democrats close to the Zimmerman campaign claim that they had the disturbing information and false claims by Santos, but that no major media outlet decided to report on it.
