By Dee Richard
On a sad note this week, retired state Supreme Court Judge Anna Dufficy died Jan. 23. She was the mother of Civil Court Judge Timothy Dufficy. She was extremely well-liked and will indeed be missed. She was very active in a number of different organizations, not the least of which were the Women's Bar Association, the Queens County Bar Association, several different aspects of Boy Scouting and many other worthwhile causes.It will seem strange to attend many of the Democratic events and not see her smiling face there. We were both pleased and happy to have made her acquaintance over the past years. We want to thank Mitch Schwadron and his Boy Scouts for their e-mail advising us of her demise. We would also like to thank Martha Taylor for filling us in with some additional details. Unfortunately, by the time we found out it was too late to attend her wake. We most certainly would have been there. Rest in peace, Anna Dufficy. Be assured we will always remember you in our prayers.Some of our community activist ladies have been feeling under the weather lately. Geraldine Spinella, Bayside Historical Society's executive director, tells us she ran into Jo-Ann Jones who is not feeling up to par. Janet Malone, president of Northeast Queens Republican Club, tells us that Myra Baird Herce, co-president of the Flushing Chamber of Commerce, is also dealing with a recent setback. The third lady is Virginia Dent, local community activist and longtime Flushing Rotary member, who claims she is not quite feeling up to snuff lately. Get well, ladies, and come back to us soon, as we both need and miss you.The Women's Republican Club of Queens had a dinner Thursday night at Villa Russo in Richmond Hill. The honorees were City Councilman Dennis Gallagher and 26th Assembly District Leader Gloria Piekarski. The guest speaker was Randy Daniels, New York's secretary of state. What a great speech he gave. I'm sorry we didn't remember to take our recorder. He made some great comments that would be useful for future reference.One of the things he discussed during his speech was the fact that he had been a war correspondent for WCBS for over 10 years covering more than eight different wars. The dinner turned out to be a fun mix of political parties with members from the Democratic Party, the Conservative Party and, of course, the hosts, the Republican Party.On the Democratic side of the aisle were Borough President Helen Marshal and her husband, Don, state Sen. Ada Smith and City Councilman Leroy Comrie. The Queens County Conservative Party Chair Tom Long was present with his wife, Anke.On the Republican side were Queens County Republican Chairman state Sen. Serphin Maltese; City Councilman Dennis Gallagher; Republican district leader and head of Beechhurst Property Owners Association Phil Ragusa and wife Nellie; Joe Papillo; former Republican Assembly candidate Peter Boudouvas; member of Northeast Queens Republican Club Marie Warhola; assistant district manager for state Sen. Frank Padavan Joan Vogt; Cambria Heights civic Morris Lee; campaign manager for Phil Ragusa for City Council and chair of Judicial Screening Committee Vince Tabone; and Stephen Chen of Crystal Windows and Doors, who seems to be invited to almost everything going on in Queens these days.We'd like to tell you about everyone who attended these events, but unfortunately the downside is that you always to manage to forget someone and then get nothing but grief for your oversight. It's really true that “no good deed goes unpunished.”A special thank you to club President Rosemarie Iacovone, Vice President Rosemarie Dario, Recording Secretary Lauren Cacioppo and Chairman of the Board Katherine James. These ladies and other members of their board were responsible for producing a great party.Middle Village Republican Thomas Ognibene was also supposed to attend. We were disappointed when he was a no show, for we would have liked to ask him some questions concerning his intentions to run for mayor.First of all, most candidates who are running, or are considering running early in the game, get their team together. Since he had worked on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's original campaign, naturally his committee interviewed past participants before they recruited new inexperienced volunteers. They interviewed Ognibene to see if they could count on him for his help in this campaign. There is nothing unusual or wrong in this process, they all do it.One of the main reasons people donate their time, talent, or expertise to a candidate's campaign is the unwritten hope that if the candidate is successful in getting elected there may be positions in the new administration that they will be among the first to be considered. People do work harder if there is a reward at the end for them. Very few people are so altruistic that they will go through all that work just for an ideal. Again, there is nothing wrong with that.As for Ognibene, accusing the Bloomberg team of trying to bribe him – bribe him for what? Since they questioned him about his availability to help out with Bloomberg's campaign several days before his own intentions to run, again, there was nothing wrong in that. If Ognibene really thinks he is a serious threat to the mayor and his campaign, he is taking the story of David and Goliath much too seriously. We do not know if Ognibene is a David, but we do know that Bloomberg is a Goliath.We are disappointed in you, Thomas Ognibene, as one of the cardinal rules in the political world is that private conversations are just that. They are not to be used for public press conferences and taken advantage of. If you are not a stand-up guy who respects confidences, who will ever trust you or even attempt to do business with you now or in the future?This is it for now. We'll keep you posted on future details. Keep the voice mails coming at 718-767-6484 the Faxes at 718-746-0066 or if you prefer e-mail at deerrichard@aol.comTill next week,Dee.
