By Dee Richard
Have you noticed all the new, non-incumbent-type of candidates cropping up all over the political landscape? I have not as yet met all the new contenders, but some of the ones I did meet were quite impressive. One who instantly comes to mind is Conservative-Republican Bob Turner, who is running for U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s 9th District seat, which covers part of Brooklyn and part of Queens.
Another man who I am thinking of is Democrat John Messer, who is in a three-way Democratic primary with both state Sen. Toby Stavisky and Isaac Sasson. Bob Schwartz is also running for that same 16th District seat. Schwartz is only running on the Conservative line — he is not involved in the Democratic or any other primary.
We live in interesting times. Turner is a retired businessman and the former president and CEO of several multinational corporations. Reviewing his past experiences, he believes they will be valuable in trying to control Congress’ runaway spending and accumulating spiraling debt. He sees no way in sight to pay back these enormous obligations with the present policies in use. The current Congress believes it has the solution, which is to increase taxes and cut services. That does not seem to be either an adequate or acceptable solution.
Messer is an attorney and small businessman with a young family. He also believes the government — in this instance, the state government — isn’t performing well. Eight out of 10 New Yorkers agree with him. To solve the problems, John said, “We need progress, not politics as usual.” We would like to see the New York electeds and officials join together, move forward and put an end to Albany’s dysfunction.
Both men are from different parties and different age groups, but both see there are serious problems and have come up with similar solutions if they are given a chance to try and correct them. While it is true neither man has ever held elected office, I believe that fact should not be held against them.
How could they possibly do worse than the governments we now have representing us? That may seem like a rather harsh statement and I do not mean to imply there aren’t any good men and women holding elected office, but unfortunately they are too few and far between. We need some new blood.
In the 26th state Assembly District, the Republican Party leadership was successful in challenging the petitions of Rob Speranza, thereby removing him from the ballot and thus avoiding a primary runoff. Their reasoning isn’t clear to me, as Rob is a decent, big teddy bear-type of a guy and did not represent a political threat in anyway to Vince Tabone. Why make it necessary for Speranza to go through the hurtfulness and the legal expenses. What did it prove?
It is with sadness that we report the death of Monsignor Nicholas J. Capua, who was installed Jan. 9, 1983, as pastor of St. Luke’s Church in Whitestone. He served in that capacity until he retired in 2004. Capua received the title of monsignor from former Pope John Paul II. The monsignor had been ill for the past year and he died in our Lady of Consolation Rehabilitation Center Aug. 2. He was buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Middle Village. He was loved by all who knew him. Rest in peace, monsignor. You will be missed and we will pray for you and hope you will pray for us up above.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties and politics or gossip.
I like receiving your voice mail at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Don’t forget to check out the Focus on Queens page.
Till next week, Dee.
