Woodbury's topsy-turvy politics

By John Sullivan
January 01, 2008

Times Herald-Record
WOODBURY — It's not always easy to know who your friends are if you're a politician in this town.

Where else would you find a Democrat shouting at her own party committee boss for allegedly working with Republicans? Republican Committee members campaigning for Democrats? And Republicans and Democrats attacking their own party heads for suspected involvement in a misinformation campaign to oust two Town Council members?

Crossing party lines is not uncommon at the municipal level, but current and former elected officials claim that the two-party machine in Woodbury has been replaced by a practice of backroom deals. The culprits, these critics say, belong to an old guard of power brokers in Republican and Democratic parties.

Sparking the outrage was the distribution of fliers meant to smear Republican council incumbents Michael Aronowitz and Lorraine McNeill. Supervisor John Burke, a Democrat, has taken responsibility for the fliers, which falsely blamed Aronowitz and McNeill for raising tax assessments in a populous town-house complex.

But some Republicans say they believe that members of their own party had a hand in the plot. Aronowitz said he believes that the chairman of the town Republican Committee worked directly or indirectly with Burke to oust him and McNeil.

He is joined by Republican Town Board members Geraldine Gianzero, Mike Queenan and former Republican Supervisor Sheila Conroy in condemning what they believe has been a practice of quarterbacking elections by a small group of power brokers in both parties.

Manny Mangual, the town Democratic chairman, denied any knowledge of such cooperation among members of his committee. Ralph Caruso, head of the Woodbury Republicans, could not be reached.

But Gianzero, who is former vice chairwoman of the Woodbury Republicans, said the latest elections wouldn't have been the first time that members of the Republican and Democratic committees worked together.

"We call them the Republicrats," said Gianzero. "They are a few Republicans and a few Democrats, who have joined forces to get only their own people, whether Republican or Democrat, elected."

Some in the town talk of mutiny by several Republicans, as well as a few Democrats, against their party leaderships over the issue of development.

On one side is a new generation of politicians led by Gianzero and Conroy, who claim that the older, entrenched group of town leaders want control of both town and village governments and will use any tactic to get their puppets into power.

On the other side are leaders, including Burke, Caruso and former town Democratic Committee Chairman Bob Donnelly, who view a new group of leaders as too accommodating to developers.

"From now on, it's going to be who represents the developers and who represents the people who live here," Donnelly said.

jsullivan@th-record.com