Briefing Book: Endorsements ...

Written by J. D. Piro
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 23:00

When Briefing Book began in 2003, we told readers that our side of page 5 would offer an independent conservative viewpoint on town issues. We promised that Briefing Book would, as Ronald Reagan once urged, “raise a banner of bold colors with no pastel shades.” We’ve kept that promise, often to the annoyance of Lewisboro’s liberals. With that as our job (raising the banner, that is — annoying Lewisboro’s liberals is more of a hobby), Briefing Book makes the following endorsements in the 2009 Lewisboro election.

The race for Lewisboro town supervisor presents voters with two unappealing choices: an expensive failure or an empty spreadsheet.

The expensive failure is Democrat Edward Brancati, who has shown little empathy for taxpayers and homeowners facing recession, high unemployment, higher school taxes, and plunging home values. During his two years in office, Mr. Brancati rammed through a record increase in town taxes, lost more than $100,000 by failing to manage town investments, and proposed a second, record-breaking 29% increase in town taxes. If Mr. Brancati succeeds, he will have raised town taxes by 36%, ensuring that taxpayers will pay higher taxes and receive fewer services.

When challenged on his record, Mr. Brancati has ducked responsibility, resorting to partisan attacks against past Republican budgets — budgets that Mr. Brancati enthusiastically supported. Mr. Brancati’s campaign has grandiosely asserted that he “literally saved the town from bankruptcy,” a claim so absurd that even his running mate Maureen Maguire declined to defend it when questioned at The Ledger’s town board debate. “You need to ask Ed Brancati those questions,” replied Ms. Maguire. (We did. You can watch the exchange on LCTV Channel 20.)

The empty spreadsheet is Charles Duffy, who is a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in business administration. Mr. Duffy’s professional résumé includes experience as a municipal auditor, corporate controller, and chief financial officer. His qualifications make him a superb choice — to be the town’s finance director.

Unfortunately, Mr. Duffy is running to be Lewisboro’s chief executive officer, not its chief financial officer. At The Ledger debate, Mr. Duffy gave a performance that, to be charitable, was less than inspiring. Mr. Duffy never challenged the incumbent over taxes. He ducked the tough choices on furloughing town employees. His revenue-raising plans (building pool cabanas and selling lifetime pool passes) are fanciful. In his worst moment of the evening, he offered no rebuttal to Mr. Brancati’s partisan attacks on former Town Supervisor Edward Mahoney and current Town Board member Al Perruzza.

We can’t decide whether Mr. Duffy would represent the taxpayers or the town government. Is Mr. Duffy a fiscal conservative who will hold the line on Lewisboro’s taxes? Or is he just another balanced-budget liberal, who will avoid the tough decisions on spending and just raise taxes to make the numbers add up?

We don’t know. So the only reason to endorse Mr. Duffy would be that he’s not Mr. Brancati. Here at Briefing Book, that’s not our style. No matter how much we disagree with his policies, Mr. Brancati is a good and decent man. All the candidates are good and decent people.

Briefing Book is dedicated to advancing the principles championed by Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and William F. Buckley Jr. — lower taxes, less government, more freedom. We need a better reason to endorse a candidate than “he’s not the other guy.” Mr. Duffy didn’t give us one. Briefing Book declines to endorse either candidate.

The Town Board races offer more compelling choices.

Incumbent Town Board member Peter DeLucia is a fiscal conservative with a solid record of accomplishments and an ability to reach across the aisle. Mr. DeLucia fought for taxpayers against the town supervisor’s budget and tax increases. He led the charge to force both parties into making further spending cuts. Mr. DeLucia helped save the July 4th fireworks display by supporting a coalition of private donors for the event. Most impressively, Mr. DeLucia has gracefully deflected a barrage of personal attacks from the Keith Olbermann fringe in the Democratic campaign. Briefing Book endorses Mr. DeLucia for re-election.

For the second Town Board slot, Briefing Book endorses Republican Frank Kelly. A fiscal conservative and practicing attorney, Mr. Kelly brings management experience from his tour of duty in Iraq, where he was responsible for more than $2 billion in procurements. Mr. Kelly also supports reasonable, common sense changes in Lewisboro’s wetlands law to protect the wetlands while giving homeowners reasonable notice of wetland locations and a chance to defend themselves in court when accused of violations.