Briefing Book: Scorecard — Thanksgiving edition

Written by J. D. Piro
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 00:00

Who were the political Pilgrims who planted their flags on the Plymouth Rock of Lewisboro politics? Who were the turkeys that got stuffed at the ballot box?

Pass the drumstick and put some football on that energy-sucking, environmentally hostile, 50-inch plasma TV — the Briefing Book Political Scorecard is here for Turkey Day!

First, the Democrats. In politics, it’s all about message. Try as we could here at Briefing Book, we could not find any message — at least, one that voters could care about — in the Democratic campaign. Hence, low grades all around.

Town Supervisor Edward Brancati. Mr. Brancati spent the campaign defending his administration’s record, and playing defense is never good when you’re the incumbent. Even worse, while Republicans attacked his 29% tax increase, Mr. Brancati talked about his predecessor’s budgets. Instead of droning on about the mind-numbing minutiae of “unauditable financial statements,” Mr. Brancati should have played offense against Republican Charles Duffy, something like: “Mr. Duffy, I’ve made the tough decisions. You’ve avoided them. You don’t want to raise taxes and you don’t want to cut services. So what’s your solution, Mr. Private Sector? You can build pool cabanas until Lewisboro looks like Breezy Point, but it won’t fix the mess you Republicans made.” Would that have worked? Hey, could he have done any worse? Grade: D.

Town Board candidate Maureen Maguire. Ms. Maguire made a good case for electing herself — electing her team was another matter. While her opponents displayed unity, Ms. Maguire opportunistically highlighted her differences with the top of her ticket. She declined the chance to defend Mr. Brancati’s budget, which only made it look as if she agreed with the Republicans. And she gave voters no reason to vote for Mr. Brancati. If she was not excited about re-electing Mr. Brancati, why should voters be thrilled with the prospect? Grade: C+.

Town Board candidate Bob Goett. You can’t make your campaign all about how unfair it is that you are not on the ballot. Voters rarely elect victims. This write-in candidate never gave voters a reason to write him in. So they didn’t. Grade: Fail.

The Democratic Committee leadership. The Democratic wise men/women need to wise up. Who decided it was a good idea to base the entire Democratic campaign on the issue of how long the town government took to audit its 2007 financial statements? Why would anyone think that mattered to voters facing falling home values and higher property taxes? Most voters don’t sit around the kitchen table with a cup of coffee saying: “Hey, Maude, check out paragraph four of the auditor’s letter! There’s no account code on the reconciliation amounts!” “That’s outrageous! I’m voting Democratic!” The Democrats complained that the Republicans’ 2007 financial statements didn’t properly itemize receipts, while the Republicans attacked the Democrats’ 29% tax increase. Guess who won? Grade: Epic Fail!

Now, the Republicans. On message, all the time.

Town Supervisor-elect Charles Duffy. Did anyone not know that Mr. Duffy was a certified public accountant? Or that his team promised “Financial Leadership” for Lewisboro? When Democratic partisans berated Mr. Duffy during the League of Women Voters debate for his accounting expertise, they only reinforced the GOP message — our guy has the credentials to handle the budget. The other guy doesn’t. Grade: A-.

Town Board member Peter DeLucia. Mr. DeLucia gained more than 700 votes over his 2007 supervisor race. He became just the third Town Board member in more than 15 years to be re-elected — and the only one who did it with a triple-digit margin on election night against a major-party opponent. Mr. DeLucia not only sharpened his brand as an opponent of tax increases, but his takedown of Jeff Morris at The Ledger debate was a YouTube moment. We just can’t figure out how to upload it. Grade: A+.

Town Board member-elect Frank Kelly. Mr. Kelly tossed out one of The Ledger debate’s best sound bites when he criticized the Democrats for trivializing the Brancati tax increases. “I keep hearing the tax increase is ‘only’ this or ‘only’ that,” Mr. Kelly said, asking: “When does ‘only’ become ‘onerous’?” Grade: A.

Republican Chairman Wayne Coluccini. After GOP losses in 2006 and 2007, Mr. Coluccini led the minority Republicans back into the majority. He reinvigorated the GOP with new faces, new blood, and new energy. His Republicans looked like a team and campaigned like one. The Democratic Committee should take a cue from Mr. Coluccini, who is the third GOP chairman in seven years — change is good! Grade: A+.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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