Bob
Donnelly was the Democratic Committee chair.
He was an overt follower of Ralph Caruso. It didn’t really matter much in 2005 because
Woodbury was in the habit of only electing Republicans.
Back then the Woodbury Town Board
was made up entirely of Republicans, but Caruso's control was tenuous.
Two board members Supervisor Sheila Conroy and Councilwoman Lorraine
McNeill, were completely independent.
Two more,
Colleen Campbell and Gerri Gianzaro, who had up ‘til then voted Ralph’s way,
were breaking away from him. This left
Ralph with only one puppet on the board: Michael Aronowitz.
So Ralph, Donnelly and John Burke agreed that John should
run for Supervisor as a Democrat.
John's running mates were Darlene Reveille and Amidee (Bo)
Haviland. They knew they could tell
Darlene what to do, but Bo was a loose cannon, all over the place in his
positions. So Ralph hedged his bets by having Henry (Hank) Sullivan run as an
independent.
Despite the fact that Bo shared the Democratic ticket with
John, John put Sullivan's sign on his lawn.
When Democrats complained John took down Sullivan’s sign leaving only
his own and Darlene's. If he put up a
sign for Bo it wasn't visible.
The day before the election Ralph and John put out a flyer
lying about Sheila Conroy's record (see link).
John won, but independent minded Republicans Gianzaro and
Mike Queenan beat Ralph’s candidates, leaving Ralph with only Burke and
Aronowitz on the board.
Next: 2006.
You've got balls to tell the truth about John Burke. I know what a vindictive son of a bitch he was, but most people just know the big fat smiling face and think he was the saint of Woodbury. Good luck and keep it up.
ReplyDeleteBurke was a liar and a fool. Caruso led him around by the nose.
ReplyDeleteHis son Tommy is following in the family business - crooked politician working for Caruso.
ReplyDeleteA shame Burke turned out to be a fraud. Used to call him the windbag of Woodbury the way he harrased Shiela
ReplyDeleteMeetings used to be orchestrated of who would come up and attack the Board-Pre Mr. Burke. Few showed up at untelevised work sessions. Mr. Burke did come but almost never spoke. All waited until the camera was on to put on a show.
ReplyDeleteAt the last televised meeting before the 2005 election, a large group of Caruso's crew were at the meeting, ready to take their turns before the camera.
But it broke. Guess what all these concerned citizens did? Once they knew the camera would not be filming, they ALL GOT UP AND WALKED OUT OF THE MEETING. Without their screen time, suddenly the big concerns disappeared. What a bunch of phonies.
To prove the point, did you notice that these same concerned citizens did not show up when Mr. Burke was supervisor? Nobody attacked Burke the way his crew attacked the previous Board meeting after meeting. All staged.