Comments on: Backroom Deals: Felder’s Risk, Five Towns Suffers & Yassky for Comptroller?

By: whateva

whateva — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:47:44 +0000

Harvey Weisenberg has been ignoring the Five Towns for years. That he did nothing during Sandy was business as usual for him. It had nothing to do with either David Sussman’s candidacy, or Asher Mansdorf’s activity.

By: daat toirah

daat toirah — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:24:05 +0000

Rabbi Heshie Billet Says:

Dr. Asher Mansdorf is maligned by this articles false allegations. Asher worked 24/7 for the entire Jewish and non Jewish community. It was because of Asher’s heroic efforts to enlist local politicians and arouse support that we were helped. Asher personally did so much including spending his own money to help the greater communiy.

Assemblyman Harvey Wiesenberg was on “vacation”. He did not surface by cell phone or email until the 8th or 9th day of the storm when we no longer needed him. He apparently was in Long Beach. I do not know what he did there. They certainly needed help. No one expected him to be in multiple places at once. Had he just notified other constituents that his office was available to help and who and how to contact, it would have sufficed. The reason he did so poorly in the Five Towns on Election Day is because he did not represent us at all when we needed him most.

I find it inconceivable that our entire community was punished by Albany politicians because David Sussman ran against Mr. Wiesenberg. I thought this is a democracy with at two party system.

Rabbi Heshie Billet
Rabbi, Young Israel of Woodmere

By: yehudayona

yehudayona — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:42:05 +0000

Speaking of not knowing where the 5 Towns are, apparently Dov Gordon doesn’t. They’re east of Far Rockaway, not north of it.

Parts of the 5 Towns got power restored before anybody got it back in FR. There may be a few blocks without power in the 5 Towns, but there are vast areas without power in the Rockaways. It’s probably a function of how difficult the job is rather than political clout — after all, LIPA seems to have ignored politicians from Cuomo on down.

By: schmendrik

schmendrik — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:00:12 +0000

Five-Towns Suffers Because of Political Missteps?

Besides being factually incorrect,this “scoop” doesn’t even make sense. Election day was almost two weeks after the hurricane, and the 5 Towns got the same recovery assistance as everyone else, and even got power restored before Far Rockaway. While Assemblyman Weisenberg’s attention may have been elsewhere (either because his hometown Long Beach required more attention than the 5 towns, or because he wouldn’t know where the 5 Towns are on a map), Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (a great friend of the 5 Towns) was actively working to bring services to the community.

By: akuperma

akuperma — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:10:34 +0000

Felder isn’t so dumb. If he waited until he knew which side won, his changing sides would be opportunistic. Since he changed when the outcome was in doubt, it appears to be for idealistic reasons. Even if he is in opposition, he’ll have real clout when the Republicans eventually do win. He appears to be quite young, and is probably looking for the future. Given the direction the parties are moving, it is obvious that in the long run, the frum community will have to switch to the Republicans (given that support for abortion and sexual “freedom” is a litmus test for being a Democrat). Since we are doomed to eventually become Republicans, better to be the “trail blazer”. In cruder terms, better to make the choice for love rather than money.