The Republican majority provided the four votes needed to approve him, and did not even bring up an eight year-old federal tax lien, since resolved, and a another federal tax lien from last year that is still pending.
However, being a tax cheat is not the only claim to fame for John Ciampoli. He was also involved in past GOP efforts at voter suppression and served as a an attorney to the magical triumvirate of Joe Bruno, Dean Skelos and Pedro Espada.
Nassau voters threw a dedicated, innovative public servant out of the County Executive's office last November and chose to return the corrupt Nassau Republican machine to power. The chickens have officially come home to roost.
In two days, Tom Suozzi will no longer be the Nassau County executive.
After a recount and falling short by some 200 votes, Suozzi conceded defeat last month to his little-known republican challenger, Ed Mangano. Despite polls that had him up by 15 points heading into election day, the anti-incumbent tide that among other things, swept Suozzi's Westchester counterpart, Andy Spano out of office by 20 points, was too much to overcome.
After Suozzi beat what was once called the most powerful Republican machine in the country in 2001, he saved Nassau from the brink of bankruptcy . He had the county achieve 11 bond rating upgrades and instituted nationally-recognized smart government reforms like No Wrong Door, a streamlining of county social services into a comprehensive approach that attacked social ills from all angles. In 2004, he waged a "Fix Albany" campaign to primary Democratic Assemblymen and take out Republican Senators in the general election. In knocking off one of each, he helped send a clear message to Albany that the status quo was unacceptable. In 2006, he unsuccessfully challenged Eliot Spitzer in the gubernatorial primary, and had the chutzpah in that campaign to say what many NY politicians felt but never had the cajones to: that Shelly Silver and Joe Bruno should resign their leadership posts for the good of the state. Although he lost that race, he found vindication of sorts when Spitzer co-opted many of his ideas and later appointed him to head the NY State Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness.
Suozzi was a rising star and many believed that he would run again for a statewide office in 2010. But instead the anti-incumbent tide swept this innovative reformer out of office and replaced him with a tax-cheating Republican hack who ran an essentially ideas-free campaign. I am completely certain that Nassau voters will eventually come to regret this huge mistake, but it doesn't change the fact that on the day after tomorrow, Ed Mangano will be the County Executive of Nassau. Suozzi might still have a future, but a dark cloud now hangs over Nassau in the form of Republican cronysim, mismanagement, and fiscal irresponsibility. Both Suozzi and Nassau County deserved much, much better than this.
Yesterday, it surfaced that the Republican candidate for Nassau Country Executive, Ed Mangano, had several federal state and local tax liens stemming from a business that he claimed "has nothing to do with me". Well, apparently, it does:
Jacobs released parts of a March 1998 partnership agreement for the printing firm listing Edward Mangano as a partner and secretary of the company who, with his brother, could cosign checks. The document specified that while the other partners would work full-time, Mangano, a county lawmaker from Bethpage, would serve part-time.
Jacobs also produced a 2008 form listing one tenant of the Bethpage building as the printing firm, with Edward Mangano as president.
Jacobs also released copies of Mangano's financial disclosure forms, which, through 2008, listed him as the company's "secretary."
Mangano is proving that not only is he another typical patronage and corrupt Long Island Republican, he's also a LIAR.
Ed Mangano, the Republican candidate for Nassau County Executive, who is also running on the "Tax Revolt" party line hates taxes so much, he doesn't think he has to pay them- $900,000 worth of them, in fact:
The Republican candidate for Nassau's county executive, who is also running on a Tax Revolt Party line, had more than $900,000 in federal and state tax liens against his family business in Bethpage in recent years.
Edward Mangano, a member of the County Legislature from Bethpage since 1995, said Wednesday he no longer has an interest in the company, New Media Printing, although federal tax liens filed as recently as this year were addressed to him.
(snip)
Either he's lying on his financial disclosure forms when he says that he owns something that he doesn't, or he's lying now," [Democratic Chairman Jay] Jacobs said. "And who lists themselves on a disclosure form owning something when they don't?"
Aside from the irony that his company is called "New Media Printing," this is yet another example of the culture of corruption that pervades the Nassau Republican Party and its standard-bearer, Ed Mangano. I'm confident Nassau voters are smart enough to remember the cronyism, corruption, and patronage under Republican rule that nearly drove Nassau to bankruptcy until Suozzi saved it starting in 2002.
And on that note, the Nassau Dems just came out with 2 web ads reminging everybody about the differences between Republican rhetoric on property taxes and, ya know, the truth:
Suozzi is right to remind everyone how corrupt Nassau Republicans continue to be, and I don't think Nassau voters' memories are short enough to forget that or the excellent job Suozzi has done in the past 8 years.
