Let's Make A Deal!

Let's make a deal? You figure out what the labyrinth is and how to get out of it, and I'll get you laid - Alaska Young in John Green's 'Looking for Alaska'

Rockland County's political pastime of "Let's Make A Deal" continues with Republicans Frank Sparaco and Chairman Vinny Reda desperately seeking to retain some measure of control and influence over the next County Executive by providing a minority party line to one of the candidates.  

According to the Rockland County Times:

Sources from within County Executive candidate David Fried’s camp have assured the Rockland County Times that the Democratic nominee expects to receive the official endorsement of the Independence Party on Monday, and not Suffern Mayor Dagan LaCorte. Fried said the official endorsement is being handed down from Albany leadership, thus giving him the ‘I’ line in the November election, usually worth a good 3 percent of the vote or so. Previously this week Ed Day said he was not interested in receiving the line and criticized Legislator Ilan Schoenberger for dropping off the ballot via the legal maneuver of running for judge.

This shabby history originated with an alleged deal made by Sparaco with Ilan Schoenberger to give Schoenberger the Independence line. The Independence line is not an 'independent' line at all but is a 'legal racket' according to the Journal News opinion writer, Phil Reisman, that exists for the only political purpose of exchanging political patronage jobs for its endorsement.  In exchange for its endorsement in Clarkstown, the Independence Line was given to Highways Superintendent, Wayne Ballard, who provided a $75,000 part-time "political" job to Frank Sparaco.  Every member of the Town Board who voted to create this "political" job was given the Independence Line in the coming November election.  Look for their names on that line if you really would like to vote for a continuation of these behaviors. 

Unfortunately for Sparaco and Reda their choice pick, Schoenberger, unexpectedly lost to Fried which placed Sparaco and Reda in a palpable political pickle.  You see Fried had privately denounced Schoenberger's deals with Sparaco as distasteful.  Therefore, according to a source with inside knowledge of the lastest "Let's Make A Deal", Sparaco, Reda and John Perrotta met with Dagan Lacorte in the hope that he could be raised from the 'politically passed' and remain in the race. Perrotta, is the alleged frontman for Sparaco in the local version of the 'legal racket' 'non-independent' Independence Party. Conversing with Legislator Sparaco on Sparaco's facebook page they joked about their political opponents saying that they love playing with "little punks".  On the same Facebook page Perrotta referred to a woman who was questioning Legislator Sparaco's pre-knowledge of the results obtained in unopened absentee ballots as follows: 

"I can't believe how many 'sheep' we have here. They should call it Rockland Farm not Rockland County".

Lacorte apparently believed that his personal political virginity remained intact and he could therefore continue playing "let's make a deal" despite having mistakenly sent a message, intended for his own campaign manager, to Fried saying "record Fried on (your) phone about gay marriage."  And so with Schoenberger having played "let's make a deal" to get himself off the minority party ballot lines on the "let's make a deal" excuse of racing after a future judgeship position, Lacorte thought that he might have a couple of dry bones remaining in his political graveyard to offer as the necessary inducement to political 'hound-dogs' Reda and Sparaco.  

Like all bad Hollywood stories, however, Lacorte's belief in 'Sparaco as Savior' was misplaced. Lacorte learned that he too had been sold for the proverbial 'thirty pieces of silver' after another round of "Let's Made A Deal" had taken place. Fried had seen a heavenly light and had embraced Sparaco, warts and all, by accepting the "non-independent" Independence Line coming miraculously not from Sparaco or Reda but from that strange place where the political gods reside - Albany-HeavenWood.

The tragedy for David Fried is that he didn't have to play Sparaco's "Let's Make A Deal" game. Earlier in the week Ed Day released an announcement that whether or not Schoenberger had "made a deal" to get himself off the Independence Line, the corrupting politics of "let's make a deal" being practiced by Sparaco and Reda in Rockland County would not be something he would participate in.  Day called upon Fried to join him in eschewing another round of the disgraceful "let's make a deal" Rockland County politics and strike out with him on a new path of "Let's NOT Make A Deal" politics. 

Regrettably, Day's challenge to Fried was met by the latter genuflecting to the 'Masters of the Deal'.

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull, a retired senior citizen who writes opinion pieces on local political issues. He is a Director of Clarkstown Residents Opposing Patronage with Tom Nimick and Ralph Sabatini.  Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know and on Twitter.