Kamillah Hanks Hires Another Debi Rose Loyalist On Her Council Office Staff
PLUS: Confirmation Republican Leadership is Actively Shopping a Sam Pirozzolo Assembly Primary in 2024
By M. Thomas Nast
Today, we have some tidbits from the Democrats and Republicans on Staten Island.
Debi Rose Loyalists Fill Kamillah Hanks’ Office
Michael Arvanites is no longer at the Staten Island branch of the NYC Board of Elections on Edgewater Street, where all of Staten Island’s politically connected dump off their functionally illiterate relatives for patronage jobs.
No, he didn’t get sacked. Getting sacked from the BOE for performance is impossible unless the activity is a County Committee vote.
Staten Island Democrats upgraded Arvanites’ position in life, as he was recently recalled from the political purgatory that is the BOE. He’s now the Communications Director for everyone’s favorite Deadbeat Councilwoman, Kamillah Hanks of the North Shore.
Frankly, I was in utter shock when I heard where Michael landed. The last place I thought he would find a City Council job is where the Councilwoman once called him “a fucking alcoholic” and said that’s why he “got fired” from the Safety Organization gig.
I am told that Kamillah Hanks was seething in 2017 when Michael Arvanites walked Debi Rose around the Greek Festival, telling everyone to vote for the real “Queen of the North Shore.”
And that raises a bigger political question. Kamillah Hanks’ Council office is one of the oddest I’ve ever seen in NYC politics. Usually, the Councilmember brings their loyal and trusted people with them. But in Kamillah’s, none of “her people” are anywhere to be found unless you count Kevin Barry Love, who pops in and out of consciousness between bong hits.
Look at who’s running Hanks’ office now. Her Chief of Staff, Marci Bishop - with Debi in 2017. Her Legislative Director, Paul Casali - with Debi in 2017. And now, her Communications Director, Michael Arvanites - with Debi in 2017.
Not only were Hanks’ current people “with Debi,” they were all “with Debi” on Primary Election night in 2017. They were all inside Debi’s Stapleton HQ, watching in person when the Kamillah Hanks concession phone call was live-streamed to Facebook.
I remember watching that video go viral and make the rounds the next day. Kamillah started rambling about the community and Staten Island and working together. Debi cut her right off: “I hope you learned something.” With that, the call was as dead as Hanks’ 70-30 loss.
Cold. But it was deserved.
Hanks needs to remember if there was another election between her and Debi tomorrow, Kamillah would lose by 50 points. Especially if she hires Scott Levenson for another cookie-cutter campaign with no Election Day pull operation.
You have to hand it to Debi. She had loyal people and could always get them to the polls.
But where are Kamillah’s loyal people? Is anyone from 2017 around anymore? I can’t locate one long-time Hanks loyalist on her Council staff.
The only person from 2017 still in her orbit is Pricilla Marco, but Kamillah never hired her for anything.
How does Marco, a lawyer, feel about not being offered one of the Chief of Staff, Legislative Director, or Communications Director positions now, in 2021, or at any time in between?
For all her years of loyalty, Hanks has given Marco nothing. Brooklyn Election lawyer Howard Graubar received $10,000 from Hanks in 2021 for stapling and taping a few petition sheets together. I think Priscilla could have managed that.
I’d like to know if Kamillah has even said “thank you” to Priscilla in any way for her years of dedicated loyalty. Even Hanks’ kids have skipped town when it suited them. You couldn’t pay for someone to be as devoted as Marco has been for the better part of a decade.
The big question is: Which Debi Rose loyalist will KH hire next?
David Hernandez, Tom McGinley, John McBeth, John Sollazzo, Tom Shcherbenko?
We can’t be sure, so we’re asking you.
I’ll be blunt. Manny Braxton and Al Peters have a better shot at rising from the dead and getting a job in Kamillah Hanks’ office than Priscilla Marco has of ever getting a “thank you.”
That raises the question, where are Hanks’ supporters from 2017? How come none of them stuck around? Well, Scott Levenson is still around. That’s because Kevin Barry Love is a millionaire real estate developer, and Kamillah can raise money as a sitting Councilmember. There’s “green” there, and Scott gets paid upfront. He’s not foolish and’ll be around as long as the spigot flows.
But what about everyone else? Did Kevin promise them a State Senate seat while he was stoned? Or did they get stiffed when it was time to get paid? Or did they look around and realize that friendship is not a two-way street when it involves Kamillah and Kevin?
So, our friend Arvanites returns to the City Council for the first time in a long time. When he was last there, he got coffee for KJ Hunt, Georgie Caputo, The Captain, and Carmen Cognetta at Michael McMahon’s District Office before his stint as a footstool for Christine Quinn.
And that begs whether Arvanites is Mike McMahon’s plant in the North Shore Council office. It would make sense that McMahon would keep an eye on things, notably Kevin Barry Love. A little birdie told me McMahon’s eyes aren’t the only ones looking in that direction.
Maybe Arvanities is a half-measure so that a formal investigation isn’t opened up. I wonder what Kamillah Hanks had to give up to “get” Arvanites. I’ve always heard dealing with the McMahons is like dealing with the mafia in reverse. You do them a favor, and they think you owe them.
Republican Leadership Looks to Cannibalize Sam Pirozzolo; “Uninvited” Marko Kepi Eyes Primary
There have been rumors floating around for a while that Andy Lanza doesn’t do anyone any favors. He blocked campaign contributions from going to Joe Tirone, which may have been the difference because he lost by only a few hundred votes.
Another political musing is that Lanza has been looking to push a viable primary opponent against Sam Pirozzolo in the 63rd Assembly District. While Sam has been doing a solid job for his constituents, as “dean” of the State Senate Republicans, Andy has special interests to answer to.
Three or four names were in the ether as Albany's “leadership” picks, shepherded by Lanza and Tannousis. But we have confirmation that the one person no one wants is exploring a primary bid against the incumbent.
“I am Albanian,” says Marko Kepi to anyone who will listen. But he doesn’t say much about his last race for public office.
Mike McMahon’s DA’s office investigated Marko Kepi for election fraud in the 2021 Mid-Island Council Race. McMahon said he would “ensure the integrity and fairness of our election system.”
That’s rich coming from someone who literally “raised the dead” on his election petitions to become DA in 2015. But that’s only a crime if you’re not a Democrat. Diane Feinstein is still looking forward to voting for President in 2024 and 2028.
In November 2022, McMahon released an unprecedented 38-page grand jury report. Though no one was charged, the report was damning for Kepi, whose campaign also had a “Lazarus moment”: a ballot submitted on behalf of a dead person. There was also signature fraud involving dozens of other absentee ballots.
Kepi is looking at a race in 2024, but he may have bigger problems than answering questions about past election irregularities. Kepi is registered not in Pirozzolo’s but in Tannousis’ district. Unless Kepi establishes a new address immediately, he will have trouble finding his way onto the ballot in the 63rd Assembly District.
But if I were Kepi and were looking at the Assembly, Tannousis’ seat is the one for him. If the pattern with the last several Staten Island Republican Party Chairmen holds, the seat will soon be vacant. Tannousis is probably already counting the days until he takes the bench.
So, where does that leave Sam Pirozzolo? Not in a great spot. Lanza has been “told” in Albany to “flip” the 63rd Assembly seat, not from an outsider like Pirozzolo to a Republican insider who will toe the line and make no waves.
The word is Lanza is offering up the seat to the Democrats. What the quid pro quo is, I don’t know yet.
The uni-party masters in Albany liked how things ran on Staten Island when the four Assembly seats were split - two Republican and two Democrat. They view Sam’s 2022 win as a fluke and are already lining up a taxing primary that will leave the Republicans at a major disadvantage in the general.
The plan is for the Democrats to have someone waiting in the wings who knows Albany, can play “follow the leader,” and has media training.
And that brings us full circle. Ladies and gentlemen, I present your uni-party choice for the 2024 New York State Assemblyman for the 63rd Assembly District: Michael Arvanites.
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