Up Early In The NYC Council Race
Can a Written-In Name Be an Effective Protest Vote Against a Uni-Party Establishment?
By Richard Luthmann
I woke up to a message that I was already getting votes for the NYC Council in Early Voting.
Let me clarify: I am not running for any office, nor am I soliciting anyone’s votes. I’ve resolved not to be involved in any mischief, and elections are criminality of the highest degree.
Remember what no less a scoundrel than Stalin said, “It doesn’t matter how many people vote, only who counts them.”
But it’s also clear many are unhappy that there were no choices on the Staten Island and NYC ballots this year. If you venture into the ballot box a week from today, you may wonder why you wasted twenty minutes of your life. Silence rings louder than the clamor of campaigns. Only one race is contested.
When did we become a “totalitarian democracy”? We have lawfully elected representatives maintaining the “integrity” of a system whose citizens, while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process.
The Uni-Party system has gone too far when campaigns become this muted. Democrats and Republicans are both to blame.
North Shore Democrat Kamillah Hanks has a contested election - against a nobody named Ruslan Shamal. He couldn’t even carry a major line.
Then, there’s McMahon at DA. Ask him, and he’ll say he’s the heir apparent to Bill Murphy. No one but him believes that.
I have a simple question: Why should you bother voting for these people? Their election is a foregone conclusion.
True, situations like this stimulate apathy. But is that the answer? After all, didn’t Plato say, “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” And this year’s slate is a motley crew.
If you are going down to the polls anyway, if you care about politics, here is a better question: Can a written-in name be an effective protest vote against a Uni-Party establishment?
1995: A Real DA and a Real Election
William Leo Murphy was the embodiment of professional law enforcement. He graduated from Harvard Law School, and instead of heading for mountains of money like some of his classmates (notably Michael Eisner), Murphy became a public prosecutor with the New York County District Attorney’s office, cutting his teeth under legends Frank Hogan and Robert Morgenthau.
After moving to Staten Island and serving as an assistant, Governor Mario Cuomo tapped Murphy to serve as acting DA in March of 1983, filling the seat vacated by Thomas R. Sullivan’s election to the state Supreme Court. Twenty years and five elections later, his status was cemented. He had himself become legendary.
Unlike McMahon and the cache of pretenders you have the “choice” to vote for next week, Bill Murphy earned it. He worked his way up as a prosecutor and built a reputation based on hard work and grit. On being tough but being fair.
It wasn’t handed to Murphy because he kissed the right asses, delivered the proper envelopes, was a connected political hack, or because his wife was a Supreme Court Justice.
Murphy earned it—every inch.
And still, Murphy was a political animal.
The name Guy Molinari remains synonymous with Staten Island politics, even half a decade after his death. Bill Murphy dealt Molinari his only election defeat in 1995. Molinari was the Staten Island Borough President at the height of his popularity and political power. His eyes were now fixed upon the district attorney’s office.
Molinari had no business as Staten Island’s chief law enforcement law officer. He had no courtroom or law enforcement experience. Before his foray into politics, he was a will and estates lawyer. Murphy, on the other hand, was a decorated career prosecutor with an unassailable record. It was a race between a professional prosecutor and a professional politician.
And yet, Molinari believed the national trends and his local popularity would sweep him to victory. The “Gingrich Revolution” and the “Contract With America” had just overwhelmingly carried the year before.
Murphy’s campaign manager, Robert Olivari, remembers the most challenging part of the election was convincing everyone Bill would win.
“I made it a cause. The year before, in 1994, we lost the house, the senate, and Mario lost, all in one night,” he said.
Olivari says he was in Albany when Marty Connor told him Guy had announced for DA. He took a short walk outside and then came back into the building.
“I made two phone calls, one to Bill and one to Bob Gigante. I instantly knew how we would win this,” Olivari said.
Molinari was unqualified to be district attorney. And the Murphy campaign was brilliantly executed and laser-focused on this point of tensile weakness.
Olivari said the mailings help hit home.
“Our most effective piece was a fold. The outside said, ‘There is someplace Guy Molinari’s Never Been.’ When you opened it up, it was the inside of a courtroom,” Olivari remembers.
Polling in the second week of October, after the mailing, showed Murphy 19 points ahead. Olivari took the unprecedented step of releasing the entire poll.
“We had to show everyone not only that we could win but that we were winning. I can’t remember anyone who has released an entire poll before or since,” Olivari said.
On Election Night, voters reelected Murphy with a dominant 66 percent of the vote. At his campaign headquarters, Murphy received a concession phone call from Molinari conceding the race. “I’m the old warrior,” he said. “And you whupped me.”
No Fight Left: Only Corruption
That storied fight was nearly a generation ago. Is there any more “fight” left in electoral politics? Or has it all become transactional and “back-room.”
What happened this year with DA Michael Edward McMahon? Or in 2019? GOP Party Leader Michael Tannousis admits failure in finding a contender for McMahon.
It’s a shame. Not because he couldn’t find a Republican lawyer with a pulse. If Pee Wee Herman were still alive and a Republican lawyer on Staten Island, he would have been an automatic contender.
The real shame is that Tannousis is horse-trading his own judicial aspirations in exchange for laying down in elections. He did it last year with two Supreme Court Justices (one being Judy McMahon). The Democrats were cross-endorsed and received more votes on the Republican line.
Tannousis gave the Democrats two seats and only got back one. In Trump’s board room, he would almost immediately hear, “You’re Fired.”
But Tannousis, a savvy Assemblyman and lawyer, isn’t that stupid. What did he get in exchange? Really, what did HE get in exchange?
There is a pattern here. Helbock, Castorina, Lantry, and now Tannousis. Using the Republican Party Chairmanship to enrich themselves, to “get made” as men in black.
And you wonder why there are no contested elections anymore? It’s effortless for a party leader not to find a qualified candidate when they are getting paid to allow their opponents to run unopposed. And that payment is personal advancement at the expense of the party.
Say what you will about Guy Molinari, but he never gave the Democrats a pass. And Bill Murphy never laid down for a Republican. Will we ever see that kind of politics again on Staten Island or in New York City? Not from this bunch. Not from the current Uni-Party.
So we arrive at my original question: Can a written-in name be an effective protest vote against a Uni-Party establishment? My answer: Yes, if it’s the right name.
I gave you two names here: Guy Molinari and Bill Murphy. No matter your political bent, if you are sick and tired of unopposed elections, if you are sick and tired of the grift, if you are sick and tired of the back-room deals, if you are sick and tired of the swamp - choose one of those names and write it in.
Guy Molinari and Bill Murphy were winners. Once in a while, they got “whupped,” but they never threw the game. They sucked it up. They had grit. They gave it their all. They were warriors, and their fight ensured our healthy democracy.
Maybe it’s time to remind the current batch of miscreant politicians that the public remembers leaders with a backbone. Perhaps they will get the message that the people, not the Uni-party, put them there, and they are only one election away from being out.
https://www.silive.com/crime-safety/2021/08/trial-by-combat-lawyer-richard-luthmann-released-from-federal-custody.html