Now it's your turn

 

Monday, November 06, 2006

 

Over the past week or so, this newspaper and others around the state and across the country have been published editorial endorsements of candidates up for election tomorrow. It's a publishing tradition that comes around once a year, like the holiday season.

These endorsements mean a lot to the candidates who crave glowing editorial praise, of course. After all, most of them have contact with the people who work at their state and local newspapers.

It's human nature that they would want a printed expression of approval from people they know and who follow their exploits more closely than anyone else.

Many of them, convinced of their own superb performances as public servants, downright expect it.

These newspaper endorsements are probably not as significant to prospective voters, however.

They've pretty much made up their minds or are at least well down the road to preferring one candidate over another in any given race well before the endorsements start to appear.

If anything, more fervent partisans will insist the editorial endorsement was right on the money and beautifully written if it endorsed their candidate or they'll say that it was the most ridiculous, stupid thing they've ever read if it didn't.

The bottom line is that endorsements by newspapers and unions and other elected officials and all the other pre-election hubbub don't mean a thing compared to the endorsements that are delivered by all the people who will go to the polls tomorrow.

We urge all registered Staten Islanders, wherever they come down on the candidates and the issues, not to pass up that powerful privilege.

We believe the more people who make their voices heard at the polls each November, the truer and stronger our democracy becomes.

For what it's worth, following is recap of the Advance's endorsements in the 2006 election:

For governor: Eliot Spitzer (D). The current state attorney general has led this race wire to wire over Republican John Faso, and that's for good reason. He's smart, tough and determined to do a complete overhaul of business as usual in Albany.

A big mandate from the voters tomorrow will give him the political leverage he needs.

For the U.S. Senate: Hillary Clinton (D). She may still be a polarizing figure nationwide, but she's done a great job of building bridges with people of all political descriptions across the state. That's part of the reason she'll win in a landslide over Republican John Spencer tomorrow.

For state attorney general: Jeanine Pirro (R). We're bucking the tide across the state on this one, but we think she's more qualified, smarter and more aggressive and will do a better job as AG than Democrat Andrew Cuomo. All the tabloid headlines swirling around her stem from her husband's varied indiscretions, not anything she did. We think she deserves the chance.

For comptroller: Neither candidate. We've always been big supporters of incumbent Democratic Comptroller Alan Hevesi, and, in truth, he's done a terrific job. But his misuse of a taxpayer-funded driver for his wife and his glib rationalizations for that transgression are intolerable for an official charged with oversight of hundreds of billions in state money.

His principal opponent, Republican Christopher Callaghan, just isn't up to the job.

For state Senate (24th Senate District): Andrew Lanza (R). We've had our disagreements with Mr. Lanza, but he's clearly a dedicated and dynamic public official who puts Staten Island's best interests first and the best candidate to take over retiring Sen. John Marchi's longtime seat.

His Democratic and Conservative opponents, Matthew Titone and Charles Pistor, respectively deserve much credit for their intelligent and civil campaigns.

For state Senate (23rd Senate District): Diane Savino (D). It's been just two years since she was first elected to represent the two-borough district which encompasses Staten Island's North and East shores, but she's made herself into something of a political institution here already. Intelligent, tough and savvy as they come about the inner workings of the legislature, she's been a real find for this borough.

That she has no opponent in the race says a lot about the job she's done.

For Assembly (60th Assembly District): Janele Hyer-Spencer (D). In her second go-round for the seat in the far-flunk South Shore/Mid-Island/Bay Ridge seat she's brought the same intelligent ideas and determination she brought in her first campaign two years ago. This year, with incumbent Matthew Mirones retiring, she should have a good shot.

Her opponent is Republican Anthony Xanthakis, legal counsel to Mr. Mirones who seems to make a better campaigner than he would be a lawmaker.

For Assembly (61st Assembly District): John Lavelle (D). Mr. Lavelle is far more low-key than most lawmakers, but he works behind the scenes to get things done for his district without fanfare. We wish he were a little less complacent about the dysfunctional way in which the legislature continues to operate in spite of demands for reform, but he knows the ropes and works well within the environment that exists.

His opponent is Republican Rose Margarella, a teacher at Markham Intermediate School with good ideas about the schools.

For Assembly (62nd Assembly District): Vincent Ignizio. He's a high-energy go-getter whose gotten a lot done for a freshman minority-party Assemblyman. We look for even more in his second term. And he'll get it because he's running unopposed.

For Assembly (63rd Assembly District): Michael Cusick. Mr. Cusick is superb legislative and political technician, even though he's just ending his second term in the Assembly. He's moved a lot of good bills for Staten Island and for the state and his future looks bright.

His opponent, Victor Grossman, is a patent attorney who has done surprisingly well for a non-politician in his second campaign against the incumbent.

For state Supreme Court: William Mastro (D); Michael Ajello (C); Joseph Maltese (R): All three are incumbent Staten Island jurists of the highest caliber. Yet the likelihood, because of Staten Island's steep disadvantage in the two-borough 2nd Judicial District, only one, only Judge Mastro will get a Supreme Court seat.

The other two will likely be out of a job. Vote for all three only those three and thumb your nose the Brooklyn Democratic bosses.

For Congress (13th Congressional District): Vito Fossella (R). We've endorsed Mr. Fossella regularly throughout his career because he's done a good job serving the people of this borough. He still does in terms of local issues so he has our endorsement again.

But his consistent, below-the-radar votes on the most radical legislation before the Republican-controlled Congress on national issues have even moderate Republican supporters here concerned.

And his campaign's misrepresentations and distortions of his opponent's positions border on despicable.

That opponent this time is Democratic Steve Harrison, a Brooklyn lawyer and former Community Board 10 chairman who has, on balance, fought the good fight in his underfunded challenge.

While strong on national issues, Mr. Harrison's major weakness in this campaign has been his relative unfamiliarity with local issues and views on them on this side of the bridge. Mr. Fossella gets our backing one more time.

Now it's the turn of the people who make the only endorsements that count -- the voters -- to decide.

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