The experiment of voting in a Republican North Hempstead supervisor has been a mammoth mistake. Every month, we have to read another series of soliloquies from Supervisor Jennifer DeSena or her taxpayer-funded political spokesman, droning on about how the evil Democrats are thwarting her sweeping reforms. In reality, the Democrats are, thankfully, preventing an inexperienced and ill-informed Republican from running roughshod over the Town.
Earth to DeSena, Democrat is only a bad word in your wacko Republican circles. The lunatic pals you associate with—statewide loser Lee Zeldin and Ultra MAGA madman George Santos—cheer every time you vilify the Dems. So does Medium MAGA Elaine Phillips and Extra MAGA Jack Martins. However, the vast majority of North Hempstead residents don’t show up to Town Board meetings in red hats and write letters to the paper about how the Dems need to let you do whatever you want. No checks and balances needed against you in GOP land, of course.
Carefully choreographed press conferences where DeSena feigns outrage in scripted remarks are wearing us out. Putting forward window-dressing resolutions like the ones we’ve seen about the Building Department and her exhausting Ethics Board takeover are not aimed at reforming anything. The woman in lieu of a supervisor is simply trying to generate headlines with fabricated controversies. By the way, her latest effort was to appoint her BFF to the Ethics Board and a pair of Republican hacks to high-ranking positions — how impartial of her.
DeSena’s goal should not be scoring political victories over her perceived opponents on the Town Board. If she cared about governing (SPOILER: she doesn’t), she would be working WITH her colleagues on common-sense initiatives that everyone can agree on. That’s what consensus builders do (e.g., Supervisor Bosworth).
North Hempstead residents are not stupid—save for the random “stone” throwing Trump lover who defends DeSena’s ineptitude. We can all see what’s going on here. We see the bait and switch. DeSena campaigned as a “nice” person who pretended to be reasonably independent. She never once attacked Supervisor Bosworth and her successful administration. The offensive talk came after the election, which she just barely won (thanks solely to a boost from the right-to-life Conservative Party). She then took a skin-of-her-teeth victory and labeled it a mandate based on “corruption” and “partisanship” in Town Hall. Give us a break.
We went from Judi to this? What an embarrassment. The good news is November is just 10 months away.
Eric Lawrence
Manhasset
