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Community Corner

When Will the Corruption and Cronyism End?

Nassau Republican Machine Bars Republican Candidate Frank Scaturro from Republican Meeting in Garden City Garden City, NY — March 12, 2014, Republican congressional candidate Frank Scaturro was barred from attending the March meeting of the Garden City Republican Club by Donald X. Clavin, Jr., the Republican Executive Leader for Garden City and Town of Hempstead Receiver of Taxes.As published on the Nassau County Republican Club website, the Garden City club meets the second Wednesday of every month at the Senior Recreation Center. The center is a public facility, and as such, Clavin had no legal authority to exclude Scaturro or anyone else from entry.The upcoming congressional election was discussed at the meeting. When Scaturro attempted to enter, Clavin told him, “I’m the leader here.”  He stood between Scaturro and the entrance to the public facility.  Clavin also would not allow Scaturro or his supporters to circulate his petitions at the meeting.Scaturro reminded Clavin, “The executive leader who preceded you had an open club, and I was permitted to come in.”Garden City residents met Scaturro at a packed forum of five candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Congress in March 2010. Republicans embraced Scaturro even after machine boss Joe Mondello picked another candidate at the last minute. Scaturro won Garden City by an overwhelming margin during both the 2010 and 2012 Republican primary elections. In response, GOP bosses excoriated Garden City committee leaders for not doing more to prevent Scaturro’s margins. When one member tried to explain that meetings were open, a top-ranking party boss replied: Then don’t let him in. In 2013, Mondello replaced the Garden City executive leader with Clavin.Scaturro’s exclusion comes on the heels of Mondello designating Bruce Blakeman as the party’s nominee for the 4th District seat. One attendee last night confirmed that Clavin encouraged attendees to sign petitions for Blakeman and distribute Blakeman literature. Clavin also discussed the upcoming Democratic primary between Kathleen Rice and Kevan Abrahams, but whitewashed the forthcoming primary between Scaturro and Blakeman by omitting discussion about it altogether.Blakeman, a late entry into the race, presided over the Nassau County legislature until his defeat during the county’s financial crisis of the 1990’s. Given Blakeman’s dismal record of fiscal mismanagement, party bosses understandably want to undermine Scaturro’s popularity among Garden City Republicans in the forthcoming primary.

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