What happened during this last Piermont, New York
mayoral election cycle?
Well, undoubtedly with the malevolent assistance of
failed outgoing Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker and the now-inaptly-named “Piermont Democratic
Committee”, losing mayoral candidate Kevin Timoney created a fabricated political
party called “Piermont United”. Timoney did so, to try to snatch a victory from Nathan (Nate)
Mitchell. A Freudian would have a field day with Timoney’s crossed-swords logo-graphic re-printed above, by the way. It looks like it was developed by some disgruntled VHS clam-shell animator with a grudge in Burbank.
Timoney’s purported premise for “Piermont United” was simple – “Unite” the
embattled and disjointed populace of the small 2,500-person Village of Piermont under the common pacifistic
banner and utopian mantra of “Please, people, fight no more”. Sounds pretty idyllic,
doesn’t it? We are in the “United States of America”, after all.
Yet what Kevin Timoney purposefully failed to acknowledge,
is that the majority of people out there actually read things more carefully
than that. They actually analyze concepts more carefully than that, too. Simply throwing
out the word “United” as applied to the Piermont electorate is a facile
pedestrian platitude at best, and grossly misleading at worst. “Uniting”
under John F. Kennedy would be one thing. Then again, Kim Jong Un expects his
subjects to be “United” under him, too.
So the thoughtful questions that the majority of the Piermont electorate posed back to Kevin
Timoney and his hastily-concocted logo were – “United” with or under
whom, TIMBO?”… “Unite” for what cause?... “Unite”, how?... “Unite”, why?...
You see, when Kevin Timoney wanted Piermont voters
to “Unite”, Timoney was simply acting as Bruce Tucker’s dullard proxy. Timoney sought to help
Tucker prevent Tucker’s enemy Nate Mitchell from becoming the next Piermont
Mayor at all costs. Tucker hates Mitchell more than Tucker hates sincerity. And that’s the real irony. “Piermont United” was actually a losing movement born of the hatred of a few small-minded individuals. What Bruce Tucker and Kevin Timoney were really trying to “unite”
within the population of Piermont voters, was frothy fomented antipathy towards Nate Mitchell. It didn’t
work. Tucker and Timoney failed. Mitchell won.
It’s not about political party. Nate Mitchell, Kevin Timoney, and Bruce Tucker are all registered Democrats. Additionally, in Piermont, Democrat resident voters far
outnumber Republicans. That doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon. Yet even within the Democrat party, there is real division – both on the national
level, and even within the small Lower Hudson River Valley Village of Piermont.
In Piermont, there are political hacks like Barbara
Scheulen and Margaret Grace who have sought to run a feudal
allegiance fiefdom in the form of a “Piermont Democratic Committee” and its lame amateurish attendant “newsletter”. Their periodical pablum is published for the sole benefit of those whose respective
sources of identity have been simply to serve as meek supplicants to incompetent
Garmento Mayor Bruce Tucker. Slight, unmeritable lackeys me’et to be sent on errands. It has been disgusting to watch.
Then, there are real Democrats who believe in
representative government by the people - without patronage, nepotism, cronyism, shady
real estate deals, and corruption.
This division should not surprise anyone. After all,
in the gestalt sense, there are at least two sides to every issue. Our
American political system itself is based upon the opposing forces of two (or,
sometimes more) multiple parties. Our American legal system is adversarial. There
is plaintiff, and there is defendant. There is prosecution, and there is perp
and public defender. Moreover, capitalism prevails in America. Capitalism means
competition. With competition, there are winners, like Nate Mitchell. And there
are losers – losers like Kevin Timoney and Bruce Tucker. Some gotta win. Some
gotta lose.
The notion that Piermont is a unified body of
completely like-minded people, is preposterous when you think about it. Specifically, it is ironic and discordant, given the therein-reigning Democrat party’s oft-stated objective
of inclusiveness for people with different backgrounds and mind-sets. Moreover,
the artificial notion of Piermont “Unity” was just belied by the quantitative
exactitude of the Mitchell-Timoney vote-count itself. It is also belied by
common sense and an understanding of the history of the Village and of Rockland
County.
Piermont’s story is more a Tale of Two Cities. A once-industrial Hudson River village that became a tourist destination on the back
of a Woody Allen movie... The municipal workers who cash-out on chunky pensions
and benefit-packages, versus the wealthy taxpayers who just pay them without thinking
to balance their own proverbial checkbooks by reviewing the Village’s numbers... The
residents who could actually live with a building resembling a Motel Six at one
end of Piermont Avenue, and a building resembling a Super 8 at the other end of
Piermont Avenue, built over still-submerged gasoline tanks – versus the residents
who say “No Way”... Those that merely complain about the flooding, versus those
that try to do something about it.
Yet the best pop culture or literary reference descriptive
of Piermont’s recent mayoral election, would be “The Sneetches And Other
Stories” by Theodor Seuss Geisel p/k/a “Dr. Seuss”.
Geisel used the story of his “Sneetches” to teach
youngsters not to discriminate. His book illustrated the psychical and social harm done
when some Sneetches marked themselves as superior with tattoo-like stars on
their bellies while other Sneetches went without. Clearly, Geisel was right. Feigned
superiority based upon physical characteristics alone, is completely unacceptable. For that reason, the Seussian Sneetches should have been “United”, no question.
Yet what about discriminating against those Piermont
residents whose lax inattention, self-dealing, or conflicts-of-interest led
them to wantonly genuflect to Bruce Tucker and thereby support the harm almost inflicted upon
the Village by Tucker’s straw-man candidate Kevin Timoney – simply to enable
Tucker’s well-known vendetta against Nate Mitchell?
That’s not discrimination
based upon physical characteristics. Rather, that’s differentiation of constituents based upon
a glaring divide of intellect and moral character. In that respect, then, “United” be damned.
As distinguished from the Geisel case, such discrimination is, instead, justifiable and wholly-permissible Sneetching. Moreover, it is part and parcel of the American electoral process. Therefore, the Nate Mitchell Sneetches now wear stars on their bellies. The Kevin
Timoney Sneetches wear none. It will stay that way until the next election. Additionally, thanks to social media, election petitions, and FOIL requests, we even know who most of the Kevin
Timoney Sneetches in Piermont are.
To really understand the Mitchell v.
Timoney Piermont mayoral election result, what it all comes down to is the basis
for the divide between the two current sets of Piermont Sneetches:
By their vote, the Kevin
Timoney Sneetches were willing to endure over-development by greasy ill-minded
Jersey real estate developers fostered by an even-greasier current Garmento Mayor named
Bruce Tucker. The Nate Mitchell Sneetches said “No Way” to that over-development
and to Tucker’s fetid legacy when marking their ballots.
By their vote, the Kevin
Timoney Sneetches were willing to pay continued sycophantic warped fealty to
sleazy outgoing Mayor Bruce Tucker who had absolutely no business in
Piermont Village Hall to begin with. The Nate Mitchell Sneetches said “No Way” to
that warped fealty when marking their ballots.
By their vote, the Kevin
Timoney Sneetches were willing to corrupt the “Piermont Democratic Committee” in
support of a candidate other than the actual choice of the Democrat party. The
Nate Mitchell Sneetches said “No Way” to that corruption when marking their
ballots.
By their vote, the Kevin
Timoney Sneetches were willing to support a newbie MIMBO candidate who put on a
laughable unprepared and malaprop-ridden presentation at a mayoral “debate” while
often unable to even string two coherent sentences together. The Nate Mitchell
Sneetches said “No Way” to that incompetence and inattention when marking their
ballots.
The point is, there really ARE at least two different
types of people who inhabit Piermont – those that pay attention, and those that
don’t... Those that think carefully, and those that don’t. You will not have a truly “United” Piermont until the latter group gets smarter.
Could that really happen? Well, right now, a sizable
number of Piermont residents are still willing to endure continued
over-development, continued flooding, continued decay of the Piermont Pier and
other infrastructure, continued Village Hall financial malfeasance, continued
lack of foresight in planning, continued token economy and patronage schemes,
continued opacity and disingenuousness in Village government, continued local
restaurant health code violations, continued bad white wine served at those
same restaurants, continued amateurism in what some residents try to call
“art”, continued presence of known sex-abusers in the Piermont Fire Department,
and continued attempts at re-writing history to make Bruce Tucker appear to be
a competent Piermont Mayor rather than the undesirable Jersey sham detritus that Tucker really
is.
Thankfully, though, the majority of Piermont
residents did read things carefully, did pay attention, and did decide to right
the ship of Piermont Village government when marking their ballots. Nate Mitchell
beat Kevin Timoney. Yet remember that the November 4 margin was way closer
than it should have been. There are winners. There are losers. Unless those losers all move out of Piermont or otherwise self-extinguish en masse, you really cannot reasonably expect a “United” Piermont.
Moreover, remember that in the meantime, even those losers might get lucky sometimes, in a subsequent election. Therefore, continued vigilance
is necessary, in 2026 and beyond, to keep those losers, those Timoney
Sneetches, as far away from Piermont Village Hall as possible. They know who they are. And we do, too.
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
Founder, “Unhand Piermont!”
