Tom Garry makes waves in Garden City politics

                                                                                   

Tom Garry (from Findlaw.com)

Tom Garry had a very good day last week.

You know Tom Garry. He is a member of the ubiquitous Harris Beach law firm. He is a vice chairman and chief political strategist of the Nassau Democratic party.  He advised the Biden and Hillary Clinton campaigns on Long Island. He regularly appears on media lists of the region's top political power brokers.

Last week, he represented the winning slates in two village elections -- a somewhat surprising result in diverse Hempstead Village but a stunning outcome in tony Garden City.

Traditionally, major political parties stay out of village politics, at least publicly.

Village candidates usually mask their political affiliation by running on invented party lines.

But Nassau's Democratic party openly supported trustee Waylyn Hobbs' successful challenge against incumbent Hempstead Village Mayor Don Ryan, in a four-way race. Hobbs' two running mates also won. Garry represented them.

It was Garry's non-publicized role the Garden City village election that sent tremors through the county's Republican party.

Though low-level village politics are mixed,  county Republicans have always depended on Garden City overall as a Republican stronghold.  Its Republican leader is Don Clavin, Hempstead Town Supervisor.

Running in Tuesday's village election was the traditional  "Community Agreement Party" slate, in which property owner associations from different parts of Garden City select trustee candidates while an incumbent board member runs for mayor. Usually the slate is unchallenged.

In 2019, according to the Garden City News, less than 300 voters turned out for the unopposed mayor and trustee election.

This year, there was a new group of challengers that called themselves the For A Better Garden City Party.

The maverick party was represented by Garry.

On Tuesday, more than 3,500 votes were cast, including a torrent of absentee ballots.

The Garden City News report that about half of the 3,500 were absentee. Republicans estimate 2,000 or more.

Each of the five candidates represented by Garry won by more than 1,000 votes each.

Remember last November, a deluge of absentee ballots enabled Democratic Nassau state senate incumbents to keep their  seats after their Republican challengers appeared to win on Election Day.

So a slate represented by the county's top Democratic strategist crushed the competition in Garden City with a wave of absentee ballots. No wonder Republicans are worried.

The maverick slate was helped by State Supreme Court Justice James McCormack, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Supreme Court until he was cross-endorsed by both parties in 2015.

The day before the election, the village and its clerk Karen Altman had petitioned McCormack for more time to review, count and certify the vote because of the expected crush of absentees.

"Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related state of emergency, the upcoming village election already has a unprecedented number of absentee ballots being requested and returned," said her legal papers, filed by Stephen Martir of the Bee Ready Fishbein Hatter & Donovan law firm. 

"Specifically as of 7 a.m. March 15, 2021, the village has sent ballots to 317 permanently disabled individuals and 1,850 individuals who have requested absentee ballots. Of those currently 667 ballots have been returned. "

The papers noted that the numbers were expected to climb because the village could accept absentees up to the close of the polls on Election Day.

Altman said it would take time to review the ballots.  "For illustration purposes, if it takes only two minutes for each team of inspectors to review an absentee ballot, (which is believed to be a conservative estimate) given the number of absentee ballots returned, it would take more than 11 hours to complete the canvass with two teams of inspectors..."

And that doesn't count any extra time required if the  inspectors disagree about the validity of the absentee ballot -- to check if the voter is indeed registered or if the signature on the ballot matches the voter registration signature, etc.

McCormack rejected the petition outright,  writing across the bottom that the village clerk did not have "standing"

But the village clerk is the "chief election officer" for the village election. If she doesn’t have standing in a village election case, who does?

                                                                     

McCormack rejects clerk petition, writing "The order to show cause is rejected in its entirety. The petitioner lacks standing."