Courting the Satmar

Each October, politicians of all stripes head to Kiryas Joel for the village’s powerful endorsements Monroe — After the high holidays and three weeks before the November elections, candidates running for town clerk, justice, councilman and highway superintendent convened at the office of the mayor of Kiryas Joel for an hour-long sit-down with the mayor and his board of trustees. On the way out, the Democrats bumped into the Republican candidates in the lobby, who were on the way up for their meeting with the mayor. This pilgrimage to the Hasidic enclave has become a tradition in its own rite. The village of Kiryas Joel is only 1.1 square miles long, and is one amongst three villages within the town of Monroe. But because Kiryas Joel residents show up at the polls and the majority vote following their mayor’s endorsement, the village has established itself as a political powerhouse. Politicians from the state to congress to county level have made the trip to the mayor’s office, but nowhere is the impact of several thousand votes as significant as at the town level. That’s why 10 of 11 hopefuls for town office - all but one of the three candidates for highway superintendent - showed up at the mayor’s office this year. At the town level, getting the nod from Mayor Abraham Wieder almost always equates to a victory at the polls. Even within the relatively unified front of Kiryas Joel, politics are complex. There are two opposing factions in the village: the United Citizens of Kiryas Joel (the majority faction that votes with the mayor) and the Kiryas Joel Alliance. Historically, the two parties are always fighting, said former Monroe GOP chairman Don Weeks. “But they must have gotten together this time because 100 percent of Kiryas Joel voted for the winners,” said Weeks. “This time they all went one way.” Like a union endorsement What happens at the mayor’s office? Some won’t talk about these sessions. Newly elected Monroe Town Justice Steven Milligram told The Photo News that his “ability to discuss certain issues is quite limited by the judicial ethics committee.” But most are happy to let light into the meeting at the mayor’s office. At the October meetings, newcomers talk about their backgrounds: work life, family life, how long they’ve been living in the community, political history. Then candidates field job-specific questions. The would-be town councilman might be asked why Kiryas Joel’s tax rates went up while the rest of Monroe’s went down (because the villages uses its own garbage collector), and to the highway superintendent candidates, whether he thinks it worth paying overtime to clear sidewalks after a snow storm (sidewalks are very important to densely populated Kiryas Joel, whose women don’t drive). The process is like an editorial board or a union interviewing and endorsing a candidate, said Kiryas Joel Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin. “The only difference is the mayor has people who are willing to listen to him, and go out and vote.” “No one says, you’ve got to be with us on this, or this is most important for us,” said Monroe Councilman-elect Daniel Burke. Endorsed by Wieder, Democrats Burke and Harley Doles III won their council seats handily despite being outpolled in most districts outside Kiryas Joel. “It isn’t anything specific at all. They’re more looking for some attention, some respect, some fairness,” said Burke. “They’re looking for candidates with support on this side of highway, too,” he said. In other words, the community is not interested in foisting an unpopular choice on the rest of the town. No particular party lines Who gets the nod? Mayor Wieder’s endorsements don’t adhere to party lines, and he sometimes endorses one candidate one year and not the next. For years, Kiryas Joel supported Weeks’ slate, but he didn’t get the nod in 2010, and lost the election. “Weeks must’ve done something wrong,” Burke speculated. Kiryas Joel supported James Gulick, the current highway superintendent, in last year’s election. But this year Gulick didn’t show up to the mayor’s office, didn’t get the nod, and lost. “I just didn’t go,” Gulick told The Photo News. He declined to elaborate. “I ran against (Republican state Senator) Bill Larkin last year and they did not support me,” said Doles, who won re-elected to a second four-year term on the Town Board. “Bill Larkin made a more compelling argument. This year, they went with me.” It’s nothing personal. It all comes down to what’s better for the residents of Kiryas Joel, said Gedalye Szegedin, the Kiryas Joel village administrator, who is present at the meetings and is part of the mayor’s decision-making junta. The decision is based on “who is most in line with some of the issues, and who is most willing to be accommodating, and to be working together in the longer term, instead of just being a friend before elections, and then the day after the election losing your phone number,” said Szegedin. “Usually specifics are not really discussed. There’s no quid-pro-quo, that you’ve got to do this or be opposed to this or be in favor of that. It’s more of an open line of communication that we’re asking for.” “One of the concerns,” said Burke, “is how voters are approached on this side of the highway. If a candidate’s going to be saying, 'Vote for me so we can protect Monroe from KJ’; if there’s some hostile, unfriendly campaigning like that, that’s going to go right up to the top of their list.” Word gets out The mayor makes his picks the day before the election. His choices are communicated to voters by robo-calls, leaflets that kids take home from school, and posters and leaflets handed out on the street, including sample ballots with penciled circles next to the endorsed candidate. Charles Mancuso, who made a second run for the highway post, said he copes with being on the losing end of the bloc vote. “I believe that every vote counts and then hope for the best,” he said. “I am hoping the people west of the Quickway don’t get discouraged.” The only way to overcome the bloc vote, said Mancuso, is for everybody to come out and vote. Dennis McWatters, a Republican who ran for the town board, pointed out that only 26 percent of the registered voters outside Kiryas Joel voted. “It’s almost like nobody was interested, or figured Kiryas Joel would bring out the majority of the votes,” he said. Councilman Burke is conscientious about remembering those who voted him in. He stood up for a park that Kiryas Joel wants to build that’s facing heavy opposition. When scheduling meetings for the zoning board he chairs, he printed out a calendar of the Jewish holidays. This year, seeing that one meeting conflicted with Holocaust Remembrance Day, he called Kiryas Joel to ask whether he should reschedule. Those are the little things. Then there are bigger things. Kiryas Joel’s power may extend so far as having the political map re-drawn to suit its preference, according to Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun. Calhoun represented - and voted and spoke out against - Kiryas Joel in the state assembly for a decade. Then in 2002, districts were redrawn so that Calhoun no longer represented Monroe. Calhoun heard from “a high up person in Albany” that Kiryas Joel had requested the change. “They called up to both (Assembly Speaker) Sheldon Silver and (Senate Majority Leader) Joe Bruno, and made it very clear they did not want to have me continue as their rep,” Calhoun said. Did Kiryas Joel indeed request the redistricting? Does the voting bloc’s power extend that far? “Let me say this,” said Szegedin. “We’re glad that she doesn’t continue to represent us.” By the numbers Kiryas Joel has approximately 7,000 registered voters. There are about 11,000 registered voters in the Town of Monroe outside the village. Yet many town residents don’t cast a vote, claiming theirs will be overridden by Kiryas Joel’s powerful bloc vote. The figures from the November election support that argument. Here’s a sampling. Highway superintendent • Town of Monroe without Kiryas Joel James Gulick: 1,474 Charles Mancuso: 1,116 Anthony Rizzo: 289 • Kiryas Joel James Gulick:22 Charles Mancuso: 29 Anthony Rizzo: 4,199 Town councilman • Town of Monroe without Kiryas Joel Neal Dwyer: 1,391 Dennis McWatters: 2,076 Dan Burke: 1,371 Harley Doles: 649 • Kiryas Joel Neal Dwyer: 17 Dennis McWatters: 25 Dan Burke: 4,290 Harley Doles: 4,244