Will someone find Pete Loughran a job!!! Please

Even though he lives at home with his mother, Peter Loughran apparently can't survive on his legislator salary. The man dubbed "chronically underemployed" by Ulster Publishing's Hugh Reynolds is so desperate for a job that he is now targeting Commissioner of Jurors Richard Mathews position. The chatter in Kingston is after his recent failed attempt at Board of Elections, Loughran is telling everyone that he deserves a patronage job because he has paid his dues to the Democratic Party.

The information we have is the Juror job is coming up for appointment. Loughran and fellow Kingston Democrat Dave Donaldson are working on a plan to oust Mathews. Mathews job is a four year term appointed by Chairman of the Legislature, County Court Judge, and longest serving Ulster County Supreme Court Judge, i.e. Karen Peters. With Donaldson a Democrat and County Judge Michael Bruhn a Republican it would come down to Judge Peters to decide appointment. Loughran is telling anyone that will listen that Donaldson is putting "pressure" on Peters to back him. We sincerely hope Judge Peters will not succumb to pressure and will stay with Richard Mathews. We are unsure if the pick will shift to Executive from Chairman after January 1st. If the decision goes to new Executive then Mathews job is safe. Hein and Bernardo would likely support Mathews.

We will keep you apprised of any new developments.

The Wicked Witch of Ulster County Politics

A few emails written by Ulster County Democratic Chairman Julian Schreibman's wife Shannon to Democratic supporters has been circulating the internet the last few days. I've read them and all I can say is WOW, where does she park her broom? This woman is mad, crazy, nuts and a whole lot more. It is a matter of time before the Schreibman's turn everyone in Ulster County off.

Here's the email to a Marbletown volunteer.

Judy, unless a ton of signs went up last night, this is an exaggeration. You know I have sent multiple emails about lawn signs. I just delivered a bunch of signs to people yesterday. I'm delivering more signs tonight. I can look up Bernard Carney's number, but since you know him well enough to call him "Bernie" -- why don't you ask him to put up signs?

IN GENERAL, I am SICK AND TIRED of the DISRESPECTFUL tone you take with me. IT REALLY TURNS ME OFF. And your mass communications about the Marbletown Committee are OUT OF LINE and I AM SICK OF IT.

I ALSO DONT LIKE THE WAY YOU RANDOMLY CAPITALIZE WORDS --- IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE ARE EITHER CRAZY OR SHOUTING ALL THE TIME


Another:

Your inability to change when spoken to about it is a reflection of you.

I will not be part of any attempt to make you look as if you care about the Democratic party, your behavior over the past two years says otherwise.

Is the goal of Shannon to have everyone quite the Democratic Party? We also have some new information that we are working on regarding Shannon Schreibman's stacking her town committee by appointing Ben Shor to a position even though he attacked a woman at a Democratic meeting last year and was forced to resign. We'll update that soon.

Where is Julian Schreibman hiding? HELP OUT!!!

It's sad to see Mike Hein hanging by his ankles as Republican party leaders relentlessly attack him from all sides. Mike needs and deserves help from his party chairman, but where is Julian? Is Julian in over his head? Does he understand his job? Is he spending to much time working in New York City? John Parete would have been out front, standing side by side working for and protecting his candidate. We know Julian has supported Sue Zimet and Dave Donaldson all along but please get out and support the Democrats choice.

The good news for Mike and Elliott is that there will be a tidal wave riding through Ulster County and all Democrats are going to be sworn in January 1st, 2009. What should be a concern to Democrats is what support can their nominee for County Clerk expect next year? How does he recruit legislative and town candidates when he won't even support candidates for such important offices this year. Democrats are already complaining about Julian's erratic behavior. I guess the honeymoon is over.

Investigation of new Democratic Chairman?

Wow, lots of talk around town of investigations. Sources tell us that Albany may be investigating Ulster County's indictment of Harvey Sleight for his part in the UC jail debacle. Former Assistant District Attorney Julian Schreibman indicted Harvey Sleight even though the statue of limitations had run out. It appears that Albany is not happy about it and there may have been some ethics violations. While the heat may come down on the current DA, in our opinion the question of ethics falls squarely on the shoulders of the prosecutor who was in with the Grand Jury. We also hear that Legislator Frank Dart has complained that he has been told the Grand Jury wanted to indict 3 others for the jail mess but were not allowed by Mr. Schreibman. Julian was campaigning for Democratic Chairman around the same time the investigation wrapped up. Was Julian playing politics with the jail investigation?

Another well known rumor is that Julian's new law practice on Wall Street has been suffering severely from a lack of business. Well placed insiders in the new Democratic leadership tell us that because of the lack of business he is working in Manhattan three days a week. Is this the reason Julian wants to change the day of the Executive Committee meetings from the longstanding Wednesdays to Mondays?

ZIMET: Do as I say, Not as I Do

There is a big controversy brewing in the town of New Paltz over a town board seat up for election this year. Corrine Nyquist failed to file the paper work on time for a candidate that won the Democratic caucus in New Paltz and the candidate was thrown off the ballot. Some people have suggested that it was done purposely but that is neither here nor there. After the incident took place, Jonathan Sennett, a Kingston lawyer and New Paltz committee member, filed an article 78 and tried to get the candidate back on the ballot, with no success, the following is an excerpt from this weeks New Paltz Times:

"Basically, the statute is very clear cut," Sennett said. "It states that filing a nominating petition late is a fatal defect. Judge Work felt constrained by the statute -- regardless if the lateness was due to human or clerical error, and she denied our request."

Sennett's argument, in a nutshell, was that the two-day delay of the nominating certificate did not prejudice the integrity of the electoral process, in light of the fact that there is no other candidate on any other ballot line for this position.

"We argued that justice and voters were better served by remedying the error and placing Mr. Logan back on the ballot, as he was duly nominated at the Democratic Caucus," Sennett said. But the argument failed against the statute.

HERE IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING


Ms. Nyquest offers her resignation and Jonathan Sennett, the Vice-Chair, is asked by a few people to run for chair. Well when losing State Senate candidate, losing exec candidate and left wing nutcase Susan Zimet finds out Sennett is being considered, she immediately throws her name in and says she is going to run.

Are you shitting me?

Now put aside the fact that Mr. Sennett gave Zimet thousands of dollars in her failed bid for State Senate and was loyal to her until she stabbed him in the back because Mr.Sennett wanted to support Mike Hein for County Exec over her last minute candidate. But is this not the same woman that launched a jihad against John Parete, saying that as a county official and party leader there was a clear conflict of interest?????????

Zimet, the same woman that screamed from the rooftops that this ethics bill she proposed was something she believed in with all of her black heart and it had nothing to do with politics. The same Zimet that even said that she would've proposed the ethics law, otherwise known as the unethical law, even if it effected her own husband??

Now, the staff at the Fishbowl partly believe that part, there is no doubt in our mind that she would throw her husband, mother or even her own children under the bus if it furthered her own political agenda.

Zimet of course backed out like she always does when she faces any sort of opposition but not before having her husband write a letter to the New Paltz committee saying that Mr. Sennett was not entitled to receive any money for the work he did on behalf of the New Paltz committee and that as committee treasure, it would be a cold day in hell before I write a check to Jonathan Sennett. Keep in mind the money was just for filing fees and other expenses that Mr. Sennett had no control over. What a class act those Zimet's are.

Expect Zimet to face a strong primary next year in her bid for reelection. The people of Ulster County deserve better.

Supervisor's screwed by Bischoff!!!

Ulster County Legislator Gary Bischoff's incompetence screws up town budget's all over Ulster County. A resolution that was pushed by Gary Bischoff authorizes the county to charge back the towns and the City of Kingston for expenses incurred by the Board of Elections. This has resulted in $1.25 million of County costs being shifted to municipalities. The amount is double what Bischoff had told Supervisor's to expect and worse yet, he released the numbers to towns after some had already announced their tentative budgets.

Mr. Bischoff is well known for standing up and criticizing State and Federal representatives for pushing unfunded mandates. In a desperate measure Bischoff would rather let the towns get heat for their budgets than do what Dutchess County did and incur the costs of elections.

Looking at Legislator Bischoff's responsibility as Chairman of the Laws and Rules Committee it says he is only responsible for one county department, Board of Elections. How in the world can a legislator with such little responsibility screw this up so bad? Gary has a reputation of being underhanded and this clearly confirms our suspicion.

Welcome to U.C. Political Fishbowl

Welcome to Ulster County's newest political blog. We promise you'll get all the important news and information right here first. Our team will keep you up to date of what is going on in our backyard. We will discuss politics at all levels, State, County, and Towns.

We will call it like it is, no holding back. If you can't handle the truth then don't bother coming back.