David vs. Goliath In Sanitary District 2

Goliath Wins... This Time!

The unofficial, unverified tally in the race for Sanitary District 2 Commissioner was 1480 for incumbent, Gerard Brown, and 956 for upstart challenger, Laura Mallay.

While a 60% to 40% margin of victory appears on its face to be rather impressive, the numbers don't tell the whole story.

First, look at those numbers: 2436 voters coming out for a Sanitary District election. That has to be unprecedented. And while Brown took Baldwin - his hometown where he enjoys considerable name recognition - Mallay swept up in South Hempstead and Roosevelt.

Then, look at the candidates: Gerard Brown, a sitting Commissioner, with more than tacit support of the GOP machine and its spokes in the wheel (read as, the Board of Commissioners of Sanitary 2), against out-of-the box, seat-of-the pants insurgent, Laura Mallay, running a shoestring campaign - the duration of which was all of three weeks - on the fly, with little organizational back-up.

You know that the machine was pulling out all the stops - summoning the Neanderthals and the mindless ("We command you and you shall obey") to vote for whoever they tell them too, while most of the irate and incensed (who would have put Mallay over the top, had this election been held in November), as angry as they are, stayed away from the polls. [We venture to say that, this rant and local press notwithstanding, most folks still don't know that there are Sanitary Districts - 2, 6, 14 or otherwise - let alone that one of these Districts dained to hold an election on July 28th!]

Laura Mallay, coming out of nowhere, garnered 956 votes - some 40%. Not too shabby, and not a good sign at all for Town of Hempstead Supervisor, Kate Murray, who, from the rumblings we are hearing from those masses yearning to be free, will need a lot more than the drone of that sputtering machine to hold on come November 8th.

Perhaps Newsday put best in a Short Take entitled For the people: "Some people like to complain about problems. Fewer bother to try to fix them. Laura Mallay has done more than most in heading the South Hempstead Civic Association. But her effort to win a seat on the area's sanitary district went above and beyond. She lost but forced Republicans to fight to retain this patronage-rich fiefdom. At least Mallay gave voters an option."

The Cinderella candidacy of Laura Mallay did not have a glass slipper ending. Not this time. Goliath, despite the slings and arrows hitting the mark, stumbles on to live another day. Still, the final act has yet to play out.

In Sanitary District 2, now comes the Petition drive to dissolve this feifdom of waste. And at Town Hall, yet another Goliath awaits a different David's arrival - with his legion of disgruntled voters at the ready to pull those levers on November 8th and to change the course of history.

In three short weeks nearly 1000 voters - no Lilliputians they - were awakened by the call to arms of a beleagured people long-suffering under the yoke of a malevolent behemoth. They came close, with their sticks and stones, to taking down the slobbering giant. Much closer than that giant would admit. Too close for the comfort of a once invincible dynasty now driven to its knees, and soon to be forever banished from the kingdom.

Stay tuned...