Dear Mr. Parete,
I write on behalf of the Marbletown Democratic Committee, which voted unanimously at its November monthly meeting to call for your immediate resignation. Our committee has stood with you throughout your tenure, andwe have stood with you against past criticism. Sadly, it appears that our faith and support has been misplaced.
During the 2007 elections, you demonstrated not only a lack of good leadership, but also a lack of loyalty to the Democratic Party. Your actions divided and damaged the Party,costing us not only the District Attorney's office, but also opportunities to make gains in the Legislature.There comes a time, when we as Party members, must set aside personal preferences and think of the collective good of the Party. When that time came this year, you chose to put personal and family connections ahead of the Party, supporting another party's candidate for District Attorney. You need to take responsibility for the split that caused in the Party, and step down as Chair, so that the Party can heal and move forward.
If you continue in office, that will only hurt the Party during the 2008 election season, and it will have negative repercussions for years to come.We urge you to act, at last, in the best interests of the Democratic Party, and resign immediately.
Sincerely,
Ben Shor, Chair
Marbletown Democratic Committee
36 comments:
Leave Parete alone..........
I still want to know if Richard Cahill won any Ward's?
Jeremy,
What is the story with Rich Cahill
problem with the Rensselear's County DA Office?
Who the Hell is Ben Shor? I have been around Democratic politics for 40 years and I never heard of this guy.
I urge Ben Shor to crawl back in the hole he slithered out of.
Congratulations to the Marbletown Democrats for eloquently stating the plain facts and calling for the needed change in party leadership.
It would be wonderful if the Chairman stepped down when provided with the formal request. This would excelerate the process of healing the Party.
The actions we witnessed during this last election cycle were disgraceful, both on the city and county level.
To openly endorse a candidate against the nominee of the party you are meant to serve is a contradiction and consequenses of your actions should be the price.
All of us have the right to vote for whom we wish, but when you are a member of a committee whose mission it is to elect the nominee, you must either openly support the nominee or sit on your hands or resign the committee. Those are youir choices. These are the bylaws and this is our mission in our respective party committees.
Parete has demonstated the lack of fortitude to act within the bylaws he perports to uphold as the party chair.
However, the time it would take to forcable remove him from the position would take us through the next election cycle. Thus, would continue the effective election of even more opposition candidates as was such the case in this DA race.
Lets see just how much our good friend John Parete believes in the mission of the Democratic Party by offering him the option to resign.
I still want to know if Rich Cahill
was FIRED from the DA'S Office in
Rensselear County?
Lets stay Local for a Min.
Did Rich Cahill have a drinking problem when he was with the DA'S
Office in Rensselaer..?
The truth hurts Cahill?
Huh??
I dont know why Rich Cahill wants to close down the tatoo place across from the High School.
Get rid of the guy that brought you a 21 seat majority?
Chairman Noonan is only 2 years away if you assholes keep up this infighting and purging. Stop now or pay for decades
DEMonopoly
The call for Parody's resignation is a good thing.
What makes you think he will heed this request when he gave the party the middle finger by supporting the conservative?
Power corrupts absolutely.
DEMonopoly said: "Get rid of the guy that brought you a 21 seat majority?"
Yet again...Democrats are in power DESPITE john parete.
He supported Beisel for Family Court 2 years ago. He recruited Hochberg for Sherrif a year ago. He openly backed a Conservative for DA this year.
In the last 2 election cycles for Legislature, he recruited and attempted to recruit Democrats to run against incumbent County Legislators.
He conspired with the independence (hah!) party to deny endorsements to Democrats in town races in their last 2 election cycles.
He conspired with the repugnican party to have his 3 sons unopposed.
He has done more to divide the Ulster County Democratic Party in the last 3 years than anyone in recent memory.
parete hasn't brought us anything but vitriol, division and corruption.
He will soon be out a lucrative paying job, and this Fall he will be summarily bounced by the County Committee as Chair.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
One of the parete boys said: "Who the Hell is Ben Shor? I have been around Democratic politics for 40 years and I never heard of this guy."
Thus the problem with the good old boy network.
There is a majority in the Ulster County Democratic Party made up of folks you "never heard of."
Time to start paying attention and recognizing your constituents (or should I say, new leaders?)
I've been around UC Democratic politics for over 50 years, and you've never heard of me either. But I've heard of Ben.
Catching my drift home boy?
I'm certainly no fan of Mr. Cahill and I was pleased with the recent election results here in Kingston. However, the comments left here regarding Rich are out of place and serve no useful purpose.
I wouldn't blame Rich at all if he were offended by them.
Let's grow up and move on.
I would like Mr. Madsen to identify when and where Mr. Parete ever endorsed the other candidate for DA? This is the problem with Mr. Madsen...he creates facts that do not exist...ie the revenues we were supposed to get from those fabulous parking meters... I do not recall seeing or hearing Mr. Parete say he supported the independent candidate for DA once. Please point it out. I did hear Mr. Madsen tell anyone who would listen that the independent candidate was anti this and anti that knowing it was not true. Maybe Madsen should stick to picking up the trash in our ward and keep his mouth shut unless he has truth coming out of it. It seems trash collection is the only thing he has done that has been a positive in the ward. He refers to bylaws he has not even read because he knows that is not what they say. This is why the Kingston Dem's are going out of their way to find someone to run against Madsen when his seat comes up again. He spreads lies and now has us all paying for parking that is actually costing the city money rather than saving it. He is part of the reason there is a rift in the party because all he is about is propaganda. He has no interest in making a consensus with anyone.
But the question remains. Who is Ben Shor? Where does he get off asking for the resignation of anyone. HAs he done anything anywhere? This has nothing to do with old boys network. This has everything to do with Shor, Julian Schreibman and company moving at the request of the Schacters from Marlboro. Apparently Mr. Schacter intends on making a play for the chairmanship. Well Phil, if you want it, then run for it don't use your backhanded tactics to try to get the guy sitting there to resign. Half the Marbletown Committee was not at the meeting and several of those on that committee have already spoken out about how stuid it was. Show some guts Phil and just go for it. Julian should be careful though, there may be some problems with his actions. Apparently new DA is already asking what Julian is doing still involved at this level in game?....Julian may be looking for work soon himself.
Parete should go. First of all stacking the committee with Bradley supporters the day before voting on whether there should be a primary in the DA's race was disgusting. That being said if he had the audacity to stack the vote he should have had it and we would have ended up with one Democratic candidate and the distric attorney's seat. Not having the vote only strengthened the divide. Secondly, how on Earth could he let Sennett claim to be a life long Democrat when he had only been registered for a year before declaring his candidacy. I feel like Bradley and Sennett sat back as non-enrolls to see what way the political wind would blow their careers. Parete should have done his homework on that. All of the short comings Bradley and Sennett found in one another couldn't be found in, say Julian Schriebmann. He was a Kingston High School graduate who had Yale Law on his resume, worked on a federal case against Osama Bin Laden, and was currently working in the Ulster County Distric Attorney's office, and a true democrat. I'm not a political scientist, but how could Parete not see that Scriebmann had everything that prevented the other two from beating Carnwright. Carnwright won because he was loyal to his party and was a lifelong UC resident and the other guys weren't. That being said Sennett wasn't in a hurry to have a primary in the beginning because his campaign was broke and who knows if Bradley would go away even if he lost. We needed leadership for this election and Parete failed to lead. He should have sat Sennett and Bradley down and said you will primary and the loser will get out of the race period. Mike Madsen is 100% correct in saying as party chairman Parete owed it to his title and party to support its candidate. Can you imagine Howard Dean supporting a third party candidate instead of Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama. That is what Parete essentially did. Parete if he were a leader would have made sure the rest of the party was in line as well.
(Woerner, Sottile, Provenzano, Noble, DiBella, etc.) They openly campaigned against their party's nominee. Kevin Cahill nominated Vince Bradley at the convention, but in the end he remained loyal to his party. Dave Donaldson was a Bradley supporter at the convention as well, but supported Sennett and his party. Shame on you Mr. Parete for working against the very party you chair because of your relationship with another candidate. I wonder if the re- lationships you have with others influences the committees you chair as a legislature. So here we go again with the county executive race. Mike Hein a fair weather democrat on the front page of the Freeman with Woerner and Sottile announcing his candidacy. If we are going to make a change we have to make one now. If we don't we need to not make the same mistakes we've just made. Hopefully we can finally learn that united we will stand and divided we will fall. VP
Ben Shor hit the nail on the head with his letter - if you never heard of him (8:33 p.m.), how do you know he slithered out of a hole? Because you don't agree with what he said? The majority of the UC Committee agrees with Ben Shor; he just happens to have the balls to say it! And, to give credit to John Parete for "delivering" the majority to the Dems is ludicrous. The moron in the White House helped (trickle-down theory) along with the local idiotic republicans who gave us a $100 million jail and a 39% tax increase. When the Dems took the majority, pretty much anyone could accomplish that - but with the loss of one seat, is that a forecast of things to come? What happened to Parete's magic? Why wasn't he able to increase the majority this year? Did we have bad candidates? No...Parete didn't do shit this year. He couldn't help the candidates without helping Sennett. So, he sacrificed a lot of legislative candidates to further his agenda. What a shame to work so hard only to have your party leader turn his back on you. Parete is not a leader at all - he's worn out his welcome.
Let's try this scenario.
Mike Hein and Kevin Cahill split the up-county committee votes. Sue Zimet solidifies the New Paltz, Rosendale, Woodstock votes and reinforces those votes with support from Dem Women.
The Dem Women are inspired by Hillary and they bring out the vote. Sue wins at the convention, followed either by a primary or by Hein getting the support of the Spada/Oliveri backed conservative and independence folks.
Then we go off to the races, fighting amongst ourselves while the republican candidate takes the office.
Sound a lot like this year?
This can all be avoided if we respect the candidate that emerges from the convention and/or primary and do not divide and then fall.
When the candidates start appearing before the committees, let's get them to commit to stand united behind the one candidate that carries the democratic line.
Let's clarify from each candidate what their take was on this years election.
Not a litmus test tied to who they supported but an inquiry regarding what went wrong.
The candidate who gets the nomination must understand the mistakes that were made this year and must have a real plan to avoid a recurrence. That plan has to include a realistic way to bring/keep the unsuccesful candidates in the fold.
It does not have to be. Lets make sure we have a chariman who knows what steps need to be taken so that it does not happen again.
the parete arrogance: "who the hell is Ben Shor?" ummmmm...the guy who endorsed your brothers for legislature twice and voted for your father for county chair a few years ago. my how things change. the only slithering going on is the slithering back and forth from under the conservative, republican and independence party rocks that the Democratic "good ole boys" are doing.
to 9:00 AM - Let us not forget how John Parete tried to stack the deck for Bradley at the Executive Committee meeting with Bradley campaign workers and supporters, then when he saw the vote was not going his way he hung them out to dry. Pretty slimy.
To answer your insulting questions, I left the Rensselaer County DA's office by my own choice. I was not fired. As for the other ridiculous allegations, I will not dignify them with a response.
According to the Board of Elections site, the unofficial numbers had Cahill down only 4 votes in Ward 4. That seems like the only possible ward he could win in the recanvas.
Every one should know that Jeremy is keeping comments of support for John Parete off this Blog. By doing so his site has no validity.
Wouldnt it be great if we all signed our names to these posts rather than sign them anonymous? you've got Madsen, Tuchman, Smitty and Cahill as the only ones brave enough to put their names next to their comments. Right or wrong, thats refreshing in blogland.
I have to say, these blogs are a great way to open dialog with the masses, but identity and pride in your opinion are something to cherrish.
Jeremy, thanks for this forum.
Oh, and this is MADSEN again. If you wanna talk trash...make an apointment.
10:15 PM : That's not true... I published all comments.
Jeremy
You really should publish all posts whether you agree with them or not.
To the person who says Schreibman should of been dem nominee....you should check your facts. Julian would not have even one the election if it was held in the DA's Office. Just go and ask. His professional reputation leaves a bit to be desired at least here in Ulster County.
Ya........Just loke the pimple puts
everything in his blog!
10:15, prime example, Where are the poll results? Methinks the Nays won the should Parete resign.
Parete won by a decent margin. If it were a real election, it would have been considered a landslide.
The only poll that counts is the vote of the Ulster County Democratic Committee. Any candidate for county executive who is being supported by Parete might find it to be a major liability.
Do you realize the committee is useless if any of htese people decides not to listen to the committee and run a primary. Wake up. After last years debacle, no one is going to accept the committee's decision and walk away. You think Mike Hein, who will have proably close to $100K by June, is going to not run a priamry because some wackadoos on the dem committee decided that someone else kissed their butts better than he did. No way. He is runnning anyway. Who cares what the committee says? They clearly do not represent the people they are obligated to represent so why should anyone care what they decide.
The nominating vote at the Democratic Committee convention is meaningless.There should be no vote. Any bona fide DEMOCRAT who chooses to run for the County Executive should make their presentation, after hopefully visiting all of the town committees. Committee members or town committees as a whole can then carry designating petitions for the candidate of their choice. Candidates can then, if they choose move on to a primary with the agreement that the losers drop out of the race. This will also save potential candidates some extra campaign expenses.
Let's stop this sham straw poll that is not binding as shown by the last DA race. All Democratic candidates are welcome, all have the right to primary, county Democrats will decide, but then most importantly, we will all coalesce around one candidate.
Thanks 12:08 for your whacko theory that the county caucus should abolished. I bet if your candidate had won the convention you'd be saying something different. Mike Hein can primary to high heaven if he wants. We don't care. What matters is that he is a democrat and thus entitled.
What you fail to see is that your candidate was NOT a democrat at the time of the convention. Whose fault is it that he was too idiodic to file papers on time?
What you also do not recognize is that this candidate typified the kind of idiocy and simplemindedness we didn't want at the forefront of the county justice system. That is the whole issue. Your candidate underperformed over and over. If he hadn't, he'd be DA right now.
Take this for what it is worth, but I am ashamed that Mr. Madsen is an alderman in this city. That post looked as if it were written by a 2nd grader.
The message is a fair message, but please improve your grasp of the english language!
What does excelerate mean????????
5:52 Your comments are uncalled for and unfair. Please take some time to think and reflect on who might be reading what you write and how it can impact them before you post. My 2nd grader works very hard, attends class regularly and does his homework. Stop insulting him and his classmates.
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