By Dee Richard
To answer all your questions on why the headline of the March 17 Dishing with Dee column did not match the following text, the article was a reprint of a column published several weeks ago. How it managed to get reprinted last week is still a mystery, but the paper is checking on it and we will straighten it out. See below for the column that was supposed to run last week.
On Wednesday, state Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan held a combination birthday party and fund-raiser at Dazies in Sunnyside. Owner Lily Gavrin is a charming hostess and her food is excellent as well. If you are ever in her neighborhood, stop by for lunch or dinner. You will not be disappointed.
Cathy managed to attract a large crowd of supporters as well as a cadre of elected officials, including but not limited to DA Richard Brown, Peter Vallone Sr., Assemblyman Michael DenDekker, Assemblyman David Weprin, City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, New York State Court Clerk’s Association Secretary Lawrence Russo, President of the Communication Workers of America Arthur Cheliotes, Bernard Callegari of Local No. 79 Construction & General Building Laborers and let us not forget Chet Szarejko and Frank Mileski of the Polish American Congress. I guess there must have been about 200 people — it’s hard to tell because they were coming and going. Happy birthday, Cathy, and thank you for inviting me to your fun party.
After Cathy’s party in Sunnyside we drove over to Tom Long’s Queens Conservative Party March meeting in Forest Hills, held at American Legion Post No. 1424.
The Long brothers — Michael, the state chairman, and Thomas, the Queens chairman — are both busy recruiting new members in order to keep building on the terrific progress they made in the November 2010 election. No matter what negative comments you could make about former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, he did deliver for the Conservative Party by running on its line.
According to a message from one of my e-mail friends, Conservative candidate Bob Schwartz garnered 5,171 votes in a district with less than 700 registered Conservatives. That sounds pretty good, but what does it mean? Are the Conservatives the new “in” political party or was it just a protest vote against state Sen. Toby Stavisky? It is easier for a dissatisfied Democrat to pull the lever on the Conservative line than it would be to pull the lever on the Republican line. Either way, build on your new resurgence of popularity — so go for it!
The guest speaker at the March meeting was Andy Sullivan, founder of the 9/11 Hard Hat Pledge, which is against the construction of the mosque near Ground Zero. Sullivan had lots of interesting information to disseminate among the members.
Our next stop was the Reception House in Flushing, where the Northeast Queens Republican Club held its March meeting, which was also well attended. Councilman Peter Koo gave an update on all the new issues the Council is working on, which will be beneficial to northeast Queens. One of the items he was concerned about was the closing of some senior centers and the potential cutting back of some of the funding for many of their projects. They also welcomed Heather Bachman, who has become a new member. The club is busy making plans for its end-of-the-season fund-raiser in May. President Janet Malone usually comes up with some interesting speakers for her club membership.
Have you all read the Sunday Daily News exposé on all the bad boys and girls who hold public office — otherwise known as our elected officials? Something like this was to be expected. When times are good and the electorate is busy buying toys to amuse and entertain themselves, no one pays much attention to the political shenanigans. Now that the economy is not so good, the electorate have become nitpickers and have lots of time on their hands to check out every detail.
That’s it for this week.
I look forward to hearing from you with information on people, parties and politics or gossip. I like receiving your voice mails at 718-767-6484, faxes at 718-746-0066 and e-mails at deerrichard@aol.com.
Don’t forget to check out the Focus on Queens page.
Till next week, Dee.
