Disgraceful Parting Shot from the Suffolk Democrats

On New Year’s Eve, the lame-duck Suffolk Legislature met for a “emergency” session - the third and last “emergency” meeting they held in December.

What was the “emergency” that required such An extraordinary session between Christmas and New Year’s ? Was it to address the Omicron variant, or the crippling staff shortages affecting sanitation ?

No - it was to ram through a heavily “gerrymandered” map of districts for the next Legislature. Some political revenge by the outgoing Democrats to punish the winning Republicans. But worse, the Democrats vote was blatantly illegal.

The Suffolk County charter requires the Legislature to appoint a bipartisan Redistricting Commission, to draw fair neutral districts. But after losing the November elections, the lame duck Democrats refused to do so, and drew-up their own partisan map, to screw-over the Republicans who just beat them in the election.

Huntington’s two losing Democrats - Susan Berland and William “Doc” Spencer were particularly disgraceful:

Berland was the Democrats Majority Leader. She behaved like a cross between a corrupt Tammany Hsll ward boss and a high school “mean girl” by re-drawing the district she lost to a Republican Manny Esteban. For a woman who liked to cry “sexism” and “racism,” she was indignant that a Hispanic could end her political career.

Spencer is facing years in prison, under felony criminal indictment for dealing drugs to prostitutes for sex - including to a woman who later died of a drug overdose. Spencer’s last act in office was an illegal vote.

The new, Republican-majority Legislature is appointing the Redistricting Commission, as required by law. The frenzied acts of the lame-duck Democrats to circumvent the law will likely prove to be a nullity - just a nasty waste of time.

Good riddance to the exiting Democrats. Their lawlessness should disqualify them from holding office again - for a very long time.