Endorsement - Cooper Macco for Huntington Supervisor

Four years ago, this newspaper endorsed Ed Smyth for Huntington Supervisor.  We made a huge mistake - and apologize to our readers.

The Leader endorses moderate Democrat Cooper Macco.

Smyth has revealed himself as a nasty, corrupt and back-stabbing person. Nixon on a bad day - all political "dirty tricks" and self-dealing. Incredibly, Smyth and his team filed fake misconduct charges against two (2) out of his three (3) current Republican running-mates - all later dismissed. 

The Smyth scandals - "Panty-Gate" involving lewd sexual behavior; "Gucci-Bag-Gate" involving charges of theft of a $2,000 handbag; "Wiretap-Gate" involving illegal surveillance on employees, political rivals and residents; "Cubicle-Gate" involving - to quote Smyth - "throwing gasoline on that fire..." - and more - are notorious in Town Hall.

Worse are the charges of bribery and kickbacks - and the criminal arrests - surrounding the "Melville Project" - thousands of new migrant apartments - all for Smyth to tap into developer money and money from Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul.  No SEQRA environmental study; No "Plan" - just multi-million dollar, high-density zoning variances for Smyth's developer cronies. That's why the developers PAC's spent $1 million on Smyth, just this year.

But don't take our word for it - just listen to Smyth's former Town Attorney, Susan Coleman, who resigned in July protesting that she was ordered to close a Town investigation after uncovering "gross misuse of taxpayer money, unmitigated theft of services, patronage, flagrant disregard of the law, pervasive substance abuse among employees, acts and threats of physical violence between employees..." Who could have ordered that cover-up ?

Cooper Macco is a lifelong Huntington resident. He is a local business attorney, and Vice Chair of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce.  Macco promises more public transparency, better ethics in government, better relations with Huntington's local business community, and a better balance between developers demands and the interests of current Huntington residents.

Most importantly, Macco is universally praised and is running as a "nice guy" - in contrast to Smyth who is widely disliked as a "nasty guy."

The Leader endorses Cooper Macco for Huntington Supervisor.