Endorsements: Vote Row "A"

- Brooke Lupinacci for Huntington Supervisor

- Eugene Cook and John Posillico for Huntington Town Board

The Republican primary election on June 24th is the most important election in Huntington in decades - maybe ever.

Councilwoman Brooke Lupinacci has stood-up to stop Supervisor Ed Smyth's sell-out to the apartment building developers who plan to re-zone and build thousands of high-density urban apartments in Huntington. 

We endorse Brooke Lupinacci for Supervisor and her running mates Eugene Cook and John Posillico for Town Board.

Four years ago, this newspaper endorsed Smyth when he first ran for Supervisor. He lied to us. And we were fooled.

Smyth lied that he was against the re-zone and mass building of high-density apartments.  He even staged a phony press conference in front of Albert's Mandarin restaurant claiming he would stop apartment buildings rezones like the small building there. It was all nonsense.

Smyth's record is the opposite of what he promised.  Huntington is witnessing an orgy of re-zoning and high-density apartment building.  That adds heavily to the demands for services, increases taxes and traffic, and erodes our quality of life.

Huntington is now a fully-developed mature suburban community: there is no more "open space" for new housing developments.  Instead, new construction comes increasingly from re-zoning existing property.

And with re-zoning comes huge profits, corruption and graft: Kickbacks and bribes.

This newspaper uncovered and reported on an illegal payoff scheme between members of Smyth's administration and a corrupt developer, Gregory DeRosa, who - as a result of our reporting - has now been arrested for fraud. Smyth and DeRosa schemed together to build thousands of high-density rental apartments in Huntington. 

Smyth and DeRosa's high density apartment schemes have been denounced by the school districts - where homeowners face a "$21 million annual tax increase." Civic groups have opposed the mass apartments scheme.

Smyth has ignored them all:  Why ? Because there is too much apartment developer money landing in Smyth's hands.  The apartment builders' lobby has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars flooding our mailboxes and social media to support Smyth - and make the most crude and false attacks against Brooke Lupinacci.

Lupinacci and Cook and Posillico pledge to repeal the Smyth apartment overlay district - on Day One.  And to professionalize and make transparent the zoning and planning processes.  And to protect our communities and green spaces against the apartment developers' bulldozers.

The Leader endorses Brooke Lupinacci for Huntington Supervisor and Eugene Cook and John Posillico for Huntington Town Board.