Stumping on the political issues

A candidates forum held by the Woodmere Republican Club on July 22 bore two surprises: one — that, according to event organizers, the first debate for the Republican congressional primary between District 4 candidates Frank Scaturro and Nassau County Legislator Francis Becker (6th District)) spontaneously played out before the crowd — an audience that swelled to the point of spilling out the door of the community room of the Hewlett-Woodmere Library.

The second surprise came by Dodge Durango, which brought to the event two teenage boys all the way from upstate Putnam County. The young men, Jovalin Dedaj, 18, and Nicholas D'Angelo, 17, represented "Be Heard" a political action committee they founded.

D'Angelo, an incoming freshman at Union College in upstate Schenectady and Dedaj, a sophomore at Boston College, have traveled around the state and nation for Be Heard to consult with approximately a dozen candidates so far concerning the youth vote and how to appeal to young voters. They call the Durango their "American Ride."

"We made the trip down to Hewlett last night because we absolutely had to meet Frank Scaturro," D'Angelo said. "We're absolutely ecstatic about Frank and hope the constituents of District Four will send him to Washington!" Though the pair cannot vote for him they are endorsing Scaturro.

While Becker appealed to forum-goers to visit his Web site for his resume, Scaturro touted himself as "something of a gadfly whistleblower," and political outsider.

"Some of the greatest resumes have done the greatest damage," Scaturro said. Asked by an audience member about his qualifications, Scaturro listed one of them as being a member of his high school GOP club.

Nobody professed to being surprised that the theme of the event, which billed itself as a "speech-less" forum, dissolved into speeches, though most of the candidates present appeared to make a good faith effort to answer the audience- generated questions concisely.

Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, State Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), and County Legislator Howard Kopel (7th District) also attended the forum.

Though Skelos had to leave early, he spoke for more than eight minutes regarding various hot-button topics, including the Islamic community center and mosque planned for construction several hundred feet from Sept. 11's Ground Zero by the group Cordoba Initiative. Skelos said he had written a letter to a historic preservation society based in lower Manhattan in protest of the planned construction.

Maragos said that he thinks "we're going to be well under way in balancing [the county's] budget in the next two years, while Kopel spoke to the difficulties of balancing a budget while appeasing the "million interest groups.

"Everyone wants, everyone's got a good story," he said, adding unfortunately that has contributed to a tax burden which is unsustainable. "The proof that it's unsustainable is [a] look at the [property] vacancies."

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