By Jesse Serwer
Victory for Residents' Voice
Jeanne Farnan Mulry and Andrew Karamouzis of the upstart Residents' Voice party swept to victory in one of the most hotly contested village trustee elections in recent memory Tuesday.
The two first-time officials defeated incumbent Greg Rinn of the Concerned Citizens Party as well as the Home Rule party's Edward J. Oppenheimer, who currently sits on the village planning board by a close margin. Mulry led all candidates with 2,137 votes, followed by Karamouzis, with 1,932, Rinn, at 1,807 and Oppenheimer, with 1,684.
As family members, friends and Residents' Voice Party supporters gathered at Karamouzis's Sunrise Highway office Tuesday night, his and Mulry's victory was chalked up to hard work and visibility.
"This was truly a grass-roots effort," said Lisa Gaska.
"Every phone call made a difference," Mulry added.
Karamouzis and Mulry were also successful in getting the subject of overdevelopment to the forefront of the campaign, as evidenced by a candidates' debate held at the Sandel Senior Center as well as the campaign literature of all four candidates. Earlier in the day, however, the two eventual winners feared that their campaigns were in jeopardy after voting machines at two polling stations perceived to be in Residents' Voice strongholds broke down. While a machine at Riverside School was quickly fixed and voters assigned to a machine at Defenders Hose Company were able to vote on another machine at the station, the candidates' fears proved to be well founded - the two districts proved to be among their biggest voter bases. Together, Mulry and Karamouzis garnered nearly 80 percent of the votes at Riverside, where they had their biggest margin of victory.
In the only other seat up for a vote, Frank Yannelli, who ran unopposed, was re-elected to his post as village justice. A referendum to increase the amount of money allotted annually to village firefighters' individual retirement accounts also passed by an overwhelming majority.
Karamouzis dedicated his party's victory to his brother-in-law, James Moran, who died June 13 of complications from surgery. "James was watching over us today, and he is celebrating our victory," Karamouzis said.
