Village of Kensington Trustee Brent Greenspan ran unopposed for re-election on March 18. But Greenspan lost—or at least he didn't win.
Greenspan actually tied fellow Trustee Carey Ye, who was also running for re-election unopposed but agreed to concede the race when the results were announced.
Kensington resident Ronen Abergel won with 51 write-in votes. Greenspan and Ye each received 38 votes at the ballot box.
There is nothing wrong with this. Write-in votes are permitted at all levels of government in New York. And while write-in candidates seldom win, it's not unprecedented for them to prevail in local elections.
Three write-in candidates - one running for mayor and two for trustee - won in the Village of Old Westbury in 2015. Incumbents narrowly escaped defeat in the Village of Great Neck in 2015, with an all-out effort by federal, state, and local officials to help them win.
That is part of the democratic process.
But what is concerning is the lack of scrutiny faced by write-in candidates, an increasingly alarming trend among candidates of major parties on the ballot.
Contacted after the ballots were counted in Kensington, Abergel said he is a UCLA and NYU graduate and the managing director of Arbor Realty Trust. He said he ran because he wanted to get more involved with the village’s administration and believed his real estate skills would be helpful when he joined the village’s board of trustees.
Abergel also said he has initiatives he wants to launch once he joins the board.
But, he said, he was not yet ready to share them.
Wouldn't Kensington's voters want to know Abergel's plans before he was elected as trustee? Shouldn't they be able to question him about those plans?
Abergel attributed his victory to people believing he was friendly and "believed in me to take the initiative."
Those are good qualities, but why not collect the signatures needed to get on the ballot and give all voters the chance to talk to him?
Granted, Kensington is one of just nine villages that make up Great Neck, with a population of about 1,200 people and a little more than 400 households.
But there is a principle here that should apply to villages as small as Kensington as well as school boards, towns, county, state and congressional seats. Voters should be allowed to make informed voting decisions based on the candidates and their views.
In recent elections for Congress, state and town positions, candidates have chosen not to participate in forums and one-on-one interviews with newspapers, the League of Women Voters and civic organizations.
This is a recipe for disaster that Nassau County voters know all too well, thanks to George Santos.
Santos, who routinely ducked interviews with newspapers, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2022 to represent New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Nassau County soon became a national laughingstock when newspapers learned after the fact that in running for office, Santos had lied about just about everything on his resume, from his job history to his time in college and even his religion.
Things then turned from bad to worse.
The House of Representatives began investigating Santos after learning about his long list of legal and ethical problems.
They voted in December 2023 to expel George Santos—the sixth House member ever to be ousted from Congress—but not before Santos helped select the speaker of the House.
The FBI launched an investigation of its own, which led to Santos pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August 2024. According to his plea deal, he owes $578,752.92, including $373,749.97 in restitution and $205,002.97 in forfeiture. He is expected to be sentenced to at least two years, although the judge previously said the estimated sentencing range was between six and eight years.
Santos is undoubtedly the worst-case scenario, but he is by no means alone in providing reasons voters should be afforded a closer look at candidates seeking positions of public trust. In recent years, state, county, and town officials have been jailed on corruption charges in Nassau.
With elections scheduled for all four countywide positions and all 19 Nassau Legislature seats in November, now is not too early for voters to get a chance to start kicking the tires and learn about the person behind the name on the ballot.
This should include incumbents with little or no opposition. Candidates who want to occupy a position of public trust and spend taxpayer money should be willing to face public scrutiny before voters cast their ballots.
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