As you are no doubt aware, an election is brewing in Freeport, tomorrow, and boy is it a doozy! Here's your usual The Weekly Freeporter does not endorse candidates within Freeport, and generally ever reminder. I might make recommendations on other platforms or for outside-of-the-Village, but I don't do politics in Freeport. My past reporting on both the Hardwick and Kennedy administrations may speak for themselves.
With that said, let's go in order of Rows: Kennedy is in Row C, so he'll be last, and I believe Mr. Hardwick has Row B, so we're gonna start with the only one on the list who hasn't been Mayor already, Stephen Drummond!
It's only fair I note that I'm not going to go into depth about the candidates for Trustee. In many cases, either you know them (as with Mrs. Pinyero, Mr. Grossman, and Mr. Ellerbe), or you don't (as with Mr. Vargas and others). While we've certainly seen times when "team" members don't vote with the Mayor they came to office with, in general they are likely to follow most of the same political lines as the mayor they're following.
Also, let's be real: We all know there's a lot of vitriol in some of these candidacies.
Village of Freeport Mayoral Candidates, 3/21/2017
Row A: Stephen Drummond.
Mr. Drummond is certainly the wild-card in this race. A former U.S. Marine who served as the Village Judge for Andrew Hardwick if I remember correctly, Drummond has clearly decided to strike out on his own. He made an awesome campaign video that's worth checking out, but as far as policy I see, for starters, a lot of the "law and order" campaign one might expect from a former judge.
He has a plan to improve Freeport you can read at your leisure. As a Recreation Center person, I like the sound of his plan to revitalize and improve the Recreation Center...But at the same time, if one of Freeport's major woes has been it's pocket book, he'd have to get a helluvalotta funding to do it. Yet it appears controversy stirs over the number of religious figures he's asked to join him, which came up as far back as when Annette Dennis ran for Trustee. After all, the argument went then as now - If you don't pay taxes, how do you get control over taxpayer money?
If this were a two-candidate race, I'd say Mr. Drummond's odds could be very strong. As it stands, I can't back that viewpoint because there's so much baggage here that it's just hard to imagine people avoiding polarization.
Row B: Andrew Hardwick
Former Mayor Hardwick was defeated by one of his "Team Hardwick" deputies, Robert Kennedy, in the last Mayoral elections. Has it been so long, Andrew? While I always appreciated how direct he was with me during his tenure, he has since gone on to run for offices across Long Island, and I always expressed concern that he did not have a grasp on how public relations worked.
He is nigh-legendary for threatening to cancel the Freeport Nautical Mile Festival and for the "Garbage To Gold" scandal, and what I would have hoped to have heard from Mr. Hardwick - and seen, through his supporters' actions and outreach - would have been a maturity in his approach. He was, fairly or not, seen as combative and unwilling to listen; as it stands, there's been far too little outreach for me to understand if this is a serious bid to return to power, or a spiteful grasp at fame.
The hunter who chases two rabbits at the same time often loses sight of them both; I find myself asking what Andrew Hardwick wants to do. I think his voters will, as well, because my experience in covering small-scale elections tells me to expect him to finish last or close to it.
Row C: Robert Kennedy
Mayor Kennedy made a move the other day, one that impressed one decades-long resident in both its timing and its function: That huge plot of land on Sunrise Highway next to the ancient but beautiful bank has been sold, or is being sold, or...Progress, am I right? When Stop-And-Shop folded, Target came in. The Nautical Mile Festival works about as well as it ever could; it's still far too reduced in relation to its legacy, but that's what people seem to want.
Is Mr. Kennedy's tenure perfect? I'd love to see him build a rock-climbing wall at the Rec, among other massive improvements in funding it would benefit from. (I'd go into detail, but it'd be a conflict of interest.) But it's certainly fair to say he is favored, mathematically, to win this race. He faces divided opposition and presides over a time when factors far beyond him have led Freeport to feel like there's a time of recovery, while Mayor Hardwick's first term started with a national economic crisis and ended with a massive storm.
Perhaps fate was a bit unfair to Mr. Hardwick, in retrospect, but one has to help oneself and Mr. Kennedy sure took advantage of his opportunities. I expect that - regardless of what you think about him or his opponents - Mr. Kennedy will remain in the Mayor's office.
On Predictions...
Fact is, these predictions of mine: A Kennedy 1st, Drummond 2nd, Hardwick 3rd outcome, are the predictions of an amateur who only hears what he hears and listens to what he listens to. I have no horse in this race (I'm no longer in Freeport!), and I am simply reporting this because lately TWF has had a bit of a role to play in bringing up important events - and, I still have family and friends in the Port, and I'm not too far away or unwilling to help the community.
I could be wrong. I very well might be! In fact, this article will, as a matter of the Uncertainty Principle, shift the way the world turns. If my article somehow helps drive voter turnout up, then that's a good thing.
Good luck to all candidates, but voters? This is on you. It always is.
I hope Mayor Kennedy remains our Mayor. He hasn't raised our taxes. He has improved the problem of flooding in streets in many areas. I believe those two things are of the greatest importance to us Freeporters.
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