Elmont Online

Election day was a very good day for Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, Senator Dean Skelos, Assemblyman-Elect Ed Ra and the come from behind win of Mineola Mayor Jack Martins over State Senator Craig Johnson.

The race between Johnson and Martins electrified the Elmont community and brought out an energy in neighborhoods that surprised local political observers. The story of the Martins win was long in the making and had Shakespearean undertones. Here, Elmont.org tells the tale of the undoing of State Senator Craig Johnson.

On Election Day shell-shocked supporters of Craig Johnson were all over Elmont from morning til night. From the crack of dawn, Martins volunteers stationed themselves at polling stations with fliers to remind Democrats to vote for their community and not the party.  As younger voters streamed into Elmont Memorial High School, Dutch Broadway, the Elmont American Legion and Elmont Fire House, the rumblings of Johnson’s problems began. Even the paid volunteers from Hofstra University supporting Craig Johnson became uneasy and started to talk openly about the campaign that seemed doomed over the last three weeks.

The start of Johnson’s problems began almost two years ago when the Senator sat in his office in North Hempstead and put on a show for local leaders regarding legislation and community concerns brought up by Civic Leaders. During the meeting Johnson would bark snappy answers at Civic Leaders and sat tight-lipped over his intentions on votes in the State Senate. The most poignant criticism came from Pat Nicolosi, President of the Elmont East End Civic Association whose frustration was felt by everyone in the room. Nicolosi, CCC President Joyce Stowe, Parkhurst President Cheryl Lee and others attempted to have a frank discussion with Johnson over how he worked with the community. What happened was an exercise in futility that left Elmont leaders wondering what Johnson was doing.

Many felt disrespected during the discussion.  They were treated like children going to the Principal’s office. More importantly, community leaders realized that Johnson was not interested in economic development for the Elmont community. Instead, he was supporting storefront churches and non-profit enterprises in the area that drove local property taxes through the roof. Caribbean Leaders were distressed. One leader walked out of the meeting saying, “he not only doesn’t care, but I felt like he was talking down to us.”

Many of the same community leaders were strong supporters of Johnson and actually were the backbone of the campaign team that put him in office as he opposed Maureen O’Connell in a special election.  Senators Malcolm Smith, Antoine Thompson, Diane Savino and others visited Elmont along with Jeff Klein to put together a campaign organization at that time. That organization propelled Johnson to Albany.  Those very supporters turned out to be the most devastating volunteer organization working for Martins.

Meanwhile, in the summer, Mayor Martins made several quiet visits to Elmont sitting down with neighborhood leaders, school activists and college students to ask for their support of his candidacy. Martins quiet and thoughtful discussions were in stark contrast to the bullying style of Craig Johnson staffers whose MO was the proverbial threatening phone call regarding the issue of the day. Whenever a community leader made a comment about a vote in the State Senate, they could expect a screaming phone call from a Johnson staffer “dressing them down.” The seeds of discontent grew.

Accountability and trust came to the forefront as well. Johnson staffers would tell community leaders tales of deals and special projects coming to the community in telephone calls and civic meetings. The tales were so quid-pro quo that community leaders began having conference calls comparing notes of the Johnson phone calls. The comparisons povided levity among Civic Presidents who couldn’t believe that Johnson believed they would fall for his company line that was misleading at best.

What Johnson’s team never understood was the fact that after each call was made, a conference and, in many cases a STOP 20 Diner coffee meeting would take place with community leaders. Information was shared, and the Johnson staff exaggerations were unveiled.  Those interactions laid the foundation for Johnson’s undoing.

Local political observers point to several key flashpoints which led to Johnson’s struggle in a Democrat stronghold where he should have won 80% of the vote without breaking a sweat. Instead, Johnson limped out of Elmont with 55%; Martins peeling off 600 key votes from Johnson that helped build Martin’s lead.

The best characterization of the Johnson campaign came from one of his own paid campaign workers who said, “they were afraid all the way through. It wasn’t a pleasant place to work. We were under orders not to talk to certain people. You always felt that you were going to be screamed at."  All day long they lived in fear of Elmont.org.  Every computer was linked directly to the site. In fact, some even had google alerts to it. "I couldn’t understand the campaign. They thought Charter Schools would pull him through. Mayor Bloomberg was another guy they thought could help make it happen. I couldn’t understand why they felt that Jon Kaiman, Tom DiNapoli, Great Neck and New Hyde Park would really help. We all knew things were not going well. In Elmont, they had Michael Jaime, President of the Elmont School Board, Mimi Pierre-Johnson, until she turned on him, and Jon Johnson of the Cardinals who they would laugh at behind his back”