Elmont Online

Taxpayer Paid Senate Staffer Speaks for Candidate
Community leaders looking to set up a candidates forum where Democrat candidates running for the seat of popular State Assemblyman Tom Alfano, who is retiring at the end of the year, announced that the debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Elmont Community Coalition Council has been cancelled.  The forum was cancelled because Assembly candidate Mimi Pierre-Johnson refused to debate her opponent Patrick Nicolosi. In contrast to the “No” of Mimi Pierre Johnson, Assembly candidate Patrick Nicolosi answered “Yes” and then added, “tell me when and where!”

The debate had been in the works for weeks and was to be moderated by the non-partisan League of Women Voters in Nassau County.  The forum was to be the only face-off between Pierre-Johnson, the hand picked candidate of scandal scarred Senator Craig Johnson, and Elmont resident Patrick Nicolosi.

The Nicolosi - Pierre-Johnson primary has been an up and down race because of legal challenges spearheaded by lawyers directly related to scandal plagued State Senator Craig Johnson. The Senator’s petitions as well as Mimi Pierre-Johnson’s were unveiled to have forged signatures of Elmont, Floral Park and Franklin Square residents as well as fraudulent signatures.  The Senator has also been hit with sleaze in his twitter “tweets” of pornographic actors in XXX films with his pals during a State Senate session where the State budget was to be hammered out in Albany.

Elmont.org can report exclusively, that the Elmont Community Coalition Council, the umbrella group of all Elmont Civic Associations worked in concert with the League of Women Voters to provide a forum for the issues to be debated. The council went forward with debate preparation after President Joyce Stowe, emailed all Civic Leaders and asked whether the CCC would like to hold such a meeting. The overwhelming majority enthusiastically chose to hold the debate.

Assembly candidate Mimi Pierre Johnson was contacted to schedule her participation in the debate. What came next, according to local observers was nothing short of shocking to community leaders. Pierre-Johnson, objected to being asked to participate in the forum and demanded to call the League of Women Voters herself. Within hours, the League cancelled the forum as Pierre-Johnson refused to participate.  Pierre-Johnson’s ducking of community forums where Democrats can ask her questions about her candidacy has become a pattern in the Primary race. Just a few weeks ago, Johnson was a no-show at a Democrat Women’s Brunch where candidates for Assembly and Senate spoke to women on the issues.

In another shocking development, Elmont.org can report that Mimi Pierre-Johnson was subpoenaed in a court action weeks ago and was a no-show during the hearing over the election petitions related to her challenger Patrick Nicolosi. Pierre-Johnson’s lack of respect for the judicial process and rule of law has many throughout the community wondering what she had to hide in the court proceeding and whether Senator Johnson’s legal battery of lawyers unleashed on Elmont resident Patrick Nicolosi was in play.

Elmont.org can also report that the Democrat Women’s forum, a widely respected gathering chaired by Delores Seddaca, also shined new light on the connection between the Johnson and Johnson campaign. Assembly candidate Mimi Pierre-Johnson was a no-show at the forum but had a substitute stand-in for her. That substitute was none other than taxpayer paid Senate staffer Abdul Hakim. It should be noted that Mr. Hakim is not a resident of the 21^st Assembly District and is a taxpayer paid staffer to State Senator Craig Johnson.  This is not the first time Hakim has surfaced in the primary race advising Mimi Pierre-Johnson. The Franklin-Elmont Herald, a local weekly paper, quoted Hakim in the role of campaign manager.

“All of the protests of Craig Johnson not being involved in the sleazy politics of this primary is exactly what everybody thinks it is, another lie by Craig. Why won’t his candidate debate the issues? What does she stand for,” said one Elmont resident.

The League of Women Voters debate is a tradition in the 21^st Assembly district where candidates answer questions from the public.  One observer noted, “how is Mimi Pierre-Johnson going to fight for us when she won’t even face the community and answer questions? Did Craig Johnson pull another one of his stunts with this candidate? We have to stop being played for fools by the Senator and his staff.”

The September 14^th Primary determines who receives the Democratic nomination for State Assembly in the 21^st Assembly district.