PART OF TODAY'S DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL — Golden’s man, Shamoun, misses key vote to break up corruption at the NYC Board of Elections

State Senator Martin Golden’s hand-picked selection to be the Brooklyn Republican Commissioner on the NYC Board of Elections, Simon Shamoun, missed a vote to require openly posting job openings at the Board

Will the resurfacing [or is that “Continued Submergence”] of Simon Shamoun, as a Commissioner at the BOE, re-open old wounds

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Mr. Shamoun, a former GOP district leader in the 46th A.D. and a long-time Golden hand has been a center of controversy at the Board of Elections since his back-room-deal appointment, arranged by Marty Golden, few years ago — Since that time, the Kings County Republican Party and its chairman, Craig Eaton, has called for Shamoun’s ouster and the selection of a replacement by normal procedures

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ACCORDING TO THE NEWS:  “PATRONAGE WON” IN BOARD OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS' VOTE 

According to an editorial in today’s Daily News, “....  Last Tuesday, true to their pledge to [Democrat] Councilman Ben Kallos, [a] trio — serving as Democratic commissioners from Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn — introduced a motion to post all employment vacancies at the Board....   Voting no were Democrats Jose Miguel Araujo (Queens) and Maria Guastella (Staten Island) and Republicans Michael Michel (Queens) and Fred Umane (Manhattan)....   Bronx Republican Michael Rendino weirdly abstained and Republicans Ron Castorina (S.I.) and Simon Shamoun (Brooklyn) were absent....”  (See “The Board of Elections fix remains in” by Daily News Editorial Bd., 6/15/15, NY Daily News
[http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/editorial-board-elections-fix-remains-article-1.2256744]).

The News editorial concluded with this: “Once, there were zero votes for openness on the 10-person board. Three is half way to turning the agency from a backwater to something better.”

WHAT WAS SIMON SHAMOUN DOING THAT HE COULDN’T PERFORM HIS DUTIES AT THE BOE ?

It remains a mystery what Mr. Shamoun found so important to do that he missed so important a vote of the commissioners at the NYC Board of Elections.

It could have been something as simple as instructions from State Senator Golden to miss the vote.  You see, Golden wants to continue running the Brooklyn GOP piece of the BOE patronage mill as his personal fiefdom and patronage cookie jar.

SHAMOUN’S APPOINTMENT TO THE BOE WAS ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL  —  IT CONTINUES TO BE SO  —   AND IT REMAINS THE BIGGEST WEDGE BETWEEN GOLDEN AND EATON

Simon Shamoun has been under a cloud of suspicion from day one of his time at the Board of Elections. Remember the report on this blog that started like this: “Friday, February 8, 2013 --
This couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Brooklyn Republican Chairman Craig Eaton
GOP Council Members from other counties to select Brooklyn’s Election Commissioner.... According to Celeste Katz in her Daily News/Daily Politics blog/column: “GOP Councilmen seize opportunity to appoint election commissioners in Queens, Brooklyn, overruling county party leadership  —  With the shrewd power play, the three Republican representatives on the City Council will now have some influence on who the city's Board of Elections can hire and fire.” (See: Celeste Katz' post/article of the same name, 2/7/13, Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gop-councilmen-election-power-play-party-leadership-article-1.1258511#ixzz2KK63UWnL])....”  Shamoun became a NYC Elections Commissioner as a result of that “...shrewd power play...” ( See also “Upheaval at city Board of Elections
by Chris Bragg, 2/7/13 [ Updated 2/11/13], Crain’s Business Insider [http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130207/BLOGS04/302079996/upheaval-at-city-board-of-elections]).

That wasn’t the end of Shamoun’s controversial tenure at the Board, though.  It was only a couple of years ago that Marty Golden’s Commissioner at the BOE, Simon Shamoun, was up to his neck in a mini-scandal about the shredding of petitions at the Brooklyn Board that belonged to a slate that was supporting Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton, and opposed to the slate backing State Senator Golden ( See e.g., “Brooklyn Republican Chief: Why Did Board Of Elections Shred My Supporters' Petitions?” by Celeste Katz, 7/25/13, NY Daily News/ Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/brooklyn-republican-chief-board-elections-shred-supporters-petitions-blog-entry-1.1695640]).

REPEATED CALLS FOR SHAMOUN TO STEP DOWN

Ever since Mr. Shamoun’s back-room appointment to the Board of Elections early in 2013, the Kings County Republican party and its chairman, Craig Eaton, has called for Shamoun’s removal from the Board as the Brooklyn GOP Commissioner and the selection of a replacement by normal procedures involving the properly elected Republican Commitee for Brooklyn.

To date, all of State Senator Marty Golden’s overtures* to County Chairman Eaton have been rebuffed  —  with a proviso that any discussions might be acceptable if Simon Shamoun were no longer at the Board of Elections.
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* A person who sat-in at a recent meeting that I attended pointed-out that the "overtures" were not personally from Marty Golden or any of his inner circle, but were from "mutual friends"....  I'm okay with that distinction.