Slimy Super PAC Funding Fraudulent Prop 1 Campaign

(Editor's note: This is an opinion piece posted by a Patch reader. If you'd like to post on Patch yourself, find out how here.)

Brookhaven voters who received a red and white mailer this week from a group called "Yes to Term Limits" imploring them to "Vote Yes" on Brookhaven Prop 1, might want to take a deeper look into who is sending them mail.

Turns out that this group, that intentionally misled voters by failing to inform them of Prop 1's toxic term extension which would take away their ability to vote on their town officials every two years by extending the term of office to four years, is being funded by a town Republican Super PAC awash political money.

"Yes to Term Limits" popped up virtually overnight with mailers, ads, signs, and a website. All of their material to date has neglected to mention that Prop 1 is a vote on extending the term of office for Brookhaven Town Officials from the current two years, to four years, thus taking away voters' ability to vote on town offices every two years.

Instead, they have focused on the "Term Limits" aspect of Prop 1, also failing to mention that Brookhaven already has term limits in the town code. The only difference between the current term limits and the "new ones" on Prop 1, is that Prop 1's term limits are not retroactive, thus granting Councilwoman Jane Bonner, who is coming up on her 12th year in office, an additional 12 years thereafter.

Talk about a scam.

But the question remains: who is funding this fraudulent "Yes to Term Limits" PAC?

We now have the answer.

State campaign finance records show that "Yes to Term Limits" received one donation, in the amount of $20,000 from a Super PAC called the Committee to Elect a Republican Majority (CERM).

In case you were wondering who and what CERM is, they are a Brookhaven-based Republican Super PAC that is rich in donations from local contractors and corporations (many of whom have town contracts and therefore a vested interest in seeing local politicians get re-elected), as well as Brookhaven Republican town officials themselves.

In fact, state campaign finance records also show that last year, the CERM received a combined $40,000 in contributions from Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine, and Town Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro.

You can see for yourself in the pictures below.

What's interesting about these contributions from Romaine and Losquadro, is that it was the Town Board, led by Romaine, that argued in favor of Prop 1's term extensions because it would "take money out of local politics" by allowing local politicians to run for office less frequently.

The problem with that line of reasoning, is that it is both wrong and hypocritical.

It is wrong because the average town council incumbent raises less than $50,000 to run for office, and much of that funding comes from PACs like CERM. Extending their term of office to four years would only strengthen the advantage of incumbency.

Instead of a challenger needing to raise $40k-$50k in order to be competitive, they would need to raise twice the amount, perhaps over $100,000, just to adequately challenge a sitting Town Board member. That advantage would be magnified for officials like Romaine and Losquadro, who hold a higher position of power.

But the "taking money out of politics by giving politicians a term extension" reasoning is also hypocritical, because the very people trying to make that argument are dumping tens of thousands of dollars into a nameless, faceless "Yes to Term Limits" PAC in order to extend their terms.

Meanwhile, the PAC itself refuses to mention the term extensions aspect of Prop 1 to voters!

Even they understand that the majority of Brookhaven residents do not want Prop 1 to pass.

For the sake of accountability, and preserving the right to vote every two years on town officials, as well as limiting them to 12 years instead of re-setting the clock on term limits, Brookhaven voters must VOTE NO on Proposal 1, the "Toxic Term Extensions" proposition.