www.newsday.com


Candidates' fliers stir anger

BY ERIK GERMAN
STAFF WRITER

September 1, 2005

Campaign circulars arriving in Brookhaven residents' mailboxes show that both Republicans in the Sept. 13 primary race for town supervisor have embraced hard-line stances against illegal immigration, a move Democrats dismiss as an attempt to deflect attention from GOP corruption.

In one flier this week, Councilman Edward Hennessey echoed literature distributed by his GOP opponent Robert DiCarlo earlier this summer that said illegal immigration "tears at the very fabric of our society."

Hennessey's flier stated: "Illegal immigrants are taking over our community ... eroding our quality of life, they have brought with them an increased incidence of crime and violence."

DiCarlo, a former state senator from Brooklyn who now lives in Stony Brook, yesterday characterized Hennessey's flier as an unkind version of his own message.

Hennessey was circulating his anti-immigration fliers last week when he criticized DiCarlo for increasing racial tensions by raising the immigration issue. "I would caution any candidate to be cautious in the rhetoric that they engage in," Hennessey told Newsday.

An underlying political question for Hennessey, DiCarlo and the Democratic nominee, Legis. Brian Foley of Blue Point, in the Nov. 8 general election is how voters will react to attacks on undocumented immigrants. Brookhaven has been in an uproar after a series of raids in Farmingville and other parts of the town on illegal houses overcrowded with dozens of undocumented workers. Meanwhile, the Republicans who have controlled the town for most of the last five decades have been embroiled in a series of political corruption scandals.

DiCarlo said he believes illegal immigration could be decisive and criticized Hennessey for coming late to the issue. "He's seeing the response that I've gotten," DiCarlo said, "and he has been told, I'm sure, by his handlers, 'Listen, if you don't get on the right side of this issue you're going to go down to defeat.'"

The Hennessey campaign defended its direct-mail efforts. "Ed Hennessey stands by the mailer," said Dan Panico, Hennessey's campaign manager. "If there are questions about the statements in the mailer, I would suggest you talk to the residents of Farmingville."

Foley blasted Republicans for what he characterized as a "race-baiting" tactic designed to distract voters from GOP corruption.

"When I travel throughout the town, what I'm hearing from residents far and wide is that the most pressing issue facing the town is corruption," Foley said.

"No one running for office can hide behind the immigration issue as a way of trying to divert the public's attention from ... the culture of corruption."