Long Island
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Immigration key in Brookhaven race

 Brookhaven Town supervisor candidates battle over ethics
Sep 10, 2005
 
BY INDRANI SEN AND ERIK GERMAN
STAFF WRITERS

September 10, 2005, 10:19 PM EDT

The Republican primary campaign for Brookhaven supervisor has both candidates embracing hardline stances against illegal immigration, while moving to distance themselves from decades of town GOP corruption.

Robert DiCarlo, a former state senator from Brooklyn who now lives in Stony Brook, is campaigning as an outsider. Early on, he staked out his opposition to illegal immigrants, whose visible presence in the town has sparked controversy.
 
DiCarlo has been endorsed by the Greater Farmingville Community Association, a civic group that has led the movement against immigrant laborers in the community.

"I'm not the handpicked candidate of the party bosses and that will make it easier for me to stop the corruption," DiCarlo said. "I'm the only candidate that took a firm stand right from the beginning regarding the illegal immigrants."

DiCarlo's opponent, Brookhaven Town Councilman Edward Hennessey, took his own stand on immigration last month, circulating a flyer that blamed immigrants for "taking over our community" and "an increased incidence of crime and violence."

Hennessey's campaign manager said the councilman was simply responding to voters. "It was strong language," said Dan Panico. "But those statements are a direct product of Edward Hennessey knocking on doors in Farmingville and talking to people."

Although he has served on the town board for a decade, Hennessey has also cast himself as outsider who has fought Brookhaven corruption, which has been targeted in an ongoing probe by Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota. "I've fought against an entrenched corrupt system my entire career," Hennessey said. "And I've faced opposition every step of the way from dominant political forces within town government."

The town GOP is in disarray, with neither candidate enjoying the backing of party leadership.

Also on the town's Republican primary ballot, Councilwoman Geraldine Esposito faces a challenge in her run for town clerk from Louis Marcoccia, a corporate manager and a past director of data processing for New York City Transit. The post was left open after longtime clerk Stanley Allan died in March. Esposito, 64, of Selden, has been on the Town Council since she was appointed in 2000 and has worked for the town in various capacities for 25 years.