FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio

QUEENS AND NASSAU GOP ENDORSE A NON- REPUBLICAN?

When President Bush told the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) during his visit to Israel that a policy of appeasement to Iran and other terrorist countries is foolishness and will not work, that was a stroke of wisdom. Definitely, a wise person cannot shake hands with the devils.

In 2004, I ran for Congress against Democrat Gary Ackerman. I then tried to seek the Queens and Nassau County Republican Party endorsement. Instead, a group of GOP leaders called me and met with me asking me to run against another Democrat, State Senator Toby Stavisky. I refused and that upset them. So they picked up Stephen Graves who already declared his candidacy for Congress in the 7th District. Promised with an instant endorsement, Graves took it hook, line, and sinker.

When a New York Sun reporter asked Graves about his last minute Republican endorsement, he said the party leaders thought I had communication problems presumably because of my Filipino accent. In a Candidates’ Forum, I recounted this newspaper article and described it as racism.

Now I’m running again for the same congressional seat. Against the advice of those who know what’s going on in the backroom of the Queens and Nassau GOP, I still tried to get their endorsement and appeared during their executive committee meeting on April 30th to the extent of apologizing if my words had hurt their feelings. I also brought prominent Rabbi Pomerantz to show that I’m not anti-Semitic. I already expected their accusation of having written articles that are anti-Semitic because I have called Gary Ackerman as an anti-Christian legislator for voting against a Congressional Resolution about the importance of Christmas and Christianity.

The day before the committee meeting, I learned that Bob Bishop, a member of the group who met with me in 2004, downloaded articles from my blog site, From the Barrel of My Pen, that he thinks are anti-Semitic and anti-Italian. He forwarded my articles to the GOP leaders such as Phil Ragusa, the GOP chair, Vincent Tabone, Daniel Egers, and to Janet Malone, president of the Northeast Queens Republican Club. The clear intent was to persuade them not to endorse me.

In spite of all the odds, I still hope to get the Queens Republican Party endorsement. I was surprised when I learned that the leaders once again plucked another candidate from somewhere in the boondocks who confessed when asked during the Q & A that she was a lifelong Independent. She just registered as a Republican on May 2nd. Her name is Liz Berney, another Stephen Graves.



Now I thought of the President’s prophetic warning not to talk to unreasonable people. He was exactly right because during the Q&A following my statement, a woman asked me, “are you from Hong Kong?’ That was no doubt a racist remark. That old character supposed to be a paid party heckler surely did not ask that question to another Asian American candidate in their midst that night who indeed came from Hong Kong. The other Asian American candidate, Peter Koo, which they endorsed has money to give to all who ask. He was also kind enough to run against Toby Stavisky. A local Republican Club just recently honored him for his financial generosity and no other that State Senator Padavan was asked to bestow the plaque of appreciation.

For me and my candidacy for Congress and my goal to rid Congress of Gary Ackerman who is undoubtedly anti-Christian, I begin another saga. Yet endorsed by the Conservative Party of Queens and Nassau, I will campaign hard to win the Republican primary to be the Republican nominee if these local leaders in a joint committee meeting by majority vote as provided by law would be able to nominate a non-Republican such as Liz Berney.

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junpolicarpio@gmail.com
policarpioforcongress08@gmail.com