The Political is Personal

The converse of the feminist formula which states that 'the personal is political' is proven true by a story in the New York Times on county politics in Westchester, NY. Interestingly, however, the familial strife roiling the locale's hereditary political class can no longer be constrained by the limits of the duopoly form:

In Westchester County, where the Spano name has dominated politics on both sides of the aisle for a generation, voters are used to seeing double, even triple, on ballots. There is the affable three-term county executive, Andrew J. Spano, a Democrat from northern Westchester. Then there are the Republican Spanos of Yonkers — a father and two sons who had held state and county positions — who are no relation. One of the sons in that family, Assemblyman Mike Spano, ratcheted up the confusion in 2007 when he turned Democrat. But voters will face a bigger challenge this November: Two Spanos are planning to run for county executive — and they are father and son. David Spano, one of Andrew Spano’s four adult children, is collecting signatures for a spot on a third-party line, tentatively called Abolish County Government. [Emphasis added.]

One of Spano the Younger's primary backers is local businessman and political gadfly Sam Zherka:

The idea [to run] crystallized, he said, after he met Sam Zherka, a strip-club owner and provocative publisher of a weekly newspaper called The Westchester Guardian, which castigates Republicans and Democrats alike. Mr. Zherka, a local leader in the fight against county government, has made millions in real estate and is backing David Spano’s bid.

Some supporters of the county executive say they believe Mr. Zherka, long a critic of Andrew Spano, is simply using his son to embarrass him . . . Susan Tolchin, the deputy county executive, agreed, saying Mr. Zherka’s support of David Spano was part of a history of creating public spectacles at the expense of elected officials.

Last year, for instance, Mr. Zherka offered a $100,000 reward for any information about the Westchester County district attorney, Janet DiFiore, that would lead to her conviction of any crime. “Zherka is a showman — it’s theater of the absurd,” Ms. Tolchin said. “I was at his Abolish County Government rally, and he called everyone a moron. The governor was a moron. Every politician was a moron.”

Though Tolchin apparently believes that such an opinion discredits Zherka, it is likely that many New Yorkers more or less agree with his position following the recent debacle in the state's legislature. Nonetheless, the Abolish County Government rally, as you might have guessed, was part of the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party protests held last April. The third party line being sought by David Spano is the direct result of that organizational effort. In the run-up to the protest, Zherka produced a number of videos advertising the events. Here's one: