Editorial: Why Matthews Should NOT Receive a Suffolk County District Court Seat

The November 4th elections include 3 picks for the Suffolk County District Court seat.  In total, six candidates are vying for three judicial seats. They Include Walter D. Long, Paul H. Senzer, Steven Hackeling, Patricia Grant Flynn, Paul M. Hensley and James Matthews.  Long, Senzer and Hackeling are running on the Republican Line while Matthews and Flynn  are running on the Democrat, Conservative and Independence Lines. Hensely has the Democrat, Conservative and Working Families Line. Hackeling also has the Independence line.

When voters choose their 3 candidates, we strongly urge them NOT TO INCLUDE James Matthews as one of their picks.

His ties to Cuthbertson have been exposed and they run deep.

James Matthews currently serves as special council to the Huntingon Zoning Board of Appeals, Huntingon Ethics Board and he is the attorney for the Village of Northport.

Despite what appears to be obvious Ethics problems running rampant in the Town of Huntington, the current Huntington Ethics Board never seems to believe there is anything to be concerned about.

Matthews recently stated that he didn’t see any ethics problems with the allegations against Cuthbertson.

At the very least, his strong ties to Cuthbertson should raise many red flags for voters and they should avoid trusting him when they pull the lever tomorrow.

Problems With Cross Endorsements:

In light of recent investigations into various judges as well as Huntington Town Councilman Mark Cuthbertson it is evident that cross-endorsement deals have tainted the only system supposedly free of politics: the Judicial system. No matter what political affiliation you may be, eyebrows should immediately be raised when a candidate for judgeship receives both a Democratic and Conservative endorsement.  These two political parties are typically exact opposite of each other in philosophy.  Cross-endorsements in Suffolk County wreak of collusion, political back room deals and corruption.

There are many concerns with the  Conservative leadership in Suffolk County.  The leader of the party, Ed Walsh  is under investigation for allegedly falsifying his time sheets while on the public taxpayer dime.  Ed Walsh is a Suffolk County Corrections officer who pulled down a salary of $282,324 with overtime in 2013 (source: Newsday).  Additionally, he was paid an additional $62,000 to run the Suffolk Conservative party last year (source: Newsday)

Some of the Independence party leadership are on the Gary Melius payroll at Oheka Castle.  The leadership in the Independence party has turned into a “Lets Hedge Our Bets” party on who that party think is “the winning horse” and back them to give the illusion of power.

Until the Conservative and Independence parties in this County purge the corrupted leadership, any Judge cross endorsed should be looked at with careful scrutiny.

 Read more about Matthews here:

Cuthbertson, Matthews and Ethics Part 1 and Part 11