By Michael Kaufman

Isaac Bashevis Singer might as well have been describing Orange County when he wrote, “The village of Chelm (Orange County) was ruled by the head of the community council (county executive) and the elders (county legislators), all fools. The name of the head was Gronam Ox (Steve Neuhaus). The elders were Dopey Lekisch, Zeinvel Ninny, Treitel Fool, Sender Donkey, Shmendrick Numskull, and Feivel Thickwit.” Take your pick if you live in any of the legislative districts represented by a Republican other than Mike Anagnostakis.

Lest we forget Orange County’s own little Chelm, the village of Kiryas Joel, populated by members of the Satmar Hasidic sect, is represented by “Shlemiel the beadle” (Michael Amo) of the Independence Party. “I could be the Elephant Party and they’d elect me,” Amo proudly told the weekly Chronicle in an interview last year.  “Many of my colleagues know that if they do not belong to a mainstream party, they are not going to get elected. For me, I don’t have to worry about that.” He said he switched from being a Republican to the Independence Party because of the latter’s commitment to fiscal conservatism. “We want to make sure that if we spend a dollar, we get a dollar’s worth of work,” he explained in true Shlemiel-like fashion: His votes on key issues such as privatization of Valley View and rebuilding the government center in Goshen would ensure quite the opposite, however.

It is also no secret that Independence Party endorsements in the Hudson Valley are guided by influential Republican State Senator John Bonacic and fellow Republican wheeler-dealer Langdon Chapman. The idea is to attract voters who like to think of themselves as independent rather than affiliate with either of the two major parties. The strategy is working. As reported by the Chronicle, the number of Independence Party voters in Orange County rose from roughly 500 voters in 2008 to more than 10,000 in 2012, making it the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the county. Most are aged 18 to 34. And, as it turns out, quite a few reside in Kiryas Joel, where bloc voting is observed almost as strictly as kosher dietary laws.

And so it was that a select group of villagers of Kiryas Joel came to the aid of Orange’s own Gronam Ox (Neuhaus) by registering as members of the Working Families Party in order to  vote in that party’s primary election to determine its designated candidate for county executive last year.  As reported by the Times Herald-Record, “Democratic candidate Roxanne Donnery had gotten the customary blessing of the Working Families Party to run on its ballot line, but found herself challenged by her adversaries in the Village of Kiryas Joel, who petitioned for a primary and signed up dozens of new voters in the labor-backed party.”

The newly registered Working Families voters were provided with a hand stamp to use to print the name “Niki Lee Rowe” on the ballot. Ms. Rowe wasn’t really running for county executive. But she received enough “stamp-in” votes to deny Donnery the Working Families line on the ballot in November. And lo and behold,  Ms. Rowe is also none other than “Mrs. Shlemiel,” aka the wife of county legislator Amo.  An election inspector confiscated the stamp and turned it over to Gimpel the Fool (David Green, Orange County’s Republican election commissioner). One can imagine Green pulling at his beard and rubbing his forehead to show that his brain was hard at work, before ruling that stamping Rowe’s name on ballots was legal, although circulating the stamp inside the polling station was not.

This brings us to the present, as the fools now in charge of governing Orange County ponder the latest developments regarding their ill-fated, ill-advised $74 million renovation plan for the Orange County Government Center. More on this subject next week.

VALLEY VIEW UPDATE—Upwards of 200 people attended Sunday’s rally in Goshen to save the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation from privatization. The event, organized by the Citizens for Valley View (CVV), was not covered by the Times Herald-Record, but you can learn more and keep up with future events by checking out the group’s Facebook page.

EVENT OF INTEREST—An all-star group of musicians and poets will present “A tribute to Harry Smith Anthology to benefit Hungry for Music” at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 14, at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock. Hungry for Music provides musical instruments to underserved children with a “hunger to play.” The concert culminates a month-long Hudson Valley music instrument drive sponsored by RadioWoodstock. Click here for more information and a list of performing artists.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.