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Phil Reisman

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The Zherka Circus

July
16

Tomorrow’s column is about next year’s race for Westchester District attorney, a campaign which, believe it or not, is already beginning to take shape with a couple of opponents either officially or unofficially mounting a charge against incumbent Janet DiFiore.

It’s one my longer columns because there are so many players in this drama, among them Sam Zherka, the publisher of the Westchester Guardian and a committed enemy of DiFiore’s.

I talked to Zherka on the phone about any possible role he might have in the D.A.’s race in 2009, since he gave so much money to the ill-fated campaign of Dennis Robertson, a Democrat who attempted to unseat Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone last year. Zherka’s fortune is owed in part to the receipts of a strip club he owns, which made it a little awkward for Robertson, an avowed family man.

Anyway, Zherka told me that while he won’t commit to any one candidate, he’d vote for anyone other than DiFiore. He said he’d even vote for me.

He said “90 percent of politicians are liars.” And that he only backed Robertson because Amicone’s henchmen removed 56 Guardian vending boxes off the streets of Yonkers.

“If he never stole my news racks, I wouldn’t have spent a nickel on that race,” he said, adding that 20 boxes are still missing, despite the fact he won a First Amendment lawsuit against the city.

That line didn’t make it into tomorrow’s column. Nor did Zherka’s interesting and as yet unsubstantiated claim that he has had lunch with County Executive Andy Spano on numerous occasions and that Spano has been a guest at his house “a half-dozen times.”

Politi

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 7:05 pm by Phil Reisman.
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About the author
Phil ReismanPhil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
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