The election season has begun with candidates from both parties getting nominated tonight. This site will have some news shortly. BIG news shortly.

As always, please let us know what you think. A letters page will be going up soon.

Memorial Day. As we enjoy our day off (rain or not) let us not forget the brave men and woman that risked and sacrificed for us.

In the May 20th Newsday Pete once again shoots from the hip and the shot is as wild as his other statements. Pete drones on again that "All the Democrats have done is raise taxes." I guess he missed the staff reductions, consolidations and other initiatives by Tom Souzzi and the Democrats. We look back at Pete's tenure as Deputy Presiding Officer and say "All he and the Gulotta Republicans did was destroy Nassau's finances."

Want to know what Pete Schmitt thinks is "designed to improve the quality of life" and an "important piece of legislation?" No, not a plan to fix Nassau's financial problems. It was legislation to abolish sales tax on flag purchases. FLAG PURCHACES. Once again, we have politics disguised as patriotism. The original bill was introduced just after July 4th 2002. In Pete's "Report" of May 2nd he even tries to tie this bill to the "Horse's Ass Controversy." Pete says "This county should not benefit financially from our residents' patriotism." That's all well and good but what does Pete think about the manufacturer and store's making money from the sale of flags? Should flag sales be non-profit? What does Pete think about that? This is pure politics and not any concern about patriotism. Like the "Horse's Ass Controversy," it's a move to shamelessly use patriotism to further his own political goals.

A great letter to the editor written last year confronts Pete Schmitt in the Plainview-Old Bethpage Herald on the flag bill and more. Check it out here.

More on the "Horse's Ass Controversy:" In the May 2nd, 2003 "Legislative Minority Report," Pete tries once again to make an issue out of non-issue. One would think that there are more pressing issues in the county but for Pete, it's politics before people. Pete continues to fabricate the description of the horse in question. Pete keeps saying that the flag is painted on the "hindquarters of the horse" when it is the whole horse painted in red,white and blue with a field of stars. The sad attempt to politicize the patriotic design of a 9 year old girl is beyond the pale. Once again, we ask Pete Schmitt to go face to face with the 9 year old designer and tell her to her face that she is wrong and that she is not patriotic. Then Pete can go to the artist that painted the horse who is a vietnam vet and tell him to his face that he is wrong and unpatriotic. In his April "Report" Schmitt said the horse was "...shamelessly emblazoned with the American Flag..." We expect Pete and the rest of his cohorts to not "shamelessly" use the American flag on their political mailings and posters. We would like to welcome everyone down to Mineola to see the horses and let us know if they are offended. Everyone we've spoken to like the horses and don't see what the problem is.

In today's Newsday, Tom Suozzi rightly blames Pete Schmitt and the Gulotta Republicans for trying to undermine the fiscal recovery of the county saying "Don't give us the same old adjectives and blather." Pete retorts "He doesn't want to admit he's failing so he throws a fit and blames the Republicans." Make no mistake, Pete WANTS Tom Suozzi to fail. Under the Democrats, the county has come a long way from the fiscal nightmare created by Schmitt and Gulotta. We are not out of the woods yet but we have a map and a compass. Schmitt wants to attach a magnet to the compass and burn the map so he and his party can make electoral gains. It's time Schmitt put Nassau first and politics last.

Ahhhhh delays. Gotta love 'em. We've been busy here at Pete Schmitt Watch Headquarters but have made a vow to update more often. We finally have the article from Long Island Press available here. And also the full answers to the reporters questions here. We are working on a few new features for the site and have some updates to post asap. Be right back......

Go away for a couple of days and miss a whole lot. Pete's Legislative Minority Report in the Anton Newspapers almost got away from us. To miss the April 18th edition would have been like missing christmas.

What started out as a 9 year old girls patriotic drawing of a American flag painted horse has turned into a controversy. Horse breeder Jim Vena's 9 year old daughter drew a flag draped horse and her father commisioned a version for the "Horse of a Different Color" program. The artist who created the horse Pauli Suominen, is a Marine Vietnam War veteran. Legislator Dunne was the first to make a stink about the horse as reported in the Long Island Press and Newsday. Dunne said "I want that horse out of Nassau County." This all because Dunne and others don't believe the flag should be on a horse or actually because it is an election year and it's time to politicize everything. Too bad for Dunne that Jim Vena is a republican. Now enter Pete Schmitt....

Pete states like Dunne "The United States Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion both have strict guidelines about the use of the American flag. Both veterans groups state that the flag shall not be used for any promotional purposes, and are vehemently opposed to the use of the flag in this manner." Now this is not law, just opinion. The amazing thing us that the flag has been placed on everything from shirts to underwear to political bumper-stickers and car dealerships yet there is nary a comment from Schmitt and Dunne about that. At the young republican sponsered "pro-troops" rally in Mineola, the misuse of the flag was in abundence yet Schmitt and Dunne said nothing. We can understand a disagreement but as usual it turns political "I am ashamed to see the disrespect that the administration has shown to the thousands of veterans of Nassau County and to all Americans by allowing our nation's colors to be painted on the rear end of a fiberglass horse." Par for course Schmitt uses his Legislative Minority Report to bash Democrats and do so dishonestly. To say that the flag is "painted on the rear end of a fiberglass horse" can only be considered a blatant deception. The whole horse is the flag. Schmitt knows this but it doesn't sound as good as saying the flag was painted on the ass. There is also another sticking point as the artist points out in the Long Island Press "I see nothing controversial about having an American flag on a horse when it's not an exact American flag." We would like to see Schmitt go after the 9 year old girl who wanted to express her patriotism and the the war veteran that painted it. We don't see Pete having the guts to go after them. If Schmitt and Dunne cared about veterans they would publicaly rebuke Bush, Pete King and the republicans in congress for trying to cut veterans benefits by billions of dollars.

more later......

Well, the link for the full answers to the reporters questions for the Long Island Press article didn't work so we've tried again here. The answers are in Adobe Acrobat format.

We're taking an early spring break here and plan to be back to full speed in a few days. Stay tuned for some more fun adventures.

We'll have more on the Long Island Press article on us later with a link to the article itself. The full answers to all the reporters questions can be found here.

Pete Schmitt called into the Ed Tyll show on 540AM WLIE the yesterday to use the smoking ban in Nassau to beat up on Democrats (as usual.) Schmitt called what the Democrats did part of their "ideology." Now what is strange is that in suffolk, a similar law was passed by a republican legislature and signed by a republican County Executive. On top of that, the REPUBLICAN governor and the REPUBLICAN state senate passed and signed into law a comprehensive state-wide smoking ban. We have to wonder if Schmitt believes that Pataki, Gaffney, Bruno and all the republicans that signed off on the smoking bans have the same ideology as the democrats in Nassau County.

The brand new Long Island Press has done an article on this website in their April 3rd issue still on stands now. The author, associate editor Lauren E. Hill was very fair and in our eyes did a very good job. Schmitt spokesperson Scott McMahon did not fail in our expectations to lower the discourse when he said "We are not going to respond to an anonymous website whish seems to be authored by some craven lacky whose time is spent misinterpreting Legislator Schmitt's comments." Now we're trying to figure who we are a "craven lacky" for. We're not working for anyone. It seems Scott McMahon never bothered to read the site before making his statement. I fail to see where we have "misinterpreted" Schmitts comments. We're pointing out the facts. We welcome Scott to let us know where we are wrong. I doubt he will take us up on the offer because he knows he can't..... more later.

We've hopped into the Way-Back Machine and ended up in January of 2001. That was the fateful month when Pete Schmitt and his now minority party cohorts banded together in an attempt to fool the voters. You see, it was an election year. An election year where the county executive seat was up and barring some scandal, anyone with a heart-beat would beat the beleaguered Tom Gulotta who was running out of proclaimations to give. The county you see was in a mess.. a big mess. The republicans needed to get another candidate so they might have a chance of holding on to the office. Incrediblely in what can only be decribed as massive chutzpah Schmitt and the Gulotta Republicans issued a statement which attempted to absolve them of any wrong-doing. They had a list of things that Gulotta did wrong and that they seemingly had nothing to do with. Schmitt writes "Under his (Gulotta) Administration Nassau County has the lowest bond rating of any county in the State" and "Under his Administration Nassau County was on the verge of bankruptcy and needed State assistance to get the County through a fiscal meltdown" Did this happen in a vaccum? Did Tom Gulotta have secret powers where he could over-ride the votes of the super-majority 15 member republican legislature? Schmitt continues with "Under his Administration we have a broken government where the simple task of paying for a parking ticket becomes a day-long chore." Again we have to know if the republicans in the legislature were impotent to act if they saw problems. We hear from Schmitt that "Under his Administration we have departments that are barely functional." This is incredible stuff. Schmitt and his cohorts are admitting that they had no power whatsoever. They were being paid by the taxpayers but they had no over-sight of the executive branch and they were merely there to rubber-stamp whatever Gulotta wanted. The statement goes on to say "Simply put - he had his chance to lead, he has failed - it is time for him to go." That should apply to Pete and the republican legislators too. They were in the majority. They signed off on everything that led the county into the worst fiscal crisis in history. The press release is proof-positive that the republicans led by Schmitt are unable to lead or take responsibility for thier own actions. It was easy to kick Gulotta while he was down but it was dishonest to blame him for everything.

Interesting news on the BPA scandal front. The US Attroney prosecuting the case calls the republican legislators who approved the benefit switch "very unsophisticated naive group of Nassau County Officials." Robert McDonald was the Chief Deputy Presiding Officer for republican Tom Gulotta and now he is on trial for bribery along with other local GOP party members. This scandal cost the county $70million. Then Deputy Presiding Officer Pete Schmitts excuse for signing off on the plan was as he put it in Newsday on 1/5/03 "But if a member of the administration or a commisioner or a deputy county executive or somebody of that stature gets up before the legislature and lies, well, then we're going to make a decision based on the information we have. In that respect, it can happen again." WHAT??? It is the job of the legislature to study and read any proposal they vote on. What was see here is a complete lack of responsibility for the loss of millions of dollars. If it weren't for Democratic Legislator Altman, this could have gone on longer. Let's look at the huge budget hole the county has and wonder that could have been if that $70million wasn't flushed away by corrupt officials. The republicans in the legislature have alot to answer for and we'd like to hear them answer the $70million question under oath.

An alternate main page for Schmitt Watch with links to BPA stories is available here.

We have a guest commentary from a letter writer who Pete has been responding to in the Massapequan Observer. Because the letter writer does not want to abuse the editors kindness, we are hosting the response. This space will have more in-depth commentary in the next update. Adobe Acrobat required.

A response to Mr. Schmitt

Wow. All we can say is WOW. In Rick Brand's Newsday column, good old Pete had his to say about Brian Muellers considering re-election: "He has alot to answer for; there's alot of baggage around his neck." Now let me get this straight.. Pete Schmitt whose leadership in the legislature led to the near economic collapse of Nassau County, voted sight unseen on the BPA scam that cost the county $70million and generally made a mess of the county finances since 1995 says someone ELSE has baggage? To bad for Pete this site and others will make sure the voters know about HIS baggage.