Giulio Cavallo:

Axis of Corruption

In Our Opinion...

It’s beginning to look more and more as though Giulio Cavallo’s political pimping days are over, and he will soon be trading in his Armanis for Federal Prison Stripes. We believe what he has been engaged in for several years, in his capacity with the Westchester County Independence Party, comes under the heading of ELECTION FRAUD. He has been the Axis of Corruption in Westchester.

The People of New York State, one of only five states in the Union to permit cross-endorsement, are just beginning to open their eyes to the scandal that has been state, and local government. Under cross-endorsement, parties such as the Independence Party do not have to field their own candidates for public office. They are permitted to ‘sell’ their endorsement, together with the votes of most of those registered to them, to the highest bidder. In Westchester, those votes, often more than 17,000 countywide, can, and have, decided far too many elections.

Cavallo, who for years held a six-figure, Pataki appointed, position with the State Health Department, most recently has been “employed” by a state senator from Queens, courtesy of former Republican ‘Boss of Bosses,’ Nick Spano. But Cavallo has worked both sides of the street, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the gutter with snipes such as Larry Schwartz, particularly in the effort to elect Jeanine Pirro District Attorney in 2001, and numerous other candidates in “fixed” elections.

It is well known that for fifteen to twenty–thousand dollars, or more, Cavallo has put the Independence Party’s seal of approval on scores of candidates, including numerous individuals now sitting as County, and State Supreme Court Judges. All those elected officials who paid the toll to the Axis of Corruption are beholden to Cavallo, and are, therefore, suspect and untrustworthy. In reality, Cavallo is nothing more than a political pimp, and those who have paid him are simply prostitutes.

There can be little doubt that United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael Garcia, and the federal attorneys and investigators working with him, have had Cavallo, Dhyalma Vazquez, his girlfriend and co-conspirator, as well as Mario Castaldo in the crosshairs of their sights, as well as Larry Schwartz, David Hebert, Nick Spano, and other co-conspirators too numerous to detail, for some time now. After all, if the Justice Department is to fulfill the mandate set out by President Bush, “to clean up the corruption in the suburbs north of New York City,” surely they must focus first on all of the election fraud that has been synonymous with Westchester politics for years. Quite simply, if the Right of Free and Unfettered Elections is not guaranteed, no other Constitutional Right can be guaranteed.

The Westchester Guardian is gratified by the actions of Nader Sayegh, and numerous genuine and honest card-carrying Independence Party members, who, over this past year have stood up to Cavallo and his henchmen, opposing them in intra- party elections, and challenging their unlawful antics in State Supreme Court.Judge Denis Donovan, while perhaps leaving something to be desired in much of his activity in the Matrimonial Part, nevertheless, must be recognized, and applauded, for his right-minded actions in presiding over the petition brought by Michael J. Lehrer, et al, as “Petitioners against Giulio Cavallo, Dhyalma Vazquez, Mario Castaldo, and the Westchester County Committee of the Independence Party, and the Westchester County Board of Elections, and New York State Board of Elections.”

It is clear, both from Judge Donovan’s Findings Of Fact and Conclusions Of Law, that he is onto Cavallo’s game, and is not about to compromise the interests of honest Independence Party members or Westchester voters. We are confident, going forward, that not only will Guilio Cavallo, and those who have done unlawful business with him, be apprehended, and carted off to prison, but also that decent well-meant citizens will come forward to fill the ranks of the Independence Party.