The Mayor

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The Mayor

Stanley Grossman (Social Democracy Party)

Elected in 1998

Current Office: Mayor of Crumm Mountain, NY

Name: Stanley Ernest Grouke

Party: Social Democrat Coalition of Crumm Mountain, NY

Gender: Male

Family: Wife, Lucinda Haslun-Grouke; 1 child, Hillel

Birthdate: 5/4/58

Birthplace: Hartford, CT.

Home City: Crumm Mountain, NY

Religion: Agnostic, raised Jewish

Educational Experience

BA, Hofstra University, Garden City, NY

MA, Education, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Professional Experience

School Administrator, Binghamton, NY

Educator, Syracuse, NY

Political Consultant, Democratic Party of Crumm Mountain, NY

First Elected: Jan/1998

Last Elected: Jan/2002

Next Election: Jan/2004

Political Experience

Mayor of Crumm Mountain, NY 1998-present

Chairman of Social Democrat Coalition, 1995-1998

Campaign Manager for City Legislator Herb Hornstein (DSC) in 1995

Campaign Manager for City Legislator Carlton Fulling (D) in 1989, and 1992

Contact:

Mayor Stanley Grouke

City Hall Office 145

32 National Ave.

Crumm Mountain, NY 12149

Other biographical information:

Stan Grouke's father came to the U.S. from Serbia in 1938. His name was originally Ghroukovic.

Democratic-Socialist Coalition candidate Stan Grouke was elected Mayor of Chlymidia Mountain in 1998. He defeated Republican John McCallister and incumbent Independant Heather Ann Sagunarthy. It has been Mayor Grouke's goal to forward a progressive agenda. The Mayor's top priorities have been to rein in fraudulent taxation policies put in place during Walling's mayoralty. Grouke has also supported making healthcare a human right, available to all city residents, he has supported eliminating tuition at Chlymidia Mountain Community College, he has successfully removed all charges from the city's public transportation system, so you no longer need a ticket to ride a bus or train. In the next several years the Mayor plans to tackle the issue of housing. Grouke has vowed to make quality housing available to the public. Critics of the Mayor say he'll never be able to pay for all this. To this Grouke say's, well "I'm not going to pay for it. The rich, money-grubbing capitalist whores who have been taking advantage of this city for the last twenty years are going to pay for it."

Since being elected Grouke has made it his effort to beat back the influence of local industry, to grow the size of city government, to create a modern welfare state, and to centralize many private industries, expanding the role of government.

"My first major accomplishment" says the mayor, was to get people comfortable with the idea of big government. People have to start realizing that big government is their friend. It's been turned into a pejorative term by Republicans, the political arm of the wealthy ruling classes, and so many believe that big government must be cutback, and that we must "starve the beast" as former President Ronald Reagan used to say. Unfortunuately when you starve the beast, your also starving children and others that re less prosperous. As a modern society, we can no longer toy with antiquated concepts such as rugged individualism and personal responsibility. We must realize that we are all interconnected and that we are all our brothers keepers".

In his book "Welfare State Of Mind" Grouke proclaims "I'm a rugged individualist, I'm an entruepenur, and I see nothing wrong with having a government that sees to my needs from cradle to grave. I don't need to be thrown to the wolves and abandoned to the harsh world to fend for myself to feel confidant as an individual." Life doesn't have to be a choice between poverty and selfish self-advancement.

Former Mayors

1976

Adam Quigley (D) *

William Hannis (R)

1978

Adam Quigley (D) *

William Hannis (R)

1980

Adam Quigley (D)*

James Amon (R)

1982

Adam Quigley (D)

James Amon (R)*

1984

James Amon (R) *

Carlton Fulling (D)

1986

James Amon (R) *

Carlton Fulling (D)

1988

James Amon (R) *

Scott Bennett (D)

1990

Scott Bennett (D)

Bill Walling (R)*

1992

Eugene Laurelton (D)

Bill Walling (R)*

1994

Bill Walling (R)*

Scott Bennett (D)

1996

Heather Ann Sagunarthy (I)*

Carlton Fulling (D)

Geoffrey Hatlee (R)

1998

Stanley Grossman (SD)*

John McAllister (R)

2000

Stanley Grouke (SD)*

John McAllister (R)

2002

Stanley Grouke (SD)*

Ed Adams (R)

Past Mayors

1998-?

Stanley Grossman (Social Democratic Labor Party)

1996-1998

Heather Ann Sagunarthy (Independent)

1990-1996

Bill Walling (Republican)

1982-1990

James Amendola (Republican)

1976-1982

Adam Quigley (Democrat)

1966-1976

Warren Duquette (Republican)

1950-1966

D.B. Van Dusen (Republican)

1938-1950

William Ten Eyck (Republican)

1934-1938

Nicholas Papas (Socialist)

1926-1934

Stephen Podpadic (Socialist)

1922-1926

James P. Harroway (Socialist)

1914-1922

John Platt, Jr. (Democrat)

1910-1914

Harold Manchester (Republican)

1894-1910

Gordon Blunk (Democrat)

1878-1894

Samuel Weller (Democrat)

Bob Zido ran for Mayor as a Socialist in 1938, but lost to Republican William Ten Eyck.

The History of the Social Democratic Labor Party.

The party was officially formed in 1982, but didn't quite take the form in which we know it today, until 1997. Disillusioned by the dominance of the Republican Party machine, several of Crumm Mountains most prominent radicals called a gathering of the city's progressive community. The convention was titled Facing Forward. Many radicals attended. Labor leaders, academics, punk rockers, anarchist collectivists, civil rights leaders, and virtually every shade and stripe of fellow travelers. The purpose of the convention was to form a new party capable of obtaining power in the city, and enacting progressive changes. Harvey Hornstein, a neo-Marxist theoretician, and the conventions chief organizer, was foremost among the attendees in support of a new party to directly challenge the Democratic Party, which in many minds was incompetent to mount a successful challenge to one-party Republican rule. Although a federal court ruling forced the city to adopt a new charter in 1975, to prevent the unfair Republican consolidation of power, there was still a general sense that the Republican Party-Crumm Mountain Police Department machine, could not be stopped. Democrat Adam Quigley was elected in 1976 and made an honest effort to dismantle the power structure set up over almost 40 years earlier when William Ten Eyck, a Republican wrested power from the Socialist Party in 1938. However, by 1980, as Reaganism was taking America by storm Quigley started dropping in the public's esteem. In 1982 he lost dramatically to Republican James Amendola. Amendola's election didn't quite herald a revival of the machine politics the city thought it put to bed almost a decade earlier but, it proved enough of a signal to the progressive community that Democrats didn't have the backbone to build the kind of movement necessary to not only win elections, but actually make a difference. Harvey Hornstein was convinced that the Democratic Party would never make a true poltical comeback in Crumm Mountain. The party had been out of power for way too long. Before Adam Quigley, the last Democrat to serve as Mayor was John Platt, Jr., who died in office in 1922.

Hornstein knew that Crumm Mountain had a lot of potential for a radical leftist party. Just looking at the city's history could tell you this.

From 1922 to 1938 the city elected three socialist mayors, and before that, the city was the site of several radical general strikes. The remnants of the city's past had never truly been cleared away. The city still had a strong labor, academic, and activist left, only they had never been moved to vote for Democratic candidates. Hornstein's goal was to unite these unnecessarily disparate groups into a common movement, to challenge not only the Democratic Party, but the Republican party as well.

Other prominent figures in attendance were Eugene Kramkowski, charismatic leader of the Crumm Mountain Labor Coalition, Bruce Gottfried, a perennial thorn in the side of local government and corporations, Martin Delgrasso, president of the Re-Education Center, and Mark Loebman, founder of Beyond the Pale, a local punk club. These were the individuals that came to have the most impact on the convention.

After debating over various strategies, the convention finally concluded with the formation of the Social Democratic Labor Party. Various strategies toward the Democratic Party had been entertained, however in 1987, Harvey Hornstein seized on a Democratic vacancy on the ballot for a Common Council election. Hornstein was able to obtain the democratic nomination. He ran on both party lines. This was the first real shot that the new party had at winning an election. The progressive community that supported the Facing Forward convention, came out full force to support Hornstein. In January, Hornstein came out ahead of his conservative Republican opponent Thomas Parris. Nobody knows quite how it how happened, but it did. Hornstein has been re-elected handily every three years since.

After the 1987 election, Hornstein's victory showed the SDLP what could be if they could run as Democrats and SDLP'rs. They then began a campaign to infiltrate the Democratic Party, gain complete control, and collapse it into the SDLP. This would seem quite ambitious, but decades of Republican dominance had reduced the Democratic party almost to irrelevance. This made the SDLP's infiltration rather smooth. Some notable resistance came in the form of Carl Fulling, a long time city councilman, and former labor supporter. Fulling, had simply grown conservative over the years, and didn't feel comfortable with the radical elements in the city. Since the mid-90's Fulling has had an adversial relationship with people such as Bruce Tompkins of Crumm Mountain Community Radio, and the members of the Sergei Nacheav Collective. Fulling has been called a "phony, drunken, careerist, in it for his own personal and professional gain." Others, have had more substantive objections to the SDLP takeover. Scott Bennett, also a city councilman, felt that merging the parties would only further alienate Crumm Mountain already alienated voters. But by the far the biggest impediment to the merger came in the form of Bob Ericson, long-time Democratic operative, and former Chairman of the Democratic Party.

Leaders of the Social Democratic Labor Party

1982-1987

Harvey Gorenstein

1987-1990

Eugene Kramkowski

1990-1992

Jonothan McSorley

1992-1994

Oscar L. Shelden

1994-1998

Stanley Grossman

1998-?

Bill Schrumann

The race to succeed Mayor Grossman

Harvey Gorenstein (SDLP)

Aaron Gaglione (SDLP)

Fred Kane (SDLP)

Nathan Uniskiewicz (SDLP)

You might think that Gorenstein would run unopposed, given his role in the creation of the party, and it's development since the early 80's, but Aaron Gaglione also played a big role in the investigation of the Lewis Ward police scandals in the mid 90's, and helped to demolish the Republican party which ultimately allowed the SDLP to take power. So Gaglione is seen as quite a viable challenger at this time. Others have attempted to enter the race as well. Fred Kane; Grossman's Labor Commissioner, Nate Uniskiewicz; the police commissioner, and it has even been reported that Steve Frankowitz may be considering a run for Mayor. All of these eager beavers, may end up fragmenting the party when Grossman finally decides to hang up his hat.

Stan Grouke (Socialist) (1998)

Heather McCarthy (Independant) (1996)

Bill Walling (Republican) (1994)

James Amon (1992)

Scott Bennett (Democratic) (1988)

James Amon (Republican) (1982)

Adam Quigley (Democratic) 1976

History of CL presidents

Harvey Hooper (Socialist) 2001-?

Geoffrey Hatlee (Republican) 1991-2001

Carl Fuling (Democratic) 1980-