Control of KJ to be decided in vote today
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Kiryas Joel – Thousands of residents will stream in and out of a basement polling station from dawn until dark today to choose the leadership of what often seems to be the region's most-watched community.
Mayor Abraham Wieder and two board allies are seeking re-election in only the third contested municipal race since his Hasidic community incorporated as a village 28 years ago.
At stake is the political control of a community of 17,000 whose rapid growth and development court more attention than its size would suggest, drawing it lately into escalating conflicts with neighboring towns and the Orange County government.
Wieder, 56, whose faction holds all five elected village posts, fended off an unprecedented challenge to his authority in 2001, when a popular opposition leader then serving on the Village Board tried to oust him.
This time around, he faces Jacob Banda, 57, who might be best known as the president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, a Manhattan-based organization representing 2,000 diamond industry businesses.
Wieder's group calls itself the Experience & Results party at elections, a name summarizing how it sells itself to the village's bloc-voting citizens.
Banda is endorsed by both the Democrats and the Kiryas Joel Alliance, the village's opposition party. But because of a technical glitch, Banda will appear today only on the Democratic ballot line, while his two running mates will appear on both that and the alliance line.
Whatever their political differences, Wieder and Banda also have a personal dispute stretching back at least a decade, involving tracts of undeveloped land outside the village in Monroe and Woodbury that both men covet, presumably for development purposes.
The dispute, which also involves other parties, has been in and out of secular and Orthodox Jewish courts for years. The latest salvo was fired in January, when Wieder filed a new state Supreme Court suit accusing Banda and others of violating a religious court ruling.
Kiryas Joel's opposition movement has gained considerable strength and numbers since the days when the few village dissidents were outcasts who might get stones thrown at them or their cars lit on fire.
In the process, it has established itself as a significant voting bloc of its own but one that still occupies a distinctly minority position.
In 2001, its candidates lost by 600-vote margins of more than 4,100 cast. In 2004, when approximately 4,500 voted, the margins were closer to 800.
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
Kiryas Joel – Thousands of residents will stream in and out of a basement polling station from dawn until dark today to choose the leadership of what often seems to be the region's most-watched community.
Mayor Abraham Wieder and two board allies are seeking re-election in only the third contested municipal race since his Hasidic community incorporated as a village 28 years ago.
At stake is the political control of a community of 17,000 whose rapid growth and development court more attention than its size would suggest, drawing it lately into escalating conflicts with neighboring towns and the Orange County government.
Wieder, 56, whose faction holds all five elected village posts, fended off an unprecedented challenge to his authority in 2001, when a popular opposition leader then serving on the Village Board tried to oust him.
This time around, he faces Jacob Banda, 57, who might be best known as the president of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, a Manhattan-based organization representing 2,000 diamond industry businesses.
Wieder's group calls itself the Experience & Results party at elections, a name summarizing how it sells itself to the village's bloc-voting citizens.
Banda is endorsed by both the Democrats and the Kiryas Joel Alliance, the village's opposition party. But because of a technical glitch, Banda will appear today only on the Democratic ballot line, while his two running mates will appear on both that and the alliance line.
Whatever their political differences, Wieder and Banda also have a personal dispute stretching back at least a decade, involving tracts of undeveloped land outside the village in Monroe and Woodbury that both men covet, presumably for development purposes.
The dispute, which also involves other parties, has been in and out of secular and Orthodox Jewish courts for years. The latest salvo was fired in January, when Wieder filed a new state Supreme Court suit accusing Banda and others of violating a religious court ruling.
Kiryas Joel's opposition movement has gained considerable strength and numbers since the days when the few village dissidents were outcasts who might get stones thrown at them or their cars lit on fire.
In the process, it has established itself as a significant voting bloc of its own but one that still occupies a distinctly minority position.
In 2001, its candidates lost by 600-vote margins of more than 4,100 cast. In 2004, when approximately 4,500 voted, the margins were closer to 800.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/06/01/kjvote01.htm