The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

But, For Tony Castro

Five years ago, following the countywide elections of 2001, in which he was the only legitimate candidate, the only one who was not part of the “Spano-Pirro Fix,” Tony Castro said to me, “It takes time for it to seep in.” He was, of course, referring to the truth about Jeanine Pirro, who he had just missed upsetting by six points. She had spent $1.2 million, and he exactly one tenth of that. Furthermore, up until ninety days before election he was a virtual unknown candidate.

Well, it was pretty clear last Tuesday, that after five years, the truth had seeped in to where it was a flood! Still, despite the gradual public awareness, and her many gaffes in her campaign, she managed to gather more votes than any other Republican statewide, more than 40 percent, so strong is the residual media hype, and public relations imagery that has surrounded Pirro for more than fifteen years since her first election to public office.

Over the years she acquired quite a collection of Pirro-ettes, Cindy Adams of the New York Post, Phil Reisman and Glen Blain at The Journal News, Jan Benzel of The New York Times, not to forget her greatest ‘media
cheerleader,’ Janine Rose, of NEWS 12. Pirro could grab the front page and the boob tube at a moment’s notice, any time her personal or professional performance required damage control. Once, about a year ago,
when her public image was suffering, she appeared on NEWS 12, with News Director Rose, and stated of herself, and her performance as Westchester DA, “I always gave one hundred and ten percent,” to which
Janine Rose, practically falling off her chair, responded, “More like one hundred and fifty.”

Tony Castro, a resident of Rye, with fourteen years on the job in the Bronx DA’s Office, saw through Mrs. Pirro immediately, and wasn’t the least bit afraid to challenge her in her prime. In her previous election, in 1997, against Joanne Norton, another absolute fix, Pirro had won with 67% of the vote. Castro immediately understood the immorality of the so-called “Power Couple,” and the absurdity of a District Attorney whose spouse was the most outrageous white-collar criminal in the County, and the joint signer on ten years of fraudulent tax returns.

It wasn’t merely Castro’s coming within six points of her in 2001 that was so pre-determinative of last Tuesday’s outcome. It was his willingness to run against her again in 2005, and her decision not to face him that really sealed her political fate. When she spent a fortune telephone polling in March and April of 2005, to discover that she could not possibly beat Tony Castro if she ran against him again, and dropped out of the race for District Attorney grudgingly, less than 24 hours before the Westchester Republican Convention in late May, her political future was determined.

Those of us who knew what she was about, realized that without her badge, and her media pulpit, Jeanine Pirro was virtually de-clawed. Without the opportunity to constantly try defendants, on trumpedup charges, in the press and on television, she would lack the ability to deflect and distract from her personal and professional
misconduct, particularly at a time when many of her major wrongfully, and unconstitutionally obtained major
convictions were beginning to come to light in state and federal appellate courts.

But, for Tony Castro’s willingness to stand up against Jeanine Pirro’s tyranny, not once, but twice, thereby effectively removing her from power, the outcome of Tuesday’s election might have been different.

Had she been running from the position of four-term District Attorney of Westchester, with all of the broadcast, and print media at her constant disposal, there is no telling what might have happened. After all, the fact that she lost the Attorney General’s race by somewhat less than 20 percent means that a swing vote of a mere 10 percent would have given her the race.

But, for Tony Castro Jeanine Pirro might have been sitting in the Attorney General’s Office come New Year’s Day.