New York: Staten Island IP Vice Chair Anita Lerman makes a stand for grassroots democracy...

Staten Island Up Close
The Congressman vs. the Cable Host
New York Times
By JEFF VANDAM
Published: September 10, 2006
Over the last decade, when it came to choosing who would represent Staten Island and southwest Brooklyn in Congress, Anita Lerman has been the unchallenged standard-bearer of the Independence Party, a small but growing group with 6,703 members on the island.
But in the primary elections on Tuesday, Ms. Lerman will face a rival for her party’s mantle, an opponent who is better known to voters: Vito Fossella, the Republican who has held the House seat in the 13th District since 1997.
Mr. Fossella and Ms. Lerman, the 62-year-old former host of a public access television show called “Anita Lerman Presents News and Views for Staten Island,” are squaring off for a line on the ballot that in the general election typically attracts 1,000 to 2,000 votes, just 1 or 2 percent of the total.
But local officials of the Independence Party of New York — there are others in Florida, Michigan and elsewhere — say they are not surprised that Mr. Fossella is seeking their party’s nomination.
“There are going to be more and more primaries on the Independence line,” said Sarah Lyons, chairwoman of the party’s Staten Island chapter. “The party has grown, and it’s become recognized as a thing of great value. We’ve been working at the grass roots to build a voting base underneath it.”
Mr. Fossella, 41, who will run unopposed on the Republican line in November and in the past has won election by tens of thousands of votes, said he was seeking the Independence nomination because of his personal beliefs.
“I pride myself on being an independent fighter for people I represent,” Mr. Fossella said last week. “The core of the word ‘independence’ is to step up and do what’s right, regardless of the fact that sometimes it means going against your own party.”
Mr. Fossella cited the examples of his battles against the Bush administration to increase homeland security funds for New York and to preserve deductions for home mortgage interest and for state and local taxes on federal income taxes.
Ms. Lerman, who is the vice chairwoman of the local party, said her top issue was to make energy policy more environmentally friendly and to reduce consumers’ energy costs.
As for her chances in the primary, Ms. Lerman said she did not see her campaigns in terms of winning and losing. Rather, she said, her campaigns are about meeting the people of Staten Island as she goes door to door and talks to them about their views.
“People say, ‘When I was in the big party, nobody ever came to my door with a petition for a candidate,’ ” Ms. Lerman said. “Every person who feels more involved and is heard, and says, ‘Wait, this political process can have something to do with me’ — that’s a victory.”
JEFF VANDAM

NOTE: Anita, you're a winner in my book! And it's not often that your kind of WINNER makes it into the New York Times, so double congratulations! Keep up the great work! -NH