Four years ago, I ran for office for Orange County Legislative District 4 and was defeated by the incumbent. Since my defeat I rarely have seen Mr. Burger at any public functions, community events or citizen meetings. At times, I wondered if he joined the "Witness Protection Program". I watched the monthly televised County Legislature meetings trying to get a glimpse of him, to no avail. I reviewed the monthly County Legislature minutes and could not find a paragraph of commentary from him. It felt like the old Wendy’s commercial, where the elderly lady opens up here sandwich expecting to dine on a well proportioned Burger and all she could do is look up and state, "Where’s the Beef?" Just like her I wondered, "Where’s the Burger?"
Eventually I found out, one day while attending a community event on Gidney Avenue on the East End of Newburgh I noticed this beautiful car with plates that read Orange County Legislature parked outside a tavern. And in that tavern I found him parked on a barstool. Then I noticed that anytime of the day that I drove by this same tavern, he was there. Finally I found him.
Four years later, I and others are running against the incumbent. We expected him to campaign by attending the community debates and to defend his record and absences from the community. Unfortunately he did not show, he did not give his constituents the respect to attend. Recently he has mailed out a great deal of literature claiming that he was in the forefront of so many improvements to our city. However I cannot find one person in the community that can substantiate his claims.
During the debate, while I was informing the community about my plans to improve growth and development in our city by bringing jobs, infrastructure improvements, affordable housing, improved education and crime reduction, I wondered if I drove by that same tavern on the corner of Gidney Avenue would I have found the Burger? The world will never know!
