Orange County - Bid To Lead Legislature Kiboshed By Kiryas Joel Stance

Orange County - As the county lawmaker representing a district that borders Kiryas Joel, Spencer McLaughlin has long criticized the Hasidic community's rapid growth and what he felt were the undue burdens it placed on the region's resources.
His criticism made him an arch-villain to Kiryas Joel's leaders, who believe there is more to his opposition than environmental concerns and have threatened to name him in a civil-rights lawsuit.
That adversarial relationship recently came into play in McLaughlin's unsuccessful bid to become Orange County Legislature chairman, costing him crucial votes.

McLaughlin, a lawyer who has served on the Legislature for 15 years, emerged late last year as the Republicans' leading choice for chairman. But after many days of back-and-forth negotiating among the 21 lawmakers, he stepped aside and made way for Bill Lahey, a chairman all 11 Republicans could agree on.

As the leadership race was heating up, each county lawmaker received a bundle of news clips tracking McLaughlin's position on Kiryas Yoel matters over the years, along with court papers portraying his opposition as anti-Hasidic bigotry. Attached was a brief, anonymous letter opposing his promotion to chairman.
McLaughlin said yesterday that lawmakers from both parties called him after receiving the packages to express support for him.
"All that really accomplished is it made them furious," he said.
He said it hurt to be described as a bigot, especially after fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination with the New York City Human Rights Commission, where he worked for 12 years.
His problem, he said, was not with the people of Kiryas Joel, but with their leaders.
"I want them to behave and act and be held to the same standard as other communities," he said.