Ben Nadeff-Haffrey
speaker
1,009 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 6 Aug
Ben Nadeff-Haffrey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.
Appearances
If you're keeping count, that's the third Bob in this episode.
He was a Staten Island assemblyman at the time.
Straneri and Molinari were not friends.
At one point, Straneri left the island and started a hot dog business in Manhattan.
When he tried to come back to run for office again, Molinari wasn't having it, as the New York Times reported.
So against me, personally and politically.
The quote is, we threw him out of office and got him off of Staten Island and we don't want him back.
Molinari saw where things were headed with secession, and I think he saw it as an opportunity to get something else he wanted even more.
Eight days after that forum, he finally issued a statement on his position.
After 100 years of marriage to Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, the borough of Staten Island is seeking a divorce.
We neither love, honor, nor care to obey the dictates of a city administration which treats us unfairly and remains unresponsive to our needs.
I support secession wholeheartedly."
It was a huge boost.
And the spirit of secession was spreading.
It was getting national media attention.
Queens had been inspired by Staten Island to start their own secession movement.
I found a letter in the municipal archives from a Dinkins person who said a close associate of New York's governor told him that if secession got a strong yes vote on Staten Island, they would have to, quote, take a broad look at the governance of all five boroughs, not just the issue of Staten Island.
In the chess match between Staten Island and New York City, Molinari had just played a crucial move.
one that was going to get Staten Island everything it wanted, but not the way anyone expected.
The fate of the New York City archipelago hung in the balance.
Showing 721–740 of 1,009 · page 37 of 51
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