Sharon Comes To Midwood Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to Brooklyn on the first day of spring, meeting with some of the borough's elected officials, local activists and the business elite in the Sephardic community. The private meeting, which took place at an Ocean Parkway home, was brokered by Jack Avital, a prominent Sephardic Jew.

According to Assemblymember Dov Hikind, who attended the event, other elected officials present included Rep. Anthony Weiner and Councilmember Noach Dear. Malcolm Heonlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, also attended, as did the publisher of the Jewish Press and local activist Betty Cohen.

The fact that Sharon, who was in the country to visit President Bush, decided to come to Brooklyn, is indicative of the borough's importance in larger Jewish life, said Hikind. "[Sharon] made it his business to come straight from Washington. He's a man in his seventies, he could have gone to a hotel to relax. It shows the incredible influence of the people in our community, of the larger community, that one of the very first private things that he did was come to Brooklyn," said Hikind.

Council Free-For-All Now that Councilmember Mary Pinkett's committee effectively buried the term limits repeal, the crowded and potentially controversial race to win her seat is officially on and absolutely wide-open.

The race in the 35th Councilmanic District offers a veritable buffet of candidates, including District Leader James Davis, who is vowing once again to butt heads with Assemblymember Clarence Norman, the county leader. Davis said that he is aiming to beat Norman's candidate in the race, Letitia James, and that he will put up a candidate against Norman's civil court candidate in the 6th District, Johnny Lee Baynes. "Then we'll see who has the real juice in the neighborhood," he said. "That whole thought just excites me: beating Tish James, Al Vann, county's candidate." Last year, Davis defeated Norman's candidate for district leader.

"I'll keep on a positive note," rejoined Norman. "Letitia James is a very qualified candidate, and we'll pull out all the stops to see that she'll win. I'll leave my boasting and machismo for September 11." Beating James and the other candidates in this race will not be an easy task, despite Davis' bravado.

James was most recently the head of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's Brooklyn office, a job that she left to run for Council. She is now back working for Assemblymember Al Vann-who has himself declared for City Council. James has said that if elected she would vote for him as speaker, and he has also endorsed her candidacy. A resident of Clinton Hill, James will officially kick off her campaign on April 25. She said that she already sports a long list of other allies, including Assemblymembers Jim Brennan, Joan Millman and Joe Lentol, state Comptroller H. Carl McCall and Ruth Messinger. "I suspect that others will be coming on very shortly," she said.

District Leader Bill Saunders, however, isn't so sure. He said that he has the backing of State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, for whom he works, and is close to getting the nod from Assemblymember Roger Green. "He seems to be leaning to me. That's what he said," said Saunders. Saunders will host a large fundraiser on April 8.

Errol Louis, executive director of the Bogolan Merchants Association, is running again for the seat after taking 30 percent of the vote against Pinkett in 1997. Louis said that he recently sat down with Norman and had a "fairly friendly chat" during which Norman asked him to stay out of the race in exchange for a potential assistant commissioner post if city Comptroller Alan Hevesi takes City Hall. But Louis is definitely running, partly because he believes that Norman's strength will be diluted in this race.

"[County] can't even control its district leaders," said Louis, alluding to Saunders' and Davis' candidacy despite Norman's support of James. "At some point, you have to ask, what is county?" Louis believes that the race has the potential to turn nasty. "We'd [all the candidates] probably end up voting the same 80 percent of the time, so the only differences become personal. Inevitably, the race will start to turn on some of those personal qualities," he said.

There are several other noteworthy candidates, including Avrohom Wasserman, a Jew from Crown Heights who is a member of the local community board and Jewish community council. If he is able to hold onto a solid Jewish base, Wasserman could prove quite dangerous in a crowded field. But he is not a lock for Hasidic support. "We're going to meet all the candidates, we're going to hear them all out, and we're going to make our decision. It'd be nice to have a Jew, but they have to know what our needs are," said Chanina Sperlin, executive vice chairman of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council Political Action Committee.

Another potential Jewish candidate is Devorah Halberstam, a noted gun control advocate whose son was killed on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1994. She said that she has not yet decided whether to run. Union organizer Ed Wright is also a candidate. Several others who could not be contacted are said to be running, including Peter Williams of the Medgar Evers Center for Law and Social Justice, United African Congress head Siddique Wai, Barbara Smith of School Board 13, Imogene Ferguson of Community Board 8, and Joe Pressley, executive director of the New York AIDS Coalition. Most likely, the field will be narrowed by the petitioning process.

Against All Odds While hundreds of candidates around the city are vying for open Council seats, there is at least one who's decided to run for a seat that's held by an incumbent. George Martinez, who teaches political science at Hunter College, is aiming to take the job of Councilmember Angel Rodriguez. "I believe there's no free rides for incumbents," said Martinez.

Martinez, a resident of Sunset Park, also works with youth through his not-for-profit arts and education organization. He said that concerns about potential power plant construction and improving education were top on his agenda.

When asked, he said that he was not affiliated with Assemblymember Felix Ortiz, with whom Rodriguez has a chilly relationship. He also said that he wasn't running just to boost his name recognition for another bid two years from now. "Some of these [local] issues are pressing enough that two years down the line might be too late to interject into the conversation," said Martinez.

Gold Leaning Yes It's sounding more and more like District Leader Jake Gold will make a bid for City Council in the 44th District. "I'm going to have a big fundraiser forthcoming," said Gold, who has not yet definitively said whether he will run. "I'm getting very nice support. I'm meeting with people in Borough Park, which is a big part of the district, and the feedback has been cordial. So far, I'm encouraged." The race already includes local activist Sandy Aboulafia, Simcha Felder, chief of staff to Assemblymember Dov Hikind, and attorneys Bob Miller and Sam Spirgel.

Setting The Record Straight Responding to an item in last week's column, Roderick Dial, past president of the Lambda Independent Democrats, said that a $300 check to cover the memberships of 20 supporters of Public Advocate Mark Green was not drawn on the account of Allen Roskoff, Green's liaison to the gay community. Instead, said Dial, the check, which was drawn on another person's account, was delivered in an envelope with Roskoff's return address, leading to the confusion.

"Allen had mailed friends of his and supporters of Mark's instructions [on how to join LID], and his return address was on the envelope that the check came in," said Dial. Dial added that the membership of Green staffer Barry Ford was not new, as reported. He also said that of the 20 new and re-activated memberships organized by Roskoff, none were Green staffers. He did concede that they were all Green supporters, and that many have volunteered for Green's campaign effort.

Borough Politics Archive
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