BRENNAN EYING "MAJOR" MOVE? There are whispers in Brooklyn political circles that Assemblyman Jim Brennan is interested in running for Congress, and has his eye on Rep. Major Owens's district. Who's spreading these crazy rumors anyway? Lest anyone think this column recklessly circulates such nonsense, we called Brennan for a response. He didn't return the call. It must be true!

Brennan has also reportedly been telling people of a rapprochement between himself and Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver. Brennan supported a failed coup attempt against Silver a couple of years back, earning the speaker's wrath. He also helped expose a "slush fund" that legislative power brokers doled out undemocratically to favored legislators.

Brennan was, of course, correct about the tawdry practices of Albany, which would explain why he might want to go to Washington. Nothing tawdry happens there, right?

CONNOR DISPLEASED BY REDISTRICTING Our speculation that Senate Minority Leader Marty Connor effusively praised Governor George Pataki's environmental record to thank him for redrawing Connor's district was incorrect, according to Connor's press secretary, Sue Gold. In fact, Gold said, Connor supports a lawsuit against the new lines, which extend Connor's district into Williamsburg.

Does that mean Connor doesn't want Williamsburg in his district? "That's not what I said," said Gold. But moments later she said, "To say he likes the (new) district is just ludicrous."

Now we're confused. If the problem is not Williamsburg being added, what is it? "They're not fair to minorities," Gold said of the new lines, which have yet to be approved by the Justice Department. Having cleared that up, Gold also clarified the meaning of Connor's quote, "I'm the Democratic leader of the state Senate. So there's some things I must do and some things I can't do. I can't endorse the governor. I'm not allowed."

Gold insists that Connor was not implying that he would endorse Pataki if he were "allowed." She seemed surprised that anyone might draw such a conclusion from Connor's statement.

MAYOR MIFFED AT MARKOWITZ Mayor Mike Bloomberg said last week that either Marty Markowitz or one of his press people erroneously said that the Police Department suggested the borough president cancel his Brooklyn Bridge celebration for security reasons. "I happen to like Marty," Bloomberg said at a May 31 breakfast for community media at Gracie Mansion. But Brooklyn Borough Hall's assertion that the NYPD was against the bridge party was "100 percent not true," the mayor said.

Markowitz's people are now telling reporters that it was strictly the beep's decision and the police made no such recommendation. But it would seem Markowitz's credibility has already been damaged in Bloomberg's eyes.

RUBBER CHICKEN HONOREES COME WITH SKELETONS Two Brooklyn Democratic leaders made odd choices for honorees at fundraising dinners in Mill Basin later this month.

Assemblyman Clarence Norman, chairman of the party organization in Brooklyn, tapped Michael Geffrard for his June 13 fundraiser for Norman's campaign war chest. The Village Voice last year identified Geffrard as "a former first deputy city comptroller who was forced to resign in 1995 after a scandal." Norman did not return our call (he must have lost the message), but Geffrard did. He said what the Voice called a "scandal" was really "much ado about not anything."

"[The Voice's] Wayne Barrett said I was doing things I shouldn't have been doing. None of it was true at all," said Geffrard, a longtime friend of Norman's. "He was alleging, not directly, sort of indirectly, some NASD violations. That information is public; our record is clean."

It had to do with some personal real estate loans that were repaid two years before the story broke, said Geffrard, 49, of Windsor Terrace. He resigned, he said, because "there was no point in hanging around to have my reputation tarnished by being asked the questions." The issue was so minor that after he quit, there was no follow-up and nobody cared, said Geffrard, who today runs an investment banking firm in Manhattan.

Then we have district leader Lori Knipel, a candidate for state Senate from Flatbush, whose Brooklyn Independent Democrats chose Manhattan attorney Ravi Batra to be an honoree at its June 20 fundraiser. Batra, as receiver for the Cypress Hills Cemetery, assigned legal work for the cemetery to his own law firm, prompting a complaint in December 1999 from politically connected attorneys Arnold Ludwig and Thomas Garry, who previously earned those fees. (Batra also named his law firm as counsel for three other receiverships.)

The Batra case revealed that judges hand lawyers lucrative assignments (such as the cemetery receivership, which was worth over $1.5 million in fees for Batra and others) based on political patronage-a well known practice that has been going on since at least the 1870s but is rarely aired in public.

For example, a judge who got his job with Norman's help might repay the Democratic leader by giving big-money receiverships to Norman's friends or contributors. That's the theory, anyway. Did we mention that Batra is a friend and former employer of Norman? The Batra case would never have reached the media had Batra not hogged the legal fees from the cemetery receivership for himself, rather than distributing them to politically connected lawyers in Brooklyn, as is customary.

Batra said he did it because Ludwig and Garry were incompetent and inflated their fees. "He felt that he was protecting the state," said Knipel, who rattled off a long list of Batra's credentials. Ludwig and Garry, who no longer share a law practice, said then that Batra simply wanted the money for his own firm. (Garry is done trashing Batra. "My mother told me if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything," he told us. Ludwig did not return our call.)

While we agree that Ludwig and Garry were not entitled to the work as a reward for doing favors for the Democratic organization, Batra could certainly have "protected the state" by assigning the work to a law firm other than his own. (Legal fees aside, the receivership itself earned Batra $60,000 per year.) The scandal hit the papers in January 2000 and prompted then Mayor Rudy Giuliani to call for an investigation by the state's chief judge, Judith Kaye. Kaye formed a commission that found "extensive and significant flaws in the existing process." It issued a bunch of recommendations which figure to be implemented some time after the Gowanus Canal is opened for swimming.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer asked a judge in February 2000 to replace Batra as receiver for the cemetery, but nothing ever happened, a Spitzer spokesman said. Why would folks like Batra and Geffrard be chosen as honorees at fundraisers? Folks who want to pay homage to them will buy tables. It's wise to stay on the good side of a guy like Ravi Batra. After all, you never know when a cemetery might need legal work.

PERFETTO LIKELY TO RUN FOR ASSEMBLY Democratic district leader Ralph Perfetto has abandoned plans to run for re-election in Assemblywoman Adele Cohen's district and will instead probably challenge Republican Assemblyman Matthew Mirones in the redrawn 60th District, which will include Bay Ridge beginning next year. Perfetto, 67, did commit to one race: for male Democratic district leader in the 60th A.D., which includes the Bay Ridge-based club he's built over the last five years. He currently represents the 52nd A.D., Assemblywoman Joan Millman's largely brownstone district, but the district was redrawn to exclude Perfetto's base in western Brooklyn.

Mirones won a special election in February to represent the all-Staten Island district vacated by Democrat Eric Vitaliano, who became a judge. Because Mirones hasn't been in office long, and since the district has more registered Democrats than Republicans, Perfetto could have a chance. But in Mirones's favor, he grew up in Bay Ridge and is of Greek descent, like a lot of Ridgites. He now lives in Staten Island.

Perfetto, who works for Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and was tapped by Democratic leaders to take on Mirones, told us he'd run if the party adequately finances his campaign. He said he'd kick in $25,000 of his own money as well.

A race that costs an arm and a leg wouldn't trouble Mirones, who owns a business that sells fake limbs. Most of the district will be on Staten Island's East Shore. Perfetto says he has ties to Staten Island, including that he once ran the state cemeteries there. Unfortunately all of his constituents from that job are dead, though we should mention that dead people have been known to vote. James O'Connell, 41, a mason from Staten Island, is also seeking the Democratic nomination and would be the party's sacrificial lamb if Perfetto doesn't run. O'Connell grew up in Bay Ridge and graduated from Fort Hamilton High School.

COHEN A SHOO-IN? NYET Assemblywoman Adele Cohen may be challenged in September's Democratic primary by Susan Lasher, wife of former Assemblyman and City Councilman Howie Lasher, according to a party official. Susan Lasher ran for City Council last year, losing to Domenic Recchia, but Cohen could be a less formidable opponent.

While Recchia excels at being everyone's friend, Cohen pays less mind to political correctness. We find that an admirable quality (i.e., brutal honesty from politicians), but it can turn people off. "If Adele doesn't like you, she's very offensive in what she says," our source said. "Adele has alienated the Russian community."

Cohen's 46th District of Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Sea Gate, and Bay Ridge has more Russian speakers than any other district. So it was a major setback when Cohen was victimized by a scurrilous (and undoubtedly untrue) article in a Russian paper two years ago. She is well aware of the theory that her relationship with the Russian community could be exploited by Lasher. "Except that I don't think the whole community votes as a bloc," Cohen said. "I serve my entire community, Russians and non-Russians alike. And no entire community all has the same opinion."

The Russian community has become a factor in southern Brooklyn politics over the last few years, but probably doesn't have the strength by itself to oust a sitting legislator. Still, it's an important arrow in any quiver. To get the Russians in her corner, Lasher would need the backing of Oleg Gutnik, an influential Russian-American gynecologist who could always choose to run for the seat himself (but, as a Republican, would be a decided underdog). Lasher works in Gutnik's clinic. Cohen is more vulnerable than the average incumbent. She was originally appointed, not elected, to be the Democratic nominee in the district when Jules Polonetsky quit to become the consumer affairs commissioner. Cohen won the special election in February 1998 and defeated Marty Levine in the September primary. Some think Levine might have won had his primary supporter, Assemblyman Anthony Genovesi, not died in the middle of the race.

So a challenger will likely emerge. But Cohen won't go quietly. She's a tireless campaigner whose door-to-door approach led one legislator to compare her to Robo-Cop.

SO MUCH FOR HONOR Potential minority candidates in the new 21st Senate District went through a voluntary process last month to select just one to run for the seat, in order to avoid splitting the minority vote and thus handing the election to Noach Dear. State Senator Carl Kruger, who will run in an adjacent district, immediately predicted that multiple minority candidates would nonetheless emerge, given the absence of an incumbent and the low number of signatures that will be necessary to get on the ballot. "I would be shocked if I didn't see three or four (minority) candidates running in that race," Kruger told us. Still, the Jamaican-American candidate who emerged from "the process," Omar Boucher, said he expected the other prospective minority candidates would be "honorable persons" and refrain from running.

It turns out Kruger was right. Two hopefuls weeded out by the process, Joel Toney and Kevin Parker, are back in the race, infuriating Boucher. "I am the consensus candidate," Boucher said. "They're just crying sour grapes. I wouldn't expect anything less from them."

The district, which includes parts of Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Borough Park, is 58 percent black and just 22 percent white (counting those old enough to vote). Boucher belittled Toney as "not well known" and unfamiliar with many neighborhoods in the district. "He certainly doesn't know Borough Park," Boucher said. "He can't even find his way there." Boucher didn't spare Parker his wrath either, saying Parker is running because he expects his employer, Carl McCall, to lose his race for governor. "He's looking for a job," Boucher said of Parker. "That certainly doesn't show much confidence."

While Boucher blamed Parker and Toney for reneging on their pledges, Toney's nephew, Vaughn Toney, said Boucher must do more to unify black elected officials behind his candidacy. "At this point, I am not prepared to abandon the consensus candidate. But clearly it concerns me that he has not be able to hold the consensus together," Vaughn Toney said. "I do not believe he has done enough…to keep elected officials in line."

Former City Councilwoman Una Clarke had been supporting Joel Toney and might still be, while Assemblyman Nick Perry backs Parker, even though Boucher helped Perry get elected. Vaughn Toney, Colin Moore, and several other "process" participants have refrained from re-entering the race, but Dear might still have the opening he needs. "With three black candidates running, I'm concerned that none will be able to get the necessary numbers to overcome Noach Dear, who is coming into this race with 4,500 to 5,000 votes" from Borough Park, Vaughn Toney said.

Not to mention Dear's financial edge. "Parker hasn't had one fundraiser yet," Toney noted, "and Noach Dear has the ability to raise $100,000 in a week."

Borough Politics Archive

2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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