HOW NOT TO BECOME A JUDGE A piece of campaign literature looking suspiciously like a Denis Hamill column (sorry, Denis!) appeared in the Daily News on July 15. Hamill's piece began, "In a time of judicial corruption, chicanery and machine swindles, here's a chance to elect an honest judge in Brooklyn."

It went on to sell us on the virtues of Park Slope resident Phil Smallman, an independent running on the Republican and Conservative lines against the winner of the Democratic primary between ShawnDya Simpson and Housing Court Judge Dawn Jimenez. "Look, I'm qualified, I'm experienced and I'll be honest and independent. I really want this job, so I'm gonna give it my best Brooklyn shot."

News flash: you have no shot if you run only on the Republican and Conservative lines in Democrat-dominated Brooklyn. Smallman has to know this, so his assertion that he's giving it his "best Brooklyn shot" is not exactly honest (to use Hamill's word) and is certainly disingenuous (besides making us want to barf). What he meant was, "I couldn't put together the money or the volunteers to collect enough signatures to run on the Democratic line."

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL City Council Speaker Gifford Miller, a Manhattanite but a likely mayoral candidate in 2005, continues to make the rounds in Brooklyn. After meeting us for a milkshake at his favorite downtown eatery, the Park Plaza Restaurant, he was spotted at a Kingsborough Community College concert, where, unsurprisingly, he ran into possible Democratic mayoral primary opponent Rep. Anthony Weiner. Weiner, it seems, has been keeping pace with Miller. "Everywhere we go," one Miller aide was heard muttering, "Weiner shows up."

…Speaking of Weiner, the Federal Election Commission continues to object to personal loans of about $30,000 given to the legislator by his Park Slope-based parents when he ran for Congress in 1998. The FEC says the loans were really campaign contributions (above the legal limit) because they indirectly supported Weiner's campaign. "I guess they did-they helped feed the candidate and paid his rent," Weiner said. Weiner needed the cash because at the onset of the race against Noach Dear and others, he put all of his savings into his campaign fund.

"I've learned a lot from this. When I borrowed the money, the mistake I made was paying it back," said Weiner. The feeling here is that the FEC would have objected whether the money was a loan or a gift, since the loan was prompted by the election.

The congressman doesn't seem too concerned. When we asked him about the case, he deadpanned, "I have severed all contact with my parents," except for family dinner gatherings when he requires FEC representatives be present.

In a recent column we mentioned a disagreement between Councilmen Mike Nelson and Kendall Stewart over a modest park called Norton Playground on Nostrand Avenue between Kings Highway and Avenue P. Kendall had announced at the annual Nottingham Association meeting that he would fund the playground's reconstruction, which didn't get a facelift under Nelson's watch despite $455,000 being previously allocated by former Borough President Howard Golden at Weiner's suggestion.

It turns out Nelson didn't lose the $455,000-it was disdainfully withdrawn by Golden and spent elsewhere because the Parks Department said it wasn't enough. Golden and Weiner thought it was more than sufficient to rebuild the tiny park, which will move from Nelson's district to Stewart's in 2004.

More on Kendall Stewart: At least one Orthodox candidate was kicking himself for not running against him and minority challengers Omar Boucher, Erlene King, and Sam Taitt in the redrawn 45th Council District, figuring that a Jew could have won with a strong turnout in the Orthodox section of the district and a split of the minority vote by the four black/Caribbean candidates. A low overall turnout is expected since no office higher than City Council is being contested.

But another observer disputed the would-be candidate's contention that the Orthodox vote could account for 25 percent of the total. "It's maybe 10 percent," the legislator said, "with a stiff wind." Incidentally, a fifth minority who considered running, Ernest Emmanuel, didn't file petitions...

The 2001 City Council campaign of Ursula Gangemi, an attorney who finished last in the Bay Ridge Democratic primary with just 12 percent of the vote behind Joanne Seminara and Carlo Scissura, was fined $1,970 by the Campaign Finance Board. That works out to a fine of $2.12 for each vote he received. The penalty was for a late response to a draft audit report and for failure to report expenditures…

Elizabeth Atwood King, running against Councilman Lew Fidler in the 46th, showed up at a meeting of United Canarsie South, a large civic organization, and announced, "I'm not here campaigning." Fidler, also at the meeting, raised his eyebrow as if he were thinking, "If you're not campaigning, what are you doing here?" King lives on Avenue L and East 54th Street, far from the civic's area. It couldn't have helped King's chances for Canarsie votes when Fidler then announced he'd secured $2.3 million to renovate Canarsie Park…

Fidler filed about 6,000 signatures on petitions for the September 9 Democratic primary, much more than the 900 required. Atwood King filed about 1,450, which might not be enough to survive a legal challenge. A third candidate, Elias Weir of Canarsie, filed 948, which makes us wonder why he even bothered. Fidler took one look at Weir's petitions at the July 11 filing deadline and reported, "I saw enough mistakes in how he put them together that without even counting them he could be knocked off the ballot-if I decide to go that way."

If Fidler doesn't, you can bet King will. But she could lose her spot as well, as she did briefly in 2001 before being restored to the ballot on appeal. "It wasn't a huge grassroots effort," Fidler said of King's gathering of signatures in 2003. "If she has 900 good ones, she'll get to run. If she doesn't have 900 good ones, she won't." Fidler will surely win the election, but might not want to worry about being outpolled by King, who's black, in minority sections of the district…

Fidler, before heading to the Board of Elections to file his petitions by the midnight deadline, predicted that at least one candidate would miss it, missing his chance to get on the ballot and wiping out thousands of hours of work. "You always get to see the one fool running in at 12:05 swearing that his watch says 11:59 p.m.," Fidler said. "There's always one."

And indeed there was. Someone shoved his petitions under a locked door two minutes past midnight. "The clerk said she had never heard of someone doing that before," Fidler reported. We don't know for certain who it was, but absent from the list of candidates posted by the board last week was Othniel Boaz "Aaron" Askew, who was preparing to challenge Councilman James Davis. We e-mailed an inquiry. Askew replied that his people had collected over 2,500 signatures but "last-minute circumstances" arose and "human incompetency prevented the petitions from being delivered before midnight." Five weeks of work went for naught…

Sources said in the 38th Council District, based in Sunset Park, Republican Danniel Maio filed objections to the petitions of incumbent Sara Gonzalez. One problem: Maio filed from a Long Island City address, giving him no standing to file objections to Gonzalez's petitions. Only a district resident can object. The gaffe is evidence that Brooklyn Republican leaders, who have an excellent legal team, aren't heavily involved in Maio's campaign. Maio told us GOP leaders told him it would be difficult, but he decided on his own to try…

Stanley Kinard had registered with the Campaign Finance Board for a race against Councilwoman Tracy Boyland, but he didn't file petitions to run, according to a tentative list on the Board of Elections Web site. David Miller appears to be Boyland's only Democratic opponent…

Democrat Noach Dear has in the past been criticized for running as a Republican, but now the man he's trying to run against, Councilman Simcha Felder, has accepted the Republican line. Felder's also running as a Democrat…

Allen Shimshon Herschaft of Manhattan Beach filed petitions to challenge Councilman Mike Nelson, but don't expect much of a race. Herschaft has been focusing on overturning the law that bans campaign posters from public property. He wants to slap bumper stickers across the district, calling it an issue of free speech. Something tells us the residents of the 48th Council District aren't thrilled with the prospect…

Rep. Ed Towns has been casting about for a replacement for Assemblyman Clarence Norman should Norman be forced to step down as Democratic county leader. Problem is, there are no district leaders with enough support across the borough to replace him, except for maybe Fidler, who would rather remain a councilman. City elected officials can't be county leader, though Councilman James Davis (a Fidler fan) has talked about revising the City Charter to allow it. But Fidler isn't gung-ho for the idea. Towns himself is a district leader and thus eligible to succeed Norman, but perhaps he doesn't want the headache.

WEB SITE MYSTERY REVEALED We have found the source of the mysterious Web site purporting to be the home page for Brooklyn political activist Alan M. Rocoff's law firm. It was a man who runs a local Web hosting company who simply wanted Rocoff's business. Dennis Margolias first encountered Rocoff when the attorney asked a Sheepshead Bay computer store to help him send faxes from his computer. Margolias told us he "took a chance" by registering the domain name www.amr-law.com (Rocoff's initials) on January 23, putting up a sample home page, and then trying to sell hosting services to the lawyer.

But when none of his 15 calls to Rocoff were returned, Margolias gave up and forgot about the site. Months later we found it and, not realizing it was unauthorized, mentioned it in this space. Rocoff, shocked, promptly called the district attorney and the FBI. "I made a big mistake," Margolias said. "I didn't know the guy. I didn't mean to cause him any harm. When he didn't call me back, I should have taken (the site) down. I shouldn't have forgotten about it." The problem for Rocoff was the off-color humor Margolias posted on the sample home page. It featured a photo of a smirking O.J. Simpson and suggested people hire Rocoff to handle their divorces rather than kill their spouses.

When Rocoff discovered the source, the infuriated attorney called Margolias. "He told me it caused him a lot of trouble and it could lead all the way to the White House," the computer expert said. "I took it with a grain of salt." Well, that absolves all of the suspects that readers had suggested to us-including Councilman Lew Fidler, against whom Rocoff ran for Democratic district leader in 1998; opponents of the current Civil Court candidate Rocoff is aiding, and Rocoff's ex-wives.

Our faith in the sanctity of Brooklyn politics is fully restored. (Ahem.) Margolias said about one of every six unsolicited Web sites he develops ultimately produces a customer. Something tells us that Rocoff won't be signing up.

FAKE WEB SITE SHOCKS ATTORNEY KID GLOVES FOR VITO: Assemblyman Vito Lopez couldn't have gotten a more positive article in The New York Times on June 29 if he'd written it himself. The lengthy lead story in the Real Estate section credited Lopez with sparking a massive rebuilding effort in Bushwick, way back when he was a graduate student in 1971, and then carrying it through. The story also mentioned that Angela Battaglia's agency is the developer for a $20 million component of the rebuilding effort. It even pictured Lopez and Battaglia standing together in front of new housing construction. But the story omitted that Battaglia is Lopez's girlfriend. Does that connection at least deserve mention? Might the article have explained why there was or wasn't a conflict of interest present? Was it a coincidence that Lopez's girlfriend's outfit was put in charge of the $20 million deal? Inquiring minds would like to know. It may well be that everything was done on the up-and-up. But given Lopez's tendency to do favors for his friends-for example, he helped make his girlfriend's brother Jack Battaglia a Civil Court judge-the Times should have explored the question.

Borough Politics Archive

2003
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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