ARENA OPPONENT FALLS SHORT Opponents of Bruce Ratner's arena project abandoned their attempt to put Daniel McCalla on the primary ballot for Assembly and instead will rest their hopes on Green Party candidate Susan Metz, assuming she collects enough signatures in August to make the November 2 ballot. The Green Party no longer has automatic ballot status in New York thanks to its poor showing in the last gubernatorial election. Also running in November will be Ric Ocasio, the same token Republican who got 4 percent of the vote in 2002. The Democrat will be the former incumbent, Roger Green, now that traffic enforcement officer Tammy Meadows has mysteriously withdrawn after filing petitions. Meadows, like Green, generally supports the arena plan.

There is longshot Democrat Guillermo Philpotts, whose constituency is a mystery to us and probably to himself as well. He tries to run for something every couple of years but is often knocked off the ballot. If it happens again, Green would automatically win the Democratic primary on September 14. You can bet he wouldn't mind missing the chance to "reconnect with voters" he claimed to seek after resigning from the Assembly and announcing his campaign.

POLS WORKING IN CONCERT Complaints have again arisen that politicians are using taxpayer-funded Tuesday night concerts at Asser Levy Park to promote their favorite candidates. On July 20, more than 200 concert goers, mostly older folks who vote religiously, were told to vote for Civil Court candidates Saul Needle, Harley Diamond, and April Newbauer. The concert is sponsored by Councilman Domenic Recchia, Assemblywoman Adele Cohen, Rep. Jerry Nadler, and the Parks Department.

"It was declared that these are the supported candidates of the 46th [Assembly] District, and everyone should vote for them," said Cole Ettman, an insurgent running for State Senate. "That, I don't believe, is legal because it's a public concert in a public park. The elected officials want to use a public concert as their political clubhouse?" Our call to Recchia wasn't returned Monday.

Another politician who hosts free concerts, Borough President Marty Markowitz, allows candidates to stand up and be announced but not to speak on stage.

RUSSIAN TO JUDGMENT The Hubris Award goes to one-time candidate Anatoly Eyzenberg (a/k/a Tony Eisenberg), who told Jewish Week he backed out of a possible run for Democratic district leader because he hadn't lived in the 46th Assembly District for the full year required by law, then added, "One thing is for sure-if I walk away now, they won't elect a Russian candidate for another hundred years." Eyzenberg plans to live full time in his Miami Beach home.

Someone should break the news to Eyzenberg that there's no shortage of Russians who'd make better candidates than he did. Here's a guy who listed his meat shop as his residence when he ran against Councilman Domenic Recchia in 2003, then expressed shock when he was kicked off the ballot for living in a big house out of the district. Furthermore, he failed to match the name on his buff card with that on his petitions, which the courts ultimately allowed but only after his time and campaign funds were exhausted by the legal fight.

Besides, a Russian candidate has already been elected: Democratic district leader Mark Davidovich, the very candidate Eyzenberg planned to challenge. That's a party post, though, not a government position. It might indeed be a while before a Russian-American is elected to the City Council or state legislature, but not because of Eyzenberg's departure. Indeed, the Republicans think they have a promising candidate to challenge Assemblywoman Adele Cohen. He's attorney Alexander Kaplan, 29, who came to Brooklyn from Kiev at age 2, Jewish Week reported. Kaplan was recruited to run by State Senator Marty Golden. Cohen would first have to get past Inna Kaminsky in the Democratic primary, assuming Kaminsky stays on the ballot.

CATCHER GETS A BYE Charles R. Harary, despite petitions with 1,600 signatures that would likely have put him on the ballot, decided not to challenge Assemblyman Frank Seddio and Democratic district leader Bernie Catcher in the 59th A.D. Desperate people allegedly came to Harary's Mill Island home begging him to withdraw because they would lose their politically connected jobs and health insurance if he ran. People from other campaigns also complained they'd be hurt unless Harary quit.

We've heard this claim before, that Catcher and his Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club run some sort of Mafia-like job enterprise that can be used to force competitors out of races. It's nonsense, according to Catcher. "I can tell you in the strongest possible terms: I don't know anybody who went to his home," Catcher said. "Why would anybody in my world's job depend upon him dropping out? I don't even know how to answer that." Catcher added, "I don't think anybody wants to lose badly. I think he thought he was going to lose, so he pulled out."

The only way to know for sure if the story about strong-arm tactics is true is for someone to stand up to this purported pressure. Harary, for example, could have said to those who supposedly begged him to quit, "Why be loyal to someone so cruel that he'd have you fired just because I'm running against him for an unpaid Democratic Party post?"

But Harary failed to call the bluff, if it indeed happened. Instead, he accepted a deal to become a judicial delegate. It was similar to the deal Abe Levy allegedly took to abandon his challenge of Catcher. But Harary will have a hard time getting elected as a delegate, since the T.J. Club adjusted its delegate lineup so he'd be matched against Seddio, perhaps the best-known name in the Flatlands end of the borough.

Harary's former running mate, Miriam Steinberg, remains in the race for female district leader against the T.J. Club's Roberta Sherman. Also, Canarsien Francisco Hall collected 986 signatures, many of them by himself, to run against Catcher. But Hall's petitions were promptly challenged by the T.J. Club's Alan Maisel, and Hall is not expected to remain on the ballot.

NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK In a development that shocked political insiders, countywide Civil Court candidate Saul Needle withdrew from the race on July 25 after much political capital had been expended to advance his candidacy. One source theorized that Needle was afraid of getting in trouble for dabbling in politics during his candidacy, which is prohibited by the code of judicial conduct, but that seems highly doubtful. Needle is telling people it was a family medical situation that led him to pull out.

Technically, it's too late to remove one's name from the ballot, and since Needle filed petitions with 57,000 signatures (needing 15,000), his name will surely greet Democratic primary voters on September 14. But if he doesn't campaign for the final six weeks of the race, his chance of winning would be slim.

The top three vote-getters of the nine countywide candidates will get 10-year Civil Court judgeships. After the primary, Democratic Party insiders will nominate 18 Supreme Court candidates for the November 2 general election. Those judgeships carry 14-year terms.

Some efforts are under way to wrest control of these Supreme Court nominations from the party machine. Smaller factions are trying to elect judicial delegates to replace the yes-men who regularly attend the annual fall judicial convention. "It mitigates against the lawsuit filed by [Civil Court Judge] Margarita Lopez Torres that says the convention is controlled by political bosses," commented Jeff Feldman, executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic organization. "I would say it's good for democracy, and may the best delegates win." It's a nice thought, but 99 percent of voters won't recognize the names of the delegates on the ballot.

TIDBITS Park Slope is rejoicing over a long-awaited government decision to turn the armory on 8th Avenue between 14th and 15th streets into a sports facility. But we have to wonder why the plan is for tax revenues to pay $14 million of the price tag and private donations only $2 million. Park Slope is a wealthy neighborhood whose residents could easily fund more of the project. Consider that The Campaign for Prospect Park aims to raise $122 million over five years and has already collected $94 million toward that goal…

Opponents of Bruce Ratner's arena, housing, and office project called Atlantic Yards have suddenly become experts on NBA basketball personnel decisions, decrying the Nets' trade of power forward Kenyon Martin. It escaped them that signing Martin to the seven-year, $92.5 million contract he was got from Denver wouldn't have left room under the salary cap to improve the team enough to win a championship. The Nets took a step backward today in the hopes of taking two forward tomorrow, not to save money, as the critics charged. The feeling here is if the Nets had kept Martin at the $13 million per year he wanted, the same critics would have complained that ticket prices would rise above what Brooklynites could afford…

Newsday inexplicably injected an opinion into a purported news article, writing, "Respected Brooklyn City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke announced yesterday that she will challenge Rep. Major Owens for his congressional seat." Even more curiously, the article called it "almost unprecedented for a Democrat to run against an incumbent who is also in the party," when Yvette Clarke's own mother did so against Owens in 2000. That same year, Noach Dear ran against Rep. Anthony Weiner. Just before that, Tom Duane challenged Rep. Jerry Nadler and Barry Ford challenged Rep. Ed Towns. That's just a recent list of same-party challenges to sitting House Democrats in Brooklyn. Include state and city offices and the list grows longer…

The Republicans have substituted someone named Harvey Clarke to replace congressional candidate Isabelle Jefferson, who withdrew from the election against Rep. Ed Towns. Meanwhile, Sam Sloan, the man who wanted to be the Republican candidate but was turned away by the party, is on a tour of Brooklyn to verify the registered voting addresses of various Republican district leaders. He's already found at least one he's certain is fraudulent. Sloan did file petitions to run as a Republican and an Independence Party candidate, but both parties could knock him off…

Danniel Maio, who ran for City Council in Sunset Park and briefly in Bay Ridge, is on the ballot again, this time for State Senate-in Long Island City, Queens. It seems he never really moved from there…

Rumors of a Democratic primary opponent for State Senator Marty Malave Dilan proved true, as Ronald S. Clinton filed petitions to run…

Earlier this summer, Republican district leaders Jim Sutliff and Jessica Greenwald launched a small rebellion by announcing that Sutliff would run against State Senator Marty Golden. But the Board of Elections officially lists the candidate as "Jessica Sutliff." It turns out the two leaders are married and Greenwald is using the name of her husband, who declined to run because of a death in his family…

Unopposed in the Democratic primary are State Senators Carl Kruger, Carl Andrews, John Sampson, and Marty Connor, Assemblymembers Diane Gordon, Helene Weinstein, Jim Brennan, Bill Colton, Dov Hikind, Peter Abbate, Joe Lentol, Nick Perry. Reps. Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler, Ed Towns, and Nydia Velazquez. Vito Fossella has a free ride in the Republican primary before facing Frank Barbaro.

Two members of the reconstituted Brooklyn judicial screening panel resigned July 19, saying the panel should be able to recommend candidates for judge rather than just rating them "qualified" or "unqualified." They realized that while the current system will deny seats on the bench to the most boneheaded hacks, it wouldn't do enough to remove politics from the process. Paul Wooten also resigned from the panel because he's considering running for Brooklyn district attorney in 2005…

It didn't escape State Senator Kevin Parker's attention that one of his Democratic primary challengers, Wellington Sharpe, ran in a different Senate district (that of Carl Andrews) in 2002. "The question is, where does he live?" Parker asked. The answer, it seems, is in Parker's district. We're told Sharpe has lived there for 20 years. But until recently he was registered to vote at his mother's house in Andrews's district. The law requires candidates' primary residence to be in the district in which they're running…

To vote in the September 14 primary election, you must be registered in the relevant political party by August 25…

Correction: Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes didn't prosecute the Ann English campaign in the 1990s, as we reported last week. He referred it to a special prosecutor…

Among the 160 people who have donated $1,000 or more to Rep. Anthony Weiner's possible mayoral campaign are prominent developers Joshua Muss (who built the Brooklyn Marriott) and Donald Lentnek (the man behind the Lundy's site). Lentnek's office manager and assistant bookkeeper threw in $250 each. Weiner also got $250 from controversial ambulance businessman Steve Zakheim and another $250 from an apparent Zakheim relative. When we inquired about it, Weiner's spokesman said the contributions had slipped through the campaign's vetting process and would be returned. Zakheim has been accused of sexual harassment and of donating to campaigns in the names of his employees.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

Borough Politics Archive

2004
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2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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