WORDS FROM THE GRAVE Looking through our notes, we came across some never-used quotes from the late Councilman James Davis, some of which we hadn't published because they were said off the record. At the time there seemed an unlimited supply of entertaining quotes from Davis, who always answered his cell phone on the first ring. But since Davis's murder on July 23, those unused quotes seem so much more precious than before. Reading them, it almost felt like talking to Davis again.

In no particular order, here are a few:

Assessing the criticism of how Assemblyman Clarence Norman spent the $245,000 mayoral candidate Mark Green gave him, Davis said, "Others are just mad that the money didn't sprinkle down to them."

On who makes judges in Brooklyn: "Clarence, [Democratic Party executive director] Jeff Feldman, and [district leader] Steve Cohn make the decisions," said Davis, adding that he and the other leaders "are just going through the motions." (Norman, Feldman, and Cohn would dispute that.) But other district leaders were coming on as judgemakers, said Davis, naming Assemblyman Vito Lopez, Joe Bova, Councilman Lew Fidler, Bernie Catcher, and (before his extortion conviction) Angel Rodriguez.

And speaking of Rodriguez, Davis believed the disgraced councilman could have reduced his sentence by revealing information about Norman. "Angel didn't give him up," Davis said. Davis said he was told that Norman advised Rodriguez, "Go do you time, and when you get out, I'll hold you up."

Davis suspected that Supreme Court Judge Howard Ruditzky would be the weak link that gives way in Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes's probe for judicial and Democratic Party corruption in Brooklyn. "Ruditzky will turn," Davis said, recalling one encounter with the judge. "The guy was so nervous. If they put the microphone on him, I can see him panicking." Davis added, "I have reliable sources who say Clarence [Norman] is nervous. And Clarence is never nervous."

Switching gears, we asked Davis to handicap the 45th Council District race, in which incumbent Kendall Stewart is trying to hold off Omar Boucher, Erlene King, and Sam Taitt. Stewart's vulnerable because he endorsed George Pataki in 2002, Davis said. "He's going to get ripped apart with Pataki," said Davis. "But since there are four people saying it (actually three, since Ernest Emmanuel backed out of the race)…all he has to do is keep his base and he'll win. If he gets 20 to 25 percent of the vote, he'll be fine."

Of Boucher, Davis said, "I don't see how he could do it." But he gave King a chance because she's the only woman in the race. Yet Davis picked Stewart to win, citing his advantage as the incumbent. "If I knew what I know now about the power of incumbency, I would never have run against an incumbent. Unless I was just running for name recognition," Davis said.

City Councilmembers invariably receive support from unions, get about $1 million per year to dole out, and can send four pieces of taxpayer-funded constituent mail in the current two-year term, the late councilman pointed out. "Is the average voter going to separate campaign mailing as opposed to government mailing?" he asked rhetorically. "Not to mention, you have direct access. All of the organizations invite you to all of their events. You just stand up and wave and people in the audience say, 'Yeah, I heard of him.'"

As the incumbent, Davis liked his own chances as well. In May he said of the only announced challenger, Tony Herbert, "I could endorse him, give him a contribution, and vote for him, and I'll still beat him by 10,000 votes." Davis even pledged to win the vote of Herbert's own mother. It turns out she's dead, and in fact is buried in Bushwick's Evergreen Cemetery just a few graves away from Davis.

LIFF'S LOOSE LIPS Years ago, when Bob Liff was a Newsday and Daily News reporter, he likely never imagined himself a hired PR gun tasked with cleaning up the battered image of the Brooklyn Democratic organization. Yet that's the assignment he drew when Assemblyman Clarence Norman, the county Democratic leader, retained George Arzt's PR firm to stem the avalanche of negative media that began with the arrests of Judges Victor Barron and Gerald Garson, both party hacks.

Now he gets to answer annoying questions from the media, such as, "Was the Daily News correct that City Councilman Domenic Recchia is attempting to kick Tony Eisenberg off the ballot for Americanizing his name with the blessing of the Brooklyn Democratic organization?"

Actually, Liff didn't seem annoyed by the question, responding, "County had nothing to do with it" and did not give it its blessing. Problem is, the organization's executive director, Jeff Feldman, was then seen in court conferring with Recchia's attorney, Bob Muir, as Muir argued the case (successfully, as it turned out).

We called Liff back. He seemed to be expecting our call. "Do we have an interest in that case? Of course," Liff said. "Jeff has an interest in election law. But we are not party to the suit in any way."

Somehow, we are not surprised that Feldman, despite his two jobs (for County and for Senate Minority Leader David Paterson) has time to pursue an election-law hobby.

BLACKOUT FOILS HERBERT An effort by Tony Herbert to replace Frank Voyticky as the Republican candidate in the 35th Council District, leaderless since James Davis was killed, was temporarily thwarted, apparently by the blackout. Voyticky agreed to hear Herbert's pitch, but the blackout preceded their scheduled meeting at the Marriott in downtown Brooklyn by an hour and Herbert never got to Voyticky, who said he was open to giving up his spot on the ballot. (It didn't take Voyticky any extra effort to join the council race because he was collecting signatures to run for reelection as district leader anyway.)

"I certainly recognize that my chances of being elected are infinitesimal," Voyticky said. "If I thought the individual had the potential to make a difference, I'm not inclined to stand in his way." But Voyticky expects Geoffrey Davis, the slain councilman's brother, to win because Davis has the Democratic line and will get many sympathy votes.

Voyticky didn't strike us as a fan of Geoffrey Davis, though he did like the candidate's late brother. In fact, it was Voyticky who supplied James Davis with the key piece of evidence in Davis's successful lawsuit against the NYPD, which unfairly fired him when he unwittingly appeared on the Liberal line while on active duty.

Voyticky informed Davis that he should not have appeared on the ballot because he hadn't filed a signed document with the Board of Elections accepting the Liberal line. Davis won reinstatement to the force and back pay.

Davis didn't forget Voyticky's gesture. After becoming a councilman, he introduced Voyticky at a public meeting as proof that "not all Republicans are bad."

NICK NOT QUICK TO PICK We promised in July to elaborate on news that Assemblyman Nick Perry had put his planned endorsement of Councilman Kendall Stewart on hold in light of Stewart's controversial remarks about Haitians, for which Stewart apologized even while claiming he was inaccurately quoted. Here's what Perry told us then: "It's a volatile situation. I'm calling on my keenest political judgment," said Perry, noting that he would abide by "the law of protecting yourself."

He explained, "First of all, I don't want to be in the position that my colleague [Stewart] has put himself in, [which is to] make my reelection difficult … A lot of my Haitian constituents…are pretty upset with the councilman and they have expressed that to me … While my initial position would have been to support the incumbent, I have not reached a state where I am totally satisfied that that is the best thing for me to do, since I have to run for reelection a year after this election."

Perry, who supported Sam Palmer over Stewart and others in 2001, continued, "I have had a good working relationship with Councilman Stewart. I had just about decided that I would endorse him for reelection but I am forced to hesitate a little here and see exactly what is prudent." Perry said his choice was between endorsing Stewart or no one.

"It's very unlikely that I will come out against a colleague. I work with him and we have a good relationship. I'm extremely reluctant to go in that direction. It's very unlikely I'll endorse someone against him."

But he seemed torn nonetheless. "I am being put in a spot by constituents that I have to respond to. So I am quite deliberative as to where I go." And what did he think of Stewart's reported statement, that because of their culture Stewart's Haitian tenants break the locks on their apartments when they arrive home without a key? "I am flabbergasted by his statement," Perry said. "It's certainly puzzling to myself and I'm sure to many others."

BOUCHER BACK We figured East Flatbush Democrat Omar Boucher would be discouraged enough by his distant third-place finish in the 2002 State Senate primary won by Kevin Parker that he'd return to his work as a behind-the-scenes campaign consultant.

Instead, Boucher's running for City Council against embattled incumbent Kendall Stewart and two others (Erlene King and Sam Taitt).

Given the circumstances of his race last year, Boucher said, he did quite well. "Everybody opposed me at the time," said Boucher. "I didn't get 1199 or most of the big unions." In addition, money problems left his campaign unable to do a mailing in the last three weeks of the race, akin to failing to refill the gas tank for the final laps of the Indy 500.

Yet, Boucher said, "I still got over 3,000 votes, For a first-time candidate, that's unheard of. In totality, I did do very well." His percentage of the vote was actually close to that won by Stewart in the 2001 Democratic primary, when Stewart edged six other candidates with a mere 21 percent of the vote.

Given that Stewart had run for the seat in 1997 against the Rev. Lloyd Henry and been a Democratic district leader since 1993, he should have done better in 2001, according to Boucher. (Stewart also had the support of Reps. Major Owens and Ed Towns and State Senator John Sampson in that race.) "Certainly the councilperson is weak," Boucher said. "So I have as good a shot as anyone of taking him out."

Perhaps, but "as good a shot" is not the same thing as "a good shot." Stewart has the benefit of two years of incumbency-of sending constituent mail, of getting introduced at community meetings, of distributing funding to local groups-all those things that inspired the late Councilman James Davis to tell us recently, "If I had known about the power of incumbency before, I never would have run all those times." (Davis lost four races to incumbents from 1996 through 2000.)

Boucher also has some issues to deal with, primarily that his opponents will try to tie him to Assemblyman Clarence Norman, who endorsed Boucher in 2002 and diverted $5,000 of Mark Green's money to him in 2001 for campaign consulting, part of a larger transaction now under investigation.

The good news for Boucher is that this race will be characterized by the challengers putting the wood to Stewart as if the councilman were a piñata, first because Stewart endorsed Governor George Pataki for reelection last year (Pataki got precious few votes in Stewart's largely black and West Indian district) and now because of anti-Haitian remarks attributed to Stewart in the Daily News.

In the article, Stewart was called a "slumlord" by a NYPIRG staffer who was told about violations at a Nostrand Avenue apartment building owned by the councilman. In his defense, Stewart blamed his Haitian tenants, saying, "It's a cultural thing. The Haitian folks, because of their poverty, will have five to eight people living in an apartment, and they will break the locks if one doesn't have a key."

By the way, there's no truth to the rumor that Jimmy the Greek has endorsed the councilman. Stewart later suggested his remarks were taken out of context. Then he realized there is no context in which such remarks would be appropriate, so he denied making them. And he apologized for the remarks he denied making.

Meanwhile, Flatbush district leader Lori Knipel is backing Taitt in the primary. Knipel is still furious that in a public forum during her run for State Senate last year, Stewart sarcastically asked her if she could navigate her way east of Ocean Avenue. The implication was that Knipel avoids the district's black areas. She considered the question "blatantly racist" and without merit.

Not that Knipel would have endorsed Stewart anyway. She was already upset that he falsely listed her as an endorser of his 2001 campaign on his literature. Another wound that has Stewart's opponents feasting like piranhas is the loss of millions of dollars in funding slated for the revitalization of the Junction, a major intersection in the district. "He doesn't have that much to show the voters of what he's done in two years," Boucher charged.

Stewart has also been criticized for orchestrating the redrawing of his district to exclude the residence of the second-place finisher in 2001, Sam Palmer.

Contact Brooklyn Politics at (718) 399-3693.

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