BUSINESS AS USUAL FOR NORMAN With the chairmanship of Clarence Norman unchallenged at the county Democratic organization's biannual meeting, just two district leaders voted against him (maverick City Councilman James Davis of Fort Greene and Liz Daly of Boerum Hill) one abstained (Alan Fleishman of Park Slope) and one was absent (George Martinez of Sunset Park). Thirty-six voted yes. That didn't stop Norman from telling The New York Times he was reelected unanimously. Perhaps he has already repressed his memory of the vote.

Though Norman's leadership of county has been increasingly criticized, there was simply no political upside to voting against him, and district leaders are mostly political animals, not rebels. Not one even voiced an objection to the presence of controversial Manhattan attorney Ravi Batra-who was whispering in Norman's ear throughout the private meeting-though Batra is not an executive committee member. Batra, a friend of Norman, was awarded lucrative legal work in 1999 by a judge connected to Norman's political machine.

Speaking of judges, the county executive committee also approved Norman's slate of six Supreme Court judges at the meeting. The next day, county's candidates were in turn rubber-stamped by the party's judicial delegates-who tend to be elected without opposition and hail from political clubs allied with county. Certain to win in the November 5 general election, the six Democratic judicial nominees are on their way to judgeships with 14-year terms paying $136,700 a year. "Every one of these judges has some political connection. There's someone who made him a judge," one insider commented. "I'm not saying these people aren't qualified, but that's how it happens." For example, Assemblyman Dov Hikind backed acting Supreme Court Judge Leon Ruchelsman, City Councilman Al Vann sponsored Civil Court Judge Jim Sullivan, and the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club put up Mark Partnow (who was rejected by Democratic primary voters last year for Civil Court, a lesser position). Also nominated was Civil Court Judge Laura Jacobson, wife of Peter Weiss, a longtime "reformer" who at this moment must be glad the Supreme Court selection process hasn't been reformed. (Weiss formerly worked for Assemblyman Jim Brennan.)

Of course, it takes more than one sponsor to make Norman's final cut-candidates must build coalitions of district leaders, which involves racing around to political clubs and kissing rings. In fact, county's executive director, Jeff Feldman, claimed, "Clarence doesn't call these things. It's really a democratized process." You are undoubtedly comforted to hear that our judges are selected in such democratic fashion. Do you suppose the Thomas Jefferson club leaders could have gotten Partnow a judgeship had they run a candidate against Norman for county leader?

Incidentally, though most judicial delegates made like lemmings at the September 19 convention, Paul Bader, husband of Rep. Nydia Velazquez, nominated Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez Torres against Ruchelsman, the only Orthodox Jew on county's slate. Ruchelsman won the vote, 66 to 24 with four abstentions. "First time in my memory there was ever a vote on the floor on a judge," said one witness. Lopez Torres can't even get an interview with the screening panel for Supreme Court judges, since Norman controls it. Feldman notes that primaries for Supreme Court justices were introduced after a campaign by The New York Times and good-government groups in about 1910, but "it proved to wreak so much havoc in public confidence in the judiciary, they repealed primaries."

Public confidence in Brooklyn's judiciary isn't exactly soaring at the moment. Perhaps, after 90 years, it's time to give reform another try. There must be a better way than back-room politics to pick Supreme Court judges.

CONNOR COLLECTS, LEGALLY There's a rumor going around that Senate Minority Leader Marty Connor of Brooklyn Heights, an expert in New York election law, earned $250,000 doing legal work for Tom Golisano's campaign for governor. How do these crazy rumors get started? Really, Golisano's campaign finance filings show Connor getting a mere…$107,180.35. And Golisano's erstwhile running mate, Dan Mahony Jr., paid Connor $36,183.55. And Carl McCall's running mate, Dennis Mehiel, paid him $15,000. And Scott Stringer paid him $19,920. Hmmm. Not a quarter million, but "not chicken feed" either, in the words of one insider. Must be nice to have a job that leaves you time to earn six figures moonlighting.

BACK TO WORK, $100,000 POORER Defeated candidate Hakeem Jeffries is returning to his law firm job following a six-month unpaid leave to campaign against Assemblyman Roger Green in Fort Greene and Prospect Heights. He estimated that running for office cost him about $100,000 in missed salary. Doesn't that gnaw at him? "I'm sure it gnaws at my wife," he said, suppressing a chuckle. "Politics is about public service, and public service requires sacrifice…I knew that it was going to require a financial sacrifice." Jeffries said any chance he had to win evaporated when Andrew Cuomo withdrew from the governor's race, reducing the voter turnout-particularly in black districts like Green's where Cuomo's former opponent Carl McCall is popular.

"Lower turnout benefits incumbent candidates," Jeffries said. His campaign strategy of two years, to boost his name recognition throughout the district rather than focus on a smaller group of likely voters, backfired when Cuomo pulled out. Cuomo's withdrawal also freed up union workers and other McCall supporters to campaign instead for Green, Jeffries said. "At the last minute, all the assumptions we were working on for two years changed. We didn't have the bodies, and Roger Green did," said Jeffries. "ACORN had 200 people identifying and pulling out (Green's) vote."

But Jeffries would have lost even with an active Cuomo-McCall primary. Turnout fell by just over 2,000 votes from the 2000 primary, roughly the same number Jeffries lost by this year. Even if all 2,000 missing constituents had voted for Jeffries, he still would have been short. Jeffries continues to have political aspirations. "I look forward to the next opportunity to serve," he said. The next Democratic primary is in 2003 for City Council, but Jeffries won't be challenging Councilman James Davis, who endorsed him. A more likely target-and this is pure conjecture on our part-might be state Senator Carl Andrews. It's no coincidence that the Democratic power brokers who redrew Andrews's 20th District included one side of one block of Park Place-the side that includes Jeffries's house. At the same time, his address was drawn one block out of Green's district.

The assembly leadership's message to Jeffries was obvious: run against Carl Andrews in 2002, not Roger Green. We heard that Green and Assemblyman Jim Brennan even promised to back Jeffries if he would challenge Andrews. Those offers are not likely to be repeated in 2004, given the easy victories scored by Green and Andrews in the September 10 primary.

LASHER IS NOT CONCEDING Susan Lasher has yet to concede her Democratic primary against Assemblywoman Adele Cohen, contending that the Board of Elections improperly invalidated more than 400 affidavit ballots. Before the count of valid absentee and affidavit ballots began on September 18, Lasher trailed by 166 votes. Before Lasher even finished arguing with the Board of Elections, she also filed a lawsuit against the board and Cohen. Attorney Mitch Alter is handling the case for Lasher, her campaign manager said. Among the reasons ballots were invalidated: Voters failed to write "Democrat" where the ballot asked for their party registration; voters filled out ballots in the wrong polling place; and voters thought they were Democrats, but their voter registrations cards said otherwise. Lasher would seem to be a longshot to win, because even if nearly every invalidated ballot were restored by a judge, she would need to be named on over 70 percent of them to overtake Cohen. The Board of Elections was expected to certify Cohen the winner on September 24. The court case would follow.

In other news from the Lasher campaign, her fundraising committee has yet to report any information about its contributions or expenditures to the state Board of Elections, as required by law. The board has been forced to take legal action to get the numbers. Lasher's campaign manager told us in August that information was mailed to the board but it disappeared. Likely story!

ANOTHER DEM FOR PATAKI? There's word that Councilman Kendall Stewart has joined a number of other Brooklyn Democrats supporting Republican George Pataki for reelection. Also behind Pataki are Assemblyman Dov Hikind, state Senator Carl Kruger, and former Councilmembers Herb Berman and Una Clarke. But Stewart stands out in this crowd, since he's black and has a largely black constituency that figures to support Democratic gubernatorial nominee Carl McCall, the first black Democratic nominee for governor of New York. We don't know of any other black elected officials in Brooklyn (or anywhere else) supporting Pataki.

Clarke is also black, but she works for Pataki, as does Berman. Hikind and Kruger are white and have constituencies that are largely white and conservative, like Pataki. We called Stewart for an explanation but didn't hear back by press time. We did reach his neighbor, Democratic Assemblyman Nick Perry, and asked if Stewart had indeed sided with Pataki. "It appears to me he might have taken that step forward, or backward, I might say," Perry said. "But he still has time to clarify that, and let us know exactly where he is."

GENTILE TOPS GOLDEN The election that counts for state Senator Vinny Gentile and City Councilman Marty Golden is November 5, but Gentile scored an early advantage by winning an Independence Party primary, despite a furious write-in campaign by Golden. The results weren't known until September 19, when Gentile emerged with 54 percent of the vote. That means he'll have three ballot lines (Democratic, Independence, and Working Families parties) and Golden two (Republican and Conservative). With 3 to 5 percent of votes typically cast on the Independence line, perhaps regardless of who's on it, Gentile figures to have a leg up. That's why Golden sent mailings to and had people knocking on the doors of Independence Party voters in Senate District 22 before the primary.

The bad news for Gentile is that Golden got an amazing 46 percent of the vote without even appearing on the ballot. He didn't win, but he showed the potential of his campaign machine and put a scare into Gentile, who had thought he had the Independence line locked up. Furthermore, two southern Brooklyn Democratic leaders have refused, so far, to endorse Gentile. State Senator Carl Kruger continues to hold out and City Councilman Mike Nelson told Gentile he'd remain neutral.

Of Kruger, Gentile's campaign manager Steve Casey said, "We're still holding out hope that he'll be with us, but at this point we haven't heard either way." Nelson's neutrality means less because not many of his constituents live in the new senate district. Democratic Assemblymembers Peter Abbate, Frank Seddio, Steven Cymbrowitz, Helene Weinstein, and Adele Cohen have all endorsed Gentile, as did Borough President Marty Markowitz on Tuesday. But as Casey said, "In the end, people don't vote for who's endorsing, they vote for the person (running)."

WEINER SAYS BOREDOM DOOMED GAMBLING BOAT Rep. Anthony Weiner was never a fan of the gambling boat that docked for a while in Sheepshead Bay, circumventing the laws against games of chance by venturing into international waters. So he was happy to see it ship out, at least temporarily-a situation its management blamed on red tape from the city. But Weiner doesn't buy that. "The gambling boat closed because no one would go on it," he stated. "No one would go on it because it was a miserable thing to do."

The way Las Vegas gives gamblers free drinks, the boat should have passed out Dramamine, Weiner said. Perhaps the boat should have booked Weiner to do stand-up.

SEMINARA RESPONDS Bay Ridge district leader Joanne Seminara responded to rival Ralph Perfetto's accusations in this space by asserting that Perfetto "fabricated" their feud "in order to call attention to himself." In case you missed it, Perfetto had alleged Seminara "used" his Democratic club in her unsuccessful race against Councilman Marty Golden. Perfetto said 12 of the 14 Seminara supporters who joined his club collected signatures for mayoral candidate Peter Vallone, though the club endorsed Mark Green. Seminara replied that her people collected more signatures for Green than Vallone, and moreover that her obligations to Vallone were made clear to Perfetto. "Ralph knew that I could not support Green because of my past friendship with Vallone. He knew that going in," Seminara said. "I knew that Ralph worked for Green and was going to support him. That was on the table from the beginning."

For his part, Perfetto said, "Any statements that I make, I am willing to make before a full press conference with a polygraph strapped to me. I invite them to speak under the same conditions." The fallout of all this is that Perfetto and his wife, Phyllis O'Neil, ran for the two Bay Ridge district leader posts against Brian Honan and Seminara. (Perfetto and Seminara won.) Seminara and Honan say they're not feuding with Perfetto, rather he is feuding with them. But during the primary campaign they leveled two charges of their own: that Perfetto/O'Neil campaign literature should say they're married, and their posters shouldn't say "re-elect" when O'Neil holds no office and Perfetto has never had an opponent, and thus hasn't appeared on a ballot. "He goes around saying re-elect. He's never been elected once," Honan said.

Perfetto said 50 posters were incorrectly printed with "re-elect Phyllis O'Neil" but were fixed with Wite-Out. He added that as an incumbent district leader, he has a right to use "re-elect" on his posters. The marriage issue is relevant, Honan said, because if both spouses were elected, "Basically, you'd only have one district leader." By contrast, he said when he and Seminara disagree, "We can go home to separate houses." Perfetto said his marriage is no secret and was been mentioned in several newspapers. "I didn't hide it," he said. "I'm proud to run with my wife."

CORRECTION Some time ago we mentioned that the last black incumbent to lose in central Brooklyn was Assemblyman Cal Williams to Al Vann a quarter-century ago. In fact, there's been at least one since then: Anna Jefferson, a state senator from 1983-84 who lost to Velmanette Montgomery, who remains in office.

Borough Politics Archive

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