IN SEARCH OF…NELLIE Leonard Nimoy came closer to finding mythical lake creature Nellie in Loch Ness than political hobbyist Maurice Gumbs did finding state Senator Nellie Santiago at her registered address in Bushwick. Gumbs was talked into (by Rep. Ed Towns's people, we assume) visiting Santiago's voting address at 2689 Pitkin Avenue in Bushwick before her Democratic primary against former City Councilman Marty Malave Dilan. Gumbs found the address on a rather rough block in the neighborhood. "I was very surprised," Gumbs reported. "It was a corner store and there's a video store that occupies the entire first floor. Over the store there are two apartments. It was a stereotype of one of those run-down [slum dwellings]-windows open, ragged curtain flying out of one, plastic flying out of the other. It was a really nasty-looking place."

He investigated further. "I checked the mailboxes. There were three or four apartments, no names on them. I asked a guy if he knew who Nellie Santiago was, and he had no idea. "Then I went back across the road and I started taking pictures. A guy stood up, watching, and then he said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'I'm taking photographs.' 'Why?' 'I like the look of the building.' 'You're not supposed to take photos of the building. You should stop. It's private property.'"

Gumbs recounted this tale in a special edition of his homespun publication Footnotes and distributed 20,000 copies in Santiago's district. She lost the primary by about 250 votes. That Santiago has long lived in Manhattan (on East 86th Street, according to one source) is not much of a secret in political circles. It may have finally cost her an election, and perhaps deservedly so. More than a few people doubt that Malave Dilan will be much of an improvement. The incumbent had shortcomings, one of her friends told us, "But the people of Bushwick could certainly do worse than Nellie Santiago, and in my opinion they just did."

We'll leave that story for another day. Today's issue is Santiago's address. If she voted on primary day while registered at 2689 Pitkin Avenue, where she quite obviously does not live and to which she can't possibly plan to move, wouldn't that be a felony? The same charge for which Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes spent seven years prosecuting former Sunset Park candidate John O'Hara? Something tells us Hynes won't be hauling Santiago before a grand jury. But if Hynes believes in equal application of the law, he would at least send investigators to 2689 Pitkin Avenue and look for any trace of the state Senator who claims to live there. Santiago wouldn't talk to us for this story, and in fact has never returned our calls.

YASSKY CHOKES ON SMOKING BILL City Councilman David Yassky seems to be leaning against the anti-smoking bill proposed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, which would ban smoking in all city bars and restaurants, thus saving their employees from cancer and other diseases caused by second-hand smoke. The mayor's health commissioner recently told reporters, "I think people do understand that passing this legislation will save lives."

Yassky apparently does not. The councilman, who represents Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, and Park Slope, told the press, "I have enough of a libertarian streak to think there are some limits to how much we should save people from their own vices." Question for Yassky: Is it a vice to be a bartender?

JAMES DAVIS IRKS VELMANETTE Councilman James Davis went bonkers when he saw that his name was omitted from the latest list of helpful phone numbers that state Senator Velmanette Montgomery distributes to her constituents annually. Davis called Montgomery and began ranting on her answering machine, only to be cut off before he finished. So he called back and ranted some more until being disconnected. Still not satisfied, he called a third time until he'd finished his soliloquy.

Davis demanded Montgomery publicly apologize for the omission, threatened to go to the press if she didn't, and vowed to run against her and oppose candidates she supported in future elections. Davis obviously picked up some tips on diplomacy from Ariel Sharon during his recent visit to Israel. Montgomery, for her part, was none too amused by Davis's threats. She said his name was "inadvertently left off the form," but, "I'm not apologizing because he was very discourteous in the way he approached me about it." Davis, who's never been close with Montgomery, surely feels the omission was anything but inadvertent. We'll be scouring the black market for copies of the tape from Montgomery's answering machine and hope to quote some excerpts, along with an explanation from Davis, in a future column.

POLS, EXECUTIVE EXCHANGE PRAISE, CASH A couple of years ago, numerous Brooklyn politicians heaped praise on New York County Health Services Review Organization at a gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the business, which is run by Rabbi Joseph Stamm, who lives on Avenue H and East 7th Street. But all but one of the pols has received substantial campaign contributions from Stamm.

That certainly puts the politicians' praise in a different light, doesn't it? And that is the undeniable problem with our campaign finance system: it taints both the givers and the recipients. Did we mention that Stamm's business gets huge city and state government contracts for such projects as investigating nursing home complaints? What's that? You're not shocked? Again, while there is nothing illegal about the head of a business making campaign contributions to politicians while millions of taxpayer dollars are paid to that business, this can't be what the founding fathers intended for our democracy.

Stamm and his wife have doled out $38,974 to federal candidates since 1997, $33,100 to state candidates since 1999, and $16,500 to city candidates since 1997-in total, over $88,000 in five years. Among those who attended Stamm's gala (Brooklyn people, as usual, are in boldface): State Comptroller Carl McCall (who received $1,500 from Stamm), then-Public Advocate Mark Green (who got $1,000), Rep. Jerry Nadler ($3,000), state Senator Seymour Lachman ($3,900), Assemblymembers Dov Hikind ($5,000 plus $750 to Dov's sister-in-law Libby Hikind), Rhoda Jacobs (who got nothing that we could find) and the late Lena Cymbrowitz ($2,000), city Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jules Polonetsky ($3,000) and Deputy Attorney General Dan Feldman ($1,500), the former Sheepshead Bay assemblyman. Rep. Anthony Weiner (given $4,000 by Stamm) and then-Councilman Ken Fisher ($500) were unable to attend, but made sure to send official proclamations to the business from House of Representatives and the City Council, respectively.

Governor George Pataki ($6,500) and then city Comptroller Alan Hevesi ($3,000) also missed the gala, but sent congratulatory letters. Hikind and Green did, too. "The letters each praised NYCHSRO's outstanding contributions on behalf of health care in New York," the business's Web site reported. If its contributions are indeed outstanding, it should win its contracts strictly on the merits, without its president dishing out campaign cash. Did he simply like these candidates' politics? Consider that he gave to near-opposites Weiner and Noach Dear ($1,000), who were running against each other. And he gave to both Democratic and Republican fundraising committees. Stamm declined to be interviewed for this column.

While Jacobs-who is not known for her fundraising-was not graced with Stamm's money, she did receive a few sizeable donations this year from nursing homes, as she has in the past. We recently asked her about it, and her answer probably explains the motivations of most major contributors. "Adult homes contribute," Jacobs said, "because they think it buys them access, that it's the only way to be a player."

She added that legislators accept the money because their campaigns cost more to run than they can raise from constituents. In her district, which is largely working class and poor, raising money is particularly difficult, she said.

NADLER TIES GREENS TO IRAQ CRISIS During a town hall meeting on the Iraq situation, a bitter Rep. Jerry Nadler reminded the Park Slope audience that the man pushing the nation toward war, George W. Bush, wouldn't be president without Green Party candidate Ralph Nader pulling votes from Al Gore in 2000. "We wouldn't be worried about a war if the Green Party hadn't done what it did two years ago," the congressman said, according to Courier-Life reporter Christy Goodman. Nadler explained, "If Al Gore were president, we would not be having this kind of discussion." Green Party members in the audience booed, hissed, and screamed at Nadler.

NOACH BACK IN HIBERNATION Former City Councilman Noach Dear has the Conservative Party line in Senate District 21 for the November 5 general election, but shut down his campaign after finishing second in the Democratic primary. At least, that's what his campaign manager told us on the day his job ended in mid September. But Brooklyn's Conservative Party chairman Jerry Kassar said Dear told him his campaign would remain active. It would appear that Kassar was either misled or he misunderstood, or perhaps Dear subsequently changed his mind, because the phone service at Dear's 1100 Coney Island Avenue campaign office has been turned off and his campaign manager is gone.

But remaining on the ballot does have its advantages. For instance, Dear could justify keeping the car leased by his campaign, since technically he's still a candidate. Then, after the election, he could start thinking about running for his old council seat in 2003, allowing him to continue paying for his car with campaign funds. Dear still has nearly $158,000 in his war chest. But we don't want to give the impression that Dear's goal was a campaign-funded car. He went all-out to get elected, sparing no expense. He commissioned polls, ran phone banks, mailed out lots of literature, bought newspaper and radio advertisements, and covered Borough Park, Flatbush, and East Flatbush with posters. He hired an office staff, an attorney (Jerry Goldfeder), numerous consultants, and a host of East Flatbush residents to petition and hand out fliers.

In total, Dear spent a whopping $349,152 on the race-about $70 per vote received. Kevin Parker, the winner with (unofficially) 5,967 votes, spent $104,916, about $17 per vote. Omar Boucher spent $70,137, about $24 per vote, and Lori Citron Knipel, who finished fourth, spent $117,910, about $42 per vote. We left a message at Dear's house but it was not returned. Dear, whose campaign spent $6,100 per day over the last six weeks of the race, did get more bang for his buck than fifth-place finisher Harry Kaloshi, who spent $65,536 and received 549 votes-$119 per vote. Kaloshi financed his entire campaign with loans from his own pocket, while Dear didn't give a penny to his own campaign.

GENTILE, GOLDEN IN GUNFIGHT City Councilman Marty Golden and state Senator Vinny Gentile, dueling in the all-Brooklyn Senate District 23, didn't pull punches in a titillating debate on cable channel NY1. The climax came when Gentile asked Golden about his police record-a question for which Golden has only himself to blame. Gentile had seen a Daily News article about the $28,000 annual tax-free disability pension Golden receives from the New York Police Department, a result of injuries the former cop sustained upon being hit by a car while chasing a suspect. "What they want is my disciplinary records, and they're not going to get them," Golden told the newspaper.

But in fact, Gentile didn't even know Golden had a disciplinary record until he read that quote. So he asked about it during their TV debate. Golden tried to turn the issue against Gentile by retorting, "I am so surprised that you would stoop to such lowness…that you would go after someone's record of 20 years ago." The councilman mentioned the 49 commendations he received while serving from 1973-76 and from 1978-82. Gentile, acting like the prosecutor he once was, repeated the question, but Golden again refused to answer. "There is nothing to worry about in my disciplinary record," he insisted. Only when the NY1 moderator inquired did Golden explain that he was disciplined once-for losing his gun in 1978. He said his mother threw it out when he was on vacation. Losing his gun 24 years ago probably won't cost Golden any votes on November 5, so why didn't he spill the beans in the first place rather than get defensive and subject himself to embarrassing grilling by Gentile? Golden did some damage to Gentile as well, noting the Staten Island Advance's published complaints that Gentile hasn't returned its calls, though he will continue to represent a portion of the borough through year's end.

"How can the people of Brooklyn trust you when you abandoned the people of Staten Island?" Golden demanded, adding that Gentile's Staten Island office is now a campaign office for state Senator Seymour Lachman. Gentile replied, "I have a full-time staff member in Staten Island," but the senator said he's been spending time meeting Brooklynites he doesn't yet represent, but would if he wins the election.

SUSAN ACCEPTS LOSIN' According to a spokesman for Assemblywoman Adele Cohen's reelection campaign, Democratic primary opponent Susan Lasher finally conceded the election and called off her lawsuit. Cohen's people said Lasher's case had been reduced to a disputed number of disqualified ballots which, even if reinstated and all naming Lasher, wouldn't have been enough to overcome Cohen's lead. Lasher said her case had merit but she ran out of money to pursue it and chose not to go to federal court after failing in state court.

But Lasher's campaign work is still not complete. Her campaign committee's financial reports have yet to be posted on the Board of Elections Web site. So far, she's only reported activity through August 5, when she had raised $14,207 and spent a mere $600. Cohen spent $105,263.

TOWNS WAITS FOR WHITMAN On August 26, Rep. Ed Towns, upon reading a Newsday article about the lack of investigation of the toxic smoke that blew over Brooklyn from the burning World Trade Center, wrote to EPA administrator Christie Whitman asking what steps her agency had taken to assess the effects of the smoke here. In his letter, Towns noted that NASA photographs showed the debris flying over Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, Prospect Park and even out to Coney Island. "Last year, when environmental tests were being conducted in lower Manhattan, no testing was done in Brooklyn to ascertain the potential impact of this debris plume on Brooklyn residents," the congressman wrote. He asked for a response from Whitman by September 11. He is still waiting.

Borough Politics Archive

2002
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2001
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2000
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1999
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