Locals Feeling Left Out The rumblings about Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign continue to emanate from disenfranchised locals, some of whom now speak begrudgingly of their support for her despite their desire to help her win. Nonplussed Brooklyn politicos feel that the campaign has passed them by, eschewing their grassroots muscle for the advice of Washington, D.C. honchos and the reach of big media, especially television.

"The criticisms have been that this is really a Washington-based campaign," said one staffer for a politician in southern Brooklyn. "As a Democrat wanting to see a Democrat get elected, it's frustrating to see her not taking any people from Brooklyn to win it for her. Will she do well? Of course she will. But there still are people feeling uncomfortable voting for her because they don't have their local leader reaching out to them."

A Brooklyn district leader said that the campaign is concentrating too much on statewide media, and not enough on local mobilization. "Every dollar is spent on television," he said. "But you still need people to ring doors. If it's a miserable day, people don't want to go out and vote. We know the grassroots and we can bring people out."

A local insider from the Park Slope area bemoaned a strategy meeting set for this weekend with Bill de Blasio, Clinton's Brooklynite campaign manager. "Some great treat," he said. "You want to impress us, you would have gotten us the candidate like we asked for. It's been an invisible campaign." Complaints by grassroots organizers are not uncommon. Part of the campaign's supposed detachment may stem from the fact that Clinton will probably win Brooklyn handily and does not feel the need to hire local operatives.

Clinton has raised her Brooklyn profile in the last few weeks with appearances in Sunset Park, Coney Island, Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Law School. She has also been accompanied at those sites by several elected officials, even though their staffers and district leaders may be feeling shut out. "We've tried to work very closely with elected officials and party leaders," said de Blasio, who added that the campaign will reach out to local operatives during the homestretch. "As we now go into the final four weeks, we expect to work very closely with local leaders on turnout operations."

Bender Leaves Council For Campaign Trail Bruce Bender is taking a leave of absence from his job as chief of staff for Council Speaker Peter Vallone to Work on Vallone's mayoral campaign and Councilmember Herb Berman's campaign for comptroller. Berman said that Bender will be a senior political advisor to both campaigns. Neither Bender, a member of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Canarsie, nor Vallone was immediately available for comment.

The move will allow Bender to work on the campaigns without being criticized for doing a political job on the city payroll. During his time at City Hall, Bender established a wealth of connections. "He knows everybody in the city," said one insider. "Bruce has been one of my closest associates and has worked for me and the Council for 22 years, and I know of no one other than (late Assemblymember) Tony Genovesi who I believe could be a citywide strategist," said Berman. Bender worked in Brooklyn for the campaign of former Mayor Ed Koch, and in Vallone's statewide campaign for governor.

Dear To Run Councilmember Noach Dear announced that he will run in the general election against Rep. Anthony Weiner. There had been some speculation that Dear would not run after Weiner defeated him with 73 percent of the vote in the primary, but Dear put that talk to rest with a statement released last week. "The general election in November promises to draw significant voter turnout," he said. "It is my hope that the voters will elect me to represent them in Congress to fight for the issues that are so important to this community."

Campaigning, But For Who Eyebrows were raised last week when insiders in the Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill areas got a letter from Bill de Blasio inviting them to the aforementioned strategy meeting, scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 15 at Camp Friendship. The letter was written on de Blasio's personal stationary and was sent to political types living mainly in the 39th Council District, where de Blasio is running for Council next year.

Although the letter only speaks about the Clinton campaign, some recipients also read it as a notice of de Blasio's own upcoming candidacy. "It's definitely like the bridge to say that as soon as the election is over, I'm running," said one person invited to the meeting. "The purpose of this meeting is to get Hillary Clinton elected, and to turn out the biggest vote possible in our part of Brooklyn" said de Blasio. "That's what all my waking hours are devoted to right now."

Good Looking Out Who says people don't care anymore? A plucky 62-year old neighbor of Assemblymember Adele Cohen foiled a recent burglary attempt at Cohen's home by chasing down the perpetrator and corralling him until the Housing Police arrived.

On Labor Day, Israel Gross rang Cohen's bell in Brighton Beach to thank her for a "Get Well" note she had written him while he was sick. But just after the still-recuperating Gross noticed the door was ajar, a 67-year old perp burst through with an armful of Cohen's belongings. The perp proved no match for the younger, sprier Gross. "Izzy chased him down the six flights in my building, down the avenue and up the subway steps, and waited for the Housing Police," said Cohen.

Reached at his home, Gross said he would rather not discuss the incident before adding, "You know something, I didn't think it was any big deal. I reacted. The adrenaline starts flowing. You just react, you don't think." All of Cohen's belongings were recovered. At a political forum last week, she spoke of the incident to illustrate why the state should fund more criminal rehabilitation programs instead of prisons, saying the burglar was just released from prison and had no job skills.

T he Tortoise And The Hare At certain times, Brooklyn politics appears to move at the speed of light, and at other times it seems glacially slow. Responding to constituent concerns is one area where politicians can be a bit sluggish, and their reliance on traditional correspondence-otherwise known as snail mail-can prove frustrating, as one local resident learned. The constituent sent an e-mail to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and received a return e-mail saying that "due to staff and resource limitations," Moynihan was unable to provide an "individual reply" to the constituent's "Internet message." The e-mail stated that the constituent could expect a reply through snail mail if he had provided his mailing address.

Of course, Moynihan is far from the only politician to rely on snail mail. Local politicians from Borough President Howard Golden to Rep. Major Owens respond to e-mail through the postal service. But isn't e-mail faster, simpler and, in most cases, cheaper for taxpayers? The answer is no, according to Moynihan spokesperson Tony Bullock. Bullock said that statewide offices can get more than one thousand e-mails per day on a variety of different issues. "We would probably need two or three full-time employees doing nothing but picking at e-mail all day. They would also have to be very well-versed in all the issues," he said. "What would seem like a wonderful convenience is actually a burden for us. What if you had 2,265 pieces of e-mail? What would you do?"

Printing hard copies of the e-mail allows the office staff to sort it by issue and provide an individual reply via snail mail using less manpower, he said. Bullock added that a group of students from Columbia University is doing a dissertation on this very question. Unless they can come up with an efficient solution, keep that letter opener handy.

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